Doctor to the Jarawas on Padma list

A call by health officials of the Union Territory administration to Dr Ratan Chandra Kar in 1998 to go into the areas inhabited by the ferocious and reclusive Jarawa tribe changed the life of the well known physician, making him famous as `doctor to the Jarawas'.

The work he did among those tribals has Thursday won him nation-wide recognition as the Government announced his name as a Padma Shri awardee.

Dr Kar, braving the odds, had in 1998 agreed to travel to Jarawa territory to fight an epidemic which was then ravaging the area and started treating people of the indigenous group at Kadamtala village and Lakhralungta, slowly winning them over to be his friends.

Armed with poisonous bows and arrows, Jarawas are known for their ferocity and they do not like outsiders venturing into their territory which is accessible through difficult terrain sea voyages and walks through dense jungles.

The physician, told PTI "I don't have words to express my happiness. I would like to thank all for helping me in achieving the recognition".

Dr Kar's wife, Anjali, had urged her husband to accept the challenge to treat the Jarawas and save them from extinction.

Sons Tanumoy and Anumoy as well as countless friends were however worried for their father's life as there were umpteen instances of attacks by Jarawas on those venturing into their areas. Dr Kar however eventually took up the challenge realising that he would never get such an opportunity in his life.

He had previious experience in handling tribal communities during his service among the Konyak tribe in Nagaland.

"That was the turning point in my life as I left for Kadamtala in Middle Andaman, which is nearly 120 km from Port Blair. While travelling to Kadamtala, I was a bit nervous thinking about the possible reaction of the Jarawas. Will they accept me or will they attack me? I was going through a mixed reaction but medical attention was required to save them from measles, conjunctivitis etc," Dr Kar told PTI.

After more than five hours of journey, Dr Kar and his team reached Kadamtala jetty and took a 45-minute dinghy ride to Lakhralungta, one of the territories inhabited by the Jarawa tribe.

"I was carrying coconuts and bananas as gifts for the Jarawas. I saw a group of them standing at the beach and looking at us. Some of them, armed with bows and arrows, swam and came close to the dinghy. I got down from the dinghy and slowly started walking towards them.

"I was scared, anxious, excited...I saw a thatched hut and smoke billowing out from it. As I was walking slowly towards the hut, the rest of the Jarawas started following me. I entered one of the huts and saw a wounded jarawa. He suffered an injury while hunting a wild boar. I applied some medicine and did the dressing and left the place and came back to Kadamtala," Dr Kar said.

The next day when he went to Lakhralungta he noticed changes in the behaviour of the locals.

''They were in a welcoming mood as the wounded Jarawa responded well to the medicine. The children hugged me too," he recalled.

Since then the Jarawas started considering him and his four other team members as 'mita jiley' (friend in their language).

"We shifted serious Jarawa patients to Kadamtala health centres, while the rest of them were treated at Lakhralungta," he said.

Over the months, Dr Kar worked hard under a challenging situation and is credited with bringing them back from the brink of extinction during a measles epidemic in 1998-99.

He grew friendly with the Jarawas and became accustomed to their unique traditional customs and habits.

The physician also recalled an incident when a Jarawa boy, looking up at the sky told him 'mai ukai pangnang chaddha humo' (my mother is there, sleeping in heaven), as if ''pleading with me to bring her back''.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)