Remote Jarawa tribesmen kill poacher with arrow

PORT BLAIR (Reuters) - Hunter-gatherer tribesmen on India's remote Andaman islands have stabbed a fisherman to death with an arrow for poaching and injured three others, police said on Thursday.

A group of men from the Jarawa tribe had confronted eight fishermen on Wednesday who had illegally trespassed into their tribal reserve, said V. Renganathan, the Andaman police superintendent.

The victim was stabbed in the stomach with an arrow, police quoted doctors as saying.

Police were investigating two cases, "one for the murder while the other against the fishermen for illegally entering inside a tribal reserve forest," Renganathan said.

There are only around 200 surviving members of the Jarawa, one of four ancient Negroid tribes on the Andaman islands, which lie 1,200 km off India's east coast, closer to Myanmar.

Two of the four tribes face virtual extinction, with the surviving members living in depressed groups and struggling to maintain old traditions.

Since the opening of a highway in 1989 that brought the Jarawa closer to the outside world, poachers have encroached on their forestland, bringing exploitation, violence and disease.