!The Great Andamanese The Great Andamanese is a tribe of The Andaman and Nocobar Islands, a Union Territory of India. They are presently settled on the Strait Island by the the help of Andaman and Nicobar Administration. It was once the largest tribe of the UT, earlier before the establishment of Penal Settlement in Andaman Islands. Various diseases including influenza etc. took large toll and the population was reduced to present 44 individuals only. They are reduced to this painful situation and have come to the verge of extiction due to various reasons including ingnorance among them and administrative apathy. They were once the largest in population among the various tribes inhabiting the Andaman Islands. Their estimated population in 1789 was 10,000. By 1901, their number had decreased to 625 and by 1969 their number had decreased to 19 only. According to the Census of 1971, only 24 of them survived, but by 1999 their number has increased to 41. According to the Andaman and Nicobar Administration, the government is doing its best to protect and preserve these tribes. It is in this proces, these tribals have been rehabilitated in a small island named Strait Island. The Great Andamanese are foragers. Today, they eat rice, dal chapati and other modern food articles. They can cook food with the ingredients of spices. At times, they still go in for hunting and gathering. Actually, their traditional food items are fish, dugong, turtle, turtle eggs, crabs, roots and tubers. They also eat pork, Andaman water monitor lizard, etc. As aquatic people, they relish octopus, molluses taken out from shell marine animals like turban shell, scorpion shell, sundial, helmet, trochus and screw shell besides various types of crabs and fish. Some of them cultivate vegetables. Of late, they have established poultry farms. They are exposed to highly communicable diseases besides unhealthy drinking habits which of course are acquired after contact with the monbund urban dominant and advanced communities. The Administration has provided to the Andamanese the houses and raised Coconut Plantation. Further free ration including cloths is also being provided to them. As such, Andamanese are no longer a nomadic tribe. However, they do sometime go for hunting and fishing.