Nicobarese

He worries the group could meet the same fate as the Nicobarese, the biggest tribal group on the island, which suffered displacement in 2004, when a massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean wiped out their villages.

“Most Nicobarese here are now manual labourers and stay in a settlement instead of their ancestral lands,” Mr Justin says.

Social distancing, self-isolation and mask-wearing were the only protections against the virus, the Nicobarese learned.

A group of women began to sew masks for distribution among the Nicobarese, as well as for the local civil and defense personnel.

Thus far in the second wave, however, the almost 24,000 Indigenous Nicobarese people, living on 11 tiny islands in the Bay of Bengal, have recorded not a single infection.