LUCKNOW, INDIA, January 6, 2002: Three tribes of the Andaman and Nicobar islands may have links with an African tribe, believed to be one of the world’s oldest human community and if established, the link could dramatically change the evolutionary history of mankind, a senior scientist said here. “After analyzing the genetic make up of endangered tribal communities like Jaroa, Onge and Greater Andamanese, we concluded that some of the genetic features of Jaroas and Onges has significant resemblance with pygmies, leading to a possibility that they were related in distant past,” Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) Director Dr. Lalji Singh told the Indian Science Congress here. He said some African tribes like the pygmies are known to be the oldest human community on earth. India has about 400 tribal communities and if the link between the Indian and their African tribes are established then the evolutionary history of mankind would be changed dramatically, he said. “The preliminary findings suggest that the Indian tribes were probably one of the earliest migrants from Africa, about 60,000 years, and the anthropological features too support our theory as both pygmies and the Indian tribes have similar features, curly hair extremely dark complexion and both are short structured”, Singh said. Other recent genetic research indicates the people of India were part of a wave of migration out of Africa 30,000 years ago. The Andaman tribes are noted for being one of the few peoples on Earth to have never discovered how to make fire.
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