Post date: Nov 24, 2011 12:32:38 AM
A non-governmental group releases new pictures of an isolated Indian tribe living in Brazil's Amazon forest and warns about the threat that illegal gold miners pose to these Indians.
RORAIMA , BRAZIL (SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL HANDOUT) - Amazon Indians from one of the world's last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with images released on Tuesday (November 22) in an effort to raise awareness on the importance of protecting such indigenous groups.
The pictures unveiled by Survival International, a London-based indigenous rights group, were taken in the northern Brazilian state of Roraima by the Hutukara Yanomami Association.
The photographs show several thatched huts built in a circle deep in the jungle. This tribe was last spotted in 1985 in Roraima state, according to the Socio-Environmental Affairs Institute (ISA), an aide group that works to protect indigenous groups in the country.
About 32,000 Yanomami live in the Venezuela-Brazil border region and form the largest relatively isolated tribe in the Amazon.
ISA's coordinator and head of the Pro-Yanomami Commission, Marcos Wesley, said their main concern is the proximity of illegal gold miners who represent a risk to these Indians.
"We identified in this latest plane trip during a mission that Funai (government's Indian agency) that gold miners were exploring some 15 kilometres away from this tribe. So what worries us the most, what concerns us the most, is the presence of gold miners and the pressure that gold miners are putting on them (tribe) and also the lack of constant vigilance over this territory in order to protect these Indians," he said.
Wesley added that the government is taking little action to stop illegal gold miners from harming these isolated tribes.
"We also work to give warnings about the presence of gold miners and to warn about the lack of effective measures to put an end to (illegal) gold mining, which we have noticed has been increasing over the past two years at a frightening speed. The warnings are always passed on to the responsible (government) units but the actions they take are far from being enough to stop illegal gold mining," he said.
About 20 percent of the Yanomami tribe died from flu, malaria and other diseases in the 1980 and 1990s when gold miners invaded their land, Survival said.