Early Warning? Ask Nicobar's Stone-agers

Excerpts from the article follow:

"Stone-age tribes living on India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands not only survived the devastating December 26 tsunami - triggered by an undersea quake whose epicenter was close to their homelands - but may actually have a few lessons in reading natural early-warning systems for their less perceptive Asian neighbors, say scientists.

While close to 150,000 people have been confirmed dead on the coasts of a dozen countries around the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea after being caught unaware by giant killer waves, the Onges, Jarawas, Sentinalese and Great Andamanese who live in the archipelago escaped unscathed because they took to the forests and higher ground well in time.

'These tribes live close to nature and are known to heed biological warning signs like changes in the cries of birds and the behavior patterns of land and marine animals,' V Raghavendra Rao, director of the Kolkata-based Anthropological Survey of India (ASI) told Inter Press Service (IPS) in a telephone interview.

Based on reports from his field staff on the badly devastated archipelago of 550 islands, strung out between Myanmar's main port of Yangon and Indonesia's Sumatra island, Rao confirmed to IPS that there were no known casualties among the five tribes - although there are unconfirmed reports of a few missing Onges...

Confirmation of their safety also came from the Indian Coast Guard, which carried out surveys over the 60-square-kilometer Sentinel island last week in low-flying helicopters, which were greeted with arrows and spears by the hostile Sentinalese.

The director general of the coast guard, Vice Admiral A K Singh, said...it was sure sign that the Sentinalese were fighting fit and not interested in receiving outside help after the tsunami...

Rao and other ASI experts believe that the tribes may hold the key to building a resource base for a reliable and cost-effective coastal warning system against future catastrophes...

'As soon as things settle down we are planning to document the vast and valuable indigenous, intangible knowledge and survival skills that exist on the islands - not only on impending catastrophes but also on herbs and medicinal plants,' said Rao, one of the few Indian officials authorized to speak on the subject..."