FILE - In this undated file photo released by the Anthropological Survey of India, a Jarawa tribe boy, one of the five tribes in India's Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, stands in front of the camera. India's Supreme Court on Monday, July 2, 2012 banned all commercial and tourism activity near an ancient tribeís habitat in the countryís remote Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Indian Ocean. (AP Photo/Anthropological Survey of India, File)
July 04, 2012 - 4:02 AM
NEW DELHI - India's Supreme Court has banned all commercial and tourism activity near an ancient tribe's habitat in the country's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Indian Ocean.
This week's order by India's top court bars hotels and resorts from operating within a five-kilometre (three-mile) buffer zone around the Jarawa reserve, which is home to the ancient Jarawa tribal people.
The court's order means a number of resorts that had opened near the indigenous Andamanese tribe's reserve will have to close.
However, a London-based international rights group for indigenous people is urging India to also halt safari runs by buses that pass through the reserve.
The Jarawa are among the world's most ancient people, with many still hunting with bows and arrows and rubbing stones together to make fire.
News from © The Associated Press, 2012