“Don’t Have Words To Express My Happiness”: Andamans’ Padma Shri Awardee

Port Blair:

A call by health officials of the Union Territory administration to Dr Ratan Chandra Kar in 1998 for treating people of the reclusive Jarawa tribe from an outbreak of diseases, like measles, in a remote island of Andaman and Nicobar had given anxious moments to his family members.

Responding to the call, Dr Kar, the then the medical officer, monitored the health of the people of the indigenous group at Kadamtala village and Lakhralungta, treated the Jarawas and eventually became friendly with them.

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 via land, jungle and sea routes.

The physician, chosen for the Padma Shri from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on the eve of the Republic Day, told PTI “I haven’t got phrases to specific my happiness. I wish to thank all for serving to me in reaching the popularity”.

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 started worrying about their father’s life due to the risks involved in venturing into the area inhabited by the Jarawas.

After pondering over it, Dr Kar took upon this challenge realising that he would never get such an opportunity in his life. He had the experience to handle such a situation because of his brief service among the Konyak tribe in Nagaland.

“That was the turning level in my life as I left for Kadamtala in Middle Andaman, which is almost 120 km from Port Blair. While travelling to Kadamtala, I used to be a bit nervous eager about the attainable response of the Jarawas. Will they settle for me or will they assault me? I used to be going by way of a blended response however much-needed medical consideration was required to save lots of them from measles, conjunctivitis and so on,” 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 used to be carrying coconuts and bananas as presents for the Jarawas. I noticed a gaggle of them standing on the seashore and taking a look at us. Some of them, armed with bows and arrows, swam and got here near the dinghy. I obtained down from the dinghy and slowly began strolling in direction of 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 the injury while hunting a wild boar. I applied some medicine and did the dressing and left the place and came to Kadamtala,” Dr Kar mentioned.

The subsequent day when he went to Lakhralungta he seen adjustments of their behaviour. “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 began contemplating him and his 4 different workforce members as ‘mita jiley’ (good friend of their language).

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

Over the months, Dr Kar labored laborious beneath such a difficult state of affairs and he’s credited with bringing them again from the brink of extinction throughout a measles epidemic in 1998-99.

He grew pleasant with the Jarawas and have become accustomed to their distinctive conventional customs and habits.

The doctor additionally recalled an incident when a Jarawa boy, trying up on the sky instructed him ‘mai ukai pangnang chaddha humo’ (my mom is there, sleeping in heaven), as if “pleading with me to bring her back”. 

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