{"id":36402,"date":"2025-01-29T19:17:01","date_gmt":"2025-01-29T13:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=36402"},"modified":"2025-01-29T19:17:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-29T13:47:02","slug":"origins-of-nicobarese-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/29-01-2025\/origins-of-nicobarese-people","title":{"rendered":"Study Sheds Light on the Origins of the Nicobarese People"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS1\/Geography<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>New study decodes<strong> when the Nicobarese people came to the island.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>About<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Scientists believed the<strong> Austroasiatic ancestors<\/strong> of the Nicobarese community migrated to the island <strong>more than 11,000 years ago.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The new study showed that they arrived at the<strong> island around 5,000 years ago.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Due to its <strong>geographical isolation<\/strong>, the ancient Nicobarese tribe has preserved its genetic identity without significant admixture with different populations.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>By <strong>comparing the differences in mutations<\/strong> between the genetic ancestors and the migrated populations, the scientists were able to trace their time of arrival at the Nicobar Islands<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Andaman and Nicobar Islands<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Andaman and Nicobar Islands <\/strong>is the<strong> largest archipelago system in the Bay of Bengal.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It extends over an area of 8249 Sq. km comprising <strong>572 islands of which 37 are inhabited.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Andaman and the Nicobar Islands are <strong>separated by the Ten Degree Channel, which is around 150 km wide.\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Though they\u2019re close to each other, the peoples of the two islands have <strong>significantly different physical features,<\/strong> which also differ from those of the people of mainland India.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Island groups have been the <strong>home of aboriginal tribes,<\/strong> namely, the Great Andamanese, Jarawa, Onge &amp; Sentineles, all of Negrito Origin in the Andaman group of Islands.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The tribes in the Nicobar Islands are the <strong>Nicobarese and the Shompen<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img data-dominant-color=\"e3eaea\" data-has-transparency=\"false\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Andaman-and-Nicobar-Islands.png\" alt=\"Andaman-and-Nicobar-Islands\" class=\"not-transparent wp-image-36403\" style=\"--dominant-color: #e3eaea; width:568px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Andaman-and-Nicobar-Islands.png 720w, https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Andaman-and-Nicobar-Islands-300x169.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Political Background of Nicobar<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Post Independence:<\/strong> The Government was keen to protect the interests of the Nicobarese and<strong> did not allow outside t<\/strong><strong>raders to exploit the people.<\/strong><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The regulation for the Protection of Aboriginal Tribes<\/strong> came into force in <strong>1956 <\/strong>under which <strong>entry to the Nicobar Islands was strictly restricted.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>In the l<\/strong><strong>ate 1960s <\/strong>330 ex-defence presonnel were settled in some de-reserved areas of Great Nicobar island, where the Panchayat System exists at present.\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>On 1st August, 1974, <\/strong>Nicobar group of islands was declared <strong>a separate district <\/strong>with its headquarters at <strong>Car Nicobar,<\/strong> where half of the population exists.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Except three Panchayats and one Panchayat Samiti in Great Nicobar, the rest of the District has its own local traditional Tribal Councils.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ebecf0\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>Facts Related to Andaman and Nicobar Islands<\/strong><br>&#8211; The Southernmost Island is Great Nicobar whose <strong>southernmost tip is only 150 km away from Sumatra, Indonesia.<\/strong><br>&#8211; The highest point is <strong>Saddle Peak<\/strong> in North Andaman (732 metre), <strong>Mount Thullier<\/strong> in Great Nicobar (642 metre).<br>&#8211; The <strong>state animal of Andaman and Nicobar Islands<\/strong> is <strong>Dugong<\/strong>, the gentle sea cow.<br>&#8211; <strong>Pandunus or Nicobar Breadfruit<\/strong> is a rare fruit found in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.<br>&#8211; <strong>Barren Island <\/strong>of the Andaman &amp; Nicobar Island group is the only active volcano not just in India but the whole of South Asia.<br>&#8211; <strong>Indira Point in Great Nicobar <\/strong>is the Southern-most point of India.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/ccidist-ws\/th\/th_delhi\/issues\/117663\/OPS\/GAHDTMUB0.1+G6TDTMVC8.1.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New study decodes when the Nicobarese people came to the island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36402"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36402\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36404,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36402\/revisions\/36404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}