The Onge of little Andaman Island call themselves ‘En-iregale’, meaning ‘perfect person’. They were decimated following contact with the British and the Indians, their population falling from 670 people in 1900 to around 100 today.
The Onge live on a reserve less than a third of the size of their original territory. Little Andaman is now also home to Indian settlers, and much of the island has been deforested.
The Indian government tried to force the Onge to work on a plantation in return for food and housing, in a form of bonded labour, but this was unsuccessful. Today the Onge are largely dependent on government rations.
Being able to hunt wild pigs is essential to the Onge, as according to their customs men cannot marry until they have killed a wild boar. Now, however, the Onge complain that outsiders are hunting all their pigs; this is contributing to an already low birth rate among the Onge. Survival is campaigning for their land to be protected from outsiders.
