Port Blair: A primitive aboriginal tribe inhabiting the Andamans and Nicobar Islands, Shompen, with a population of only 25 is on the verge of extinction.

Official sources on October 5 said that the number of the Shompen tribals, who lived in the Nicobar group of islands came down to 25 following the death of two of their elders.

One of them, 60-year-old Kao died on September 7, followed by the death of 65-year- old Kamoyee on September 16, at Imboghi on the West coast of Cambell Bay, the sources said.

Fearing that the Shopens would die out, the Andaman and Nicobar administration had shifted the surviving members of the tribe to a better and safer place, the sources added.

PTI