It’s late in the afternoon, and at the office of the Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti (AAJVS), villagers and Samiti members are recalling the time when people would not dare venture out after sundown. We are in the hamlet of Kadamtala, about 90km from Port Blair, and deep inside the 700 sq. km forest reserve of the Jarawa, one of four ancient Negrito tribal communities indigenous to the Andaman Islands. Anthropologists believe these tropical forests on the way to Kadamtala and beyond have been home to the Jarawa for 30,000-50,000 years. On full-moon nights, say the hamlet’s non-Jarawa residents, their fears would multiply. For their fruit trees, granaries and hen coops would be easy pickings for the Anthropologists

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