Oct. 24: A French filmmaker duo, alleged to have sneaked into the Andaman and Nicobar Islands’ Jarawa tribal reserve several times in the last three years, are under fire from global rights organisations after promos of their docu film were posted on social media sites.

The duo, Alexandre Dereims and Claire Beilwert, and a third person “trespassed into the Jarawa reserve” with the help of “local contacts” mostly during this year’s March-April harvesting season and filmed the endangered tribals, officials in the Andamans told The Telegraph earlier this week.

Survival International, a London-based tribal rights organisation, has raised a banner of protest against “Organic Jarawa”. Promos of the film scheduled for a 2015 release are up on Facebook and on a website by that name.

In an email release, the organisation said: “Survival International is opposed to any illegal entry into the Jarawa Reserve and has a strict policy against anyone trying to make contact with, or film, un-contacted or recently contacted tribal people…. Therefore, we do not support the making or showing of the film, Organic Jarawa… which, in no way, helps the cause of the Jarawa tribe.”

On Sunday, the Andaman and Nicobar administration filed an FIR against the filmmakers under the Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation, 2012, and the Foreigners Amendment Act.

According to the FIR, the film was shot with the help of local contacts who facilitated the filmmakers’ entry as well as played interpreter. Sacks of rice, cooking oil, biscuits and other rations were distributed among the Jarawas, many of whom have been named in the FIR.

Sources in Port Blair said many tribals --- their total count is 417 --- based in Kadamtala in the Middle Andamans told local welfare officials about the foreigners.

“Two foreigner men and a woman had entered the Modele Chadda, a Jarawa camp near Lewis Inlet bay on the west coast during the Todala season (March-April 2014) by using wooden dinghies driven by engines,” a tribal was quoted by the sources as saying.

The Andaman administration has not sent a legal notice to the filmmakers yet. But it has asked them over email to withdraw all publicity material.

The Organic Jarawa page on Facebook says: “The Jarawa are endangered. We made this documentary to give them a voice. If nobody knows them, if nobody can listen to them, there is no chance to save them from our world. Please share.”

Navnita Ganguli, the director of tribal welfare of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, said over phone from Port Blair: “We are investigating who the foreigners are, how they entered the prohibited area and other information about the film.”

G. Theva Neethi Dhas, the principal secretary of tribal welfare, said the filmmakers may have entered the reserve through the less guarded western coastal sea route and not through the Andaman Trunk Road.

Zubair Ahmed, a writer of several books on the Andamans and the Jarawas, commented in a Port Blair daily: “From police, intelligence, defence, coast guard, forest and tribal department, nobody had a clue about the Organic Jarawa documentary project, until Alexandre himself revealed it. Isn’t it shocking that such kind of breach (is possible and) could be a potent threat to the security of the Jarawas?”