KOLKATA: Andaman and Nicobar police has issued a lookout notice against two French filmmakers who had allegedly trespassed into protected Jarawa tribal reserve and secretly filmed a documentary on the threatened aboriginal tribe.
North and Middle Andaman SP Santosh Kumar Meena told PTI from Port Blair that Father Saw Saytha of Baptist Church at Mayabunder has been arrested for helping French film director Alexandre Dereims and producer Claire Beilvert meet the Jarawa tribals.
“We have issued a lookout notice against them for breaking the law of the land. Once we get hold of them they will have to face trial as per law. We have gathered evidence and witnesses against them which proves the case,” he said yesterday.
Police said the matter would be taken up with the Ministry of External Affairs and the help of Interpol would be sought to trace the film-maker duo who filmed the documentary between January 28 and February 11 this year.
Two locals belonging to Karen community were earlier arrested after the incident came to light.
Last month an FIR was filed against under various sections of the Protection of the Aboriginal Tribes (Amendment) Act 2012 and Foreigners Amendment Act 2004.
Upon cross-checking records with the immigration office it was found that the French filmmakers landed in Andaman Islands on January 28 and left on February 11 during which they shot the documentary.
They had uploaded details and photographs on a website and a Facebook page, but were removed after they were sent a notice by the union territory’s administration asking them to restrain from releasing any visual related to the Jarawas.
Making any contact or shooting photos, videos with the protected Jarawa tribals is illegal and the offender may face up to seven years of stringent imprisonment. In post-production stage now, the film ‘Organic’ is about Utchu, a two-year-old Jarawa boy, his family and friends.
On their website the filmmakers claimed to have gathered the biggest material – photos, film and interviews – about the Jarawas.
“We are now at the post-production stage. In order to finish it we will launch a crowd-funding campaign at the end of 2014. We hope to release Organic in theatres in 2015,” they had said.
The 400-strong jarawa tribe is extremely vulnerable to diseases and live as nomadic hunter-gatherers. Till as recent as 1998 they had hardly any contact with the outside world.
Jarawas are among the four major tribes of the islands including Great Andamanese, Onge and Sentinelese and are believed to have lived in their Indian Ocean home for up to 55,000 years.–PTI
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