Letters to The EDITOR

Threat to Tribal Tourism

India has seen a huge rise in its tourism sector and its popularity is always attractive to domestic and foreign tourists. There is a kind of tourism known as tribal tourism in which tourists visit tribal villages in order to get themselves acquainted with a culture which is completely different from their own. India has a huge diversity. The most popular States for tribal tourism are Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Nagaland, Assam, and Chattisgarh.

The population presents endless varieties of physical feature and cultural epitome of the world. But in the recent times there have been many debates regarding the tribal rights in India. Tribal rights in India cannot be defined as a black and white matter, say tribal experts on speaking with ‘Down to Earth’. Due to various issues being arisen regarding tribes in various parts of India, Survival International, one of the world’s pre-eminent organizations working for tribal and indigenous people’s rights, has criticized the Indian government heavily. Due to carelessness of the Government of India, many heartbreaking incidents have been taken place in India. The most recent incident of murders is of John Allen Chau in North Sentinel Island. So there has been a burning debate that the Indian authorities should enforce the protection of the Sentinelese and their island for the safety of both the tribes and outsiders. Moreover, every tourism activity in indigenous and protected areas must be monitored and sanctioned by a team of professionals that evaluate the risk of the same.

The major issue that presents a threat to tribal tourism is that tourists taunting women with scraps of food trying to bribe them to sing and dance. Instead of being protected, celebrated, and assisted by the Indian government, the Jarawan people have been used and abused for the entertainment of the 2,00,000 tourists who visit the Andaman Islands each year. Additionally, the lack of government oversight on poaching has made it difficult for the tribal to find game on the reserve, leading them to wander outside of it. By allowing locals to build settlements and villages on the outskirts of the reserve, the government has heightened contact — the Jarawa are forced to seek friendly gifts from these settlements due to dearth of game (the concept of money is not part of Jarawa culture). In India tribes are treated very low, are execrated and are even treated as untouchables by the prevailing adherence to social norms and caste system.

Due to this there has been an uprising anger and hatred in the tribes for the rest of the world. They think they have not been given equal rights and opportunities. This anger rises which leads to unpleasant events. At last I wanted to say that carefully formulated tribal tourism can act as a powerful medium towards social and economic inclusion of tribes. Similarly, it would also provide for tribes to have a sense of belongingness to the nation and lead a life of dignity and respect.

Juhi Kanu,

PG first semester,

Cotton University.