'The resort will also bring an influx of workers and settlers to the area, increasing the pressure on the Jarawa and their land, exposing them to diseases to which they have no immunity, and to alcohol, which has ravaged other tribes,' she added.

Barefoot said it will discourage guests from entering the reserve.

Akshay Rawat, the company's head of business development, said the Jarawa lived some distance from the new resort.

'We will make sure that we don't harm the environment and don't attract Jarawas. The resort will be kept small and simple,' Rawat told the newspaper.

Andaman and Nicobar Lieutenant-Governor Bhopinder Singh also insisted that the administration was determined to protect the tribe.

'We will not allow any harm to come to them,' he said despite pressure from businessmen to begin flights from nearby Phuket, a popular resort in Thailand.

Survival International has led a long-standing Jarawa campaign and says despite a 2002 Supreme Court order for the closure of a road running through Jarawa land, 'it remains open, and poaching and exploitation are posing increasingly serious dangers'.