Jarawa video old, got it from tour guides: UK reporter

The video allegedly showing Jarawa women in Andaman dancing before tourists for food is old, the journalist who reported the story has told The Indian Express. Gethin Chamberlain, who covers South Asia for The Observer said he got the video from tour guides and local sources, and did not know when it was shot.

The report appeared on www.guardian.co.uk, the website of The Observer's sister publication The Guardian, on January 7, and was picked up by two Indian news channels. Massive outrage followed, the home ministry ordered a probe by the chief secretary and police chief of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the tribal affairs ministry sought a report, and the tourism ministry began its own inquiry.

"It is not clear when the video was shot; I understand it was in the last few years," Chamberlain said in an email to The Indian Express. "There is no date stamp, but the file suggests a camera phone, which brings it closer to the present," Chamberlain said.

The video or accompanying article on the web site did not say when the footage was shot or where it was sourced from. But Chamberlain said "it (the video) is certainly far more recent than the 10 years plucked from the air by the police". The journalist, who visited the islands in December, declined to name his sources in order to "protect them", but denied having paid for the video.

PTI quoted Andaman DGP S B Deol as saying the film was from "perhaps a 10-year-old video taken in 2002". The Andaman police refuted Chamberlain's assertion that the person who ordered the tribals to dance before the tourists allegedly for a bribe of 200 pounds was a policeman. The police said they had asked The Observer to apologize and disclose the name of the videographer.

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