Jarawa as Spectacle 2.0: Tropical Tourism’s Algorithmic “Human Safari” in the Andaman Islands
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.25.2.2026.4267Keywords:
tropical tourism, Andaman Islands, jarawa, human safaris, Indigenous tourism, algorithmic gaze, digital ethnographyAbstract
Tourism bans and buffer-zone regulations sought to end “human safaris” along the Andaman Trunk Road, but tropical tourism’s voyeuristic demand has migrated online, where platform visibility makes illicit Indigenous encounters newly discoverable and actionable. Drawing on a digital ethnography of the tourism-platform landscape in the Andaman Islands, this paper synthesizes legal and policy documents, media investigations, and a structured audit of publicly accessible online content (search results, videos, posts, and itinerary cues) to trace how recommender systems and attention metrics circulate images of Indigenous Jarawa and “how-to” cues while softening the legal and ethical context. I show how content on YouTube and coordination through messaging networks, including Telegram, help convert curiosity into travel planning, undermining on-ground enforcement and extending colonial modes of looking into a post-millennial, monetized spectacle. The analysis identifies governance gaps between Indigenous territorial protections and platform logics and argues that effective regulation of tropical tourism’s harms must combine state enforcement with platform accountability and community-led consent regimes.
References
Associated Press. (2012, July 4). India’s top court bans tourism near Andaman tribe. Deseret News. https://www.deseret.com/2012/7/4/20422468/india-s-top-court-bans-tourism-near-andaman-tribe/
BirdLife International. (2020). Jarawa Reserve (Middle Andaman and South Andaman) – Important Bird Area factsheet. Retrieved from BirdLife DataZone database.
Chamberlain, G. (2012a, January 7). Andaman Islands tribe threatened by lure of mass tourism. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/07/andaman-islands-tribe-tourism-threat#:~:text=Every%20day%20hundreds%20of%20tourist,the%20jungle%2014%20years%20agotheguardian.com
Chamberlain, G. (2012b, January 28). ‘Human safaris’ in India: Tour operators face prison. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/29/bonda-jarawa-orissa-andaman-tour#:~:text=On%20Thursday%20two%20men%20%E2%80%93,to%20seven%20years%20in%20jailtheguardian.com
Chamberlain, G. (2013, January 26). ‘Human safaris’ to end for Andaman tribe. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/27/jarawa-tribe-andaman-islands-human-safaris-to-end#:~:text=India%27s%20supreme%20court%20last%20week,by%20the%20Observer%20last%20Januarytheguardian.com
Chaki, D. (2014, January 4). Time ticking for India’s Jarawa tribe. Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2014/1/4/time-ticking-for-indias-jarawa-tribe
Halder, D., & Jaishankar, K. (2014). Online victimization of Andaman Jarawa tribal women: An analysis of the ‘Human Safari’ YouTube videos (2012) and its effects. British Journal of Criminology, 54(4), 673-688. https://www.ojp.gov/ncjrs/virtual-library/abstracts/online-victimization-andaman-jarawa-tribal-women-analysis-human
Hill, D. (2012, February 25). ‘Human safaris’ pose threat to uncontacted Amazon tribe. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/26/human-safari-threat-amazon-tribe#:~:text=Fenamad%2C%20the%20local%20indigenous%20rights,guides%20should%20already%20know%20bettertheguardian.com
John, R., & Mander, H. (2015). The Jarawa of the Andamans. In India Exclusion Report (pp. 259–277).
Mahapatra, D. (2012, July 4). SC makes Jarawa habitat a ‘no-go’ zone. The Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/sc-makes-jarawa-habitat-a-no-go-zone/articleshow/14659731.cms
Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. (1956). Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956. (Regulation No. 3 of 1956). New Delhi: Government Press.
Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. (2012). Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Amendment Regulation, 2012. New Delhi: Government Press. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/environment/tourism-to-be-prohibited-in-jarawa-reserve-38337#:~:text=To%20overcome%20this%20drawback%2C%20the,the%20case%20is%20sub%20judice
Morgan, R. (2016). Ethnography on the Cyberian Frontier. eTropic: electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.25120/etropic.12.1.2013.3396
Roth, Emma. 2024. “Telegram Will Now Hand Over Your Phone Number and IP if You’re a Criminal Suspect.” The Verge, September 23, 2024. https://www.theverge.com/2024/9/23/24252276/telegram-disclose-user-data-legal-requests-criminal-activity
SC bans tourists in Jarawa land. (2013, January 21). India Environment Portal. https://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/search/pages/?cat_id=9078&depth=3#:~:text=SC%20bans%20tourists%20in%20Jarawa%20land
Shrivastava, K. S. (2012a, May 31). Tourism to be prohibited in Jarawa reserve. Down To Earth. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/environment/tourism-to-be-prohibited-in-jarawa-reserve-38337
Shrivastava, K. S. (2012b, July 4). Supreme Court bans tourism in Jarawa reserve. Down To Earth. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/environment/supreme-court-bans-tourism-in-jarawa-reserve-38611
Survival International. (2013, January 22). Victory for ‘human safari’ campaign as court bans tourists. Survival International. https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/8941
Survival International. (2017, October 17). Outrage as tour operators sell “human safaris” to Andaman Islands. Survival International. https://www.survivalinternational.org/news/11839
The Guardian. (2012, January 7). Tourism threatens survival of Andaman Islands’ tribe. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/07/andaman-islands-tribe-tourism-threat
The Guardian. 2012. “Human Safari: Threat to Amazon Tribe.” February 26, World news. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/26/human-safari-threat-amazon-tribe
The Guardian. (2013, January 27). ‘Human safaris’ to end for Andaman tribe. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jan/27/jarawa-tribe-andaman-islands-human-safaris-to-end
The Times of India. (2012, July 4). SC makes Jarawa habitat a ‘no-go’ zone. Times of India. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/sc-makes-jarawa-habitat-a-no-go-zone/articleshow/14659731.cms
Tourism to be prohibited in Jarawa reserve. (2012, May 31). Down To Earth. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/environment/tourism-to-be-prohibited-in-jarawa-reserve-38337#:~:text=Regulation%20%28ANPATR%29%20of%201956,an%20area%20as%20buffer%20zone
Urry, J., & Larsen, J. (2011). The Tourist Gaze 3.0 (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 CC-BY
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who submit articles to this journal agree to the following terms:
1. Authors are responsible for ensuring that any material that has influenced the research or writing has been properly cited and credited both in the text and in the Reference List (Bibliography). Contributors are responsible for gaining copyright clearance on figures, photographs or lengthy quotes used in their manuscript that have been published elsewhere.
2. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License that allows others to share and adapt the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository, or publish it in a book), with proper acknowledgement of the work's initial publication in this journal.
4. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (see The Effect of Open Access or The Open Access Citation Advantage). Where authors include such a work in an institutional repository or on their website (i.e., a copy of a work which has been published in eTropic, or a pre-print or post-print version of that work), we request that they include a statement that acknowledges the eTropic publication including the name of the journal, the volume number and a web-link to the journal item.
5. Authors should be aware that the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) License permits readers to share (copy and redistribute the work in any medium or format) and adapt (remix, transform, and build upon the work) for any purpose, even commercially, provided they also give appropriate credit to the work, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do these things in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests you or your publisher endorses their use.