Who Are the Onge?
The Onge are an indigenous Negrito people of Little Andaman Island in the Andaman Islands, India, numbering fewer than 100 individuals, making them one of the world's most critically endangered populations. The Onge, like other Andamanese peoples, represent descendants of early human migrations, inhabiting the islands for tens of thousands of years in genetic and cultural isolation. Traditionally, the Onge practiced nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle across Little Andaman, hunting pigs and turtles, fishing, and gathering forest resources. They lived in temporary camps, maintained complex spiritual beliefs involving totemic systems and forest spirits, and organized society through kinship groups. Contact with outsiders, beginning intensively in the 1960s-1970s when Indian government settled the island, devastated Onge population through disease, land loss, and cultural disruption. The population declined from approximately 670 in 1900 to fewer than 100 today. The Indian government established the Onge Tribal Reserve covering part of Little Andaman, but agricultural settlements, logging, and tsunami damage (2004) further degraded Onge lands. Modern Onge face existential crisis—extremely low population creates genetic bottleneck concerns, language transmission has largely failed (only elderly speakers remain), traditional lifestyle is impossible on diminished lands, and dependency on government provisions replaced self-sufficiency. Anthropologists and activists advocate for comprehensive protection, healthcare, and land rights to prevent extinction.