The Hodi Boat

Andaman islands, an Indian archipelago of three hundred islands in the Bay of Bengal, Known for the scenic beauty of their mangrove forests tropical rain forests and virgin white-sand beaches. Many islands in the archipelago have unique aboriginal tribes most of them abhor contact with the 'civilised world'. Nicobari tribe, however, are skilled in building Hodi their traditional water craft using indigenous wood Hodi, an outrigger canoe commonly built and operated in the Nicobar group of islands by the aboriginal population for travel from one island to another fishing, collection and transport of goods like coconut, tubers etc and an occasional race organised between villages and islands. Each canoe is made from an older single tree trunk of the right variety, selection of the tree, a task arduous for the ratio of size with length matters. Selection of the right tree and building it into a boat require great skill, passed from generations down. It takes a few months, sure and many hands put together but when completed, the canoe it is an asset to the ‘tuhet'. That is why, the Andaman and Nicobar Administration India, has now proposed geotagging of the Hodi boat. Vocabulary: ‘tuhet': a group of families under a headman of the Nicobarese tribe