The island of Great Nicobar, hardly known to the public in India until a few years ago has been garnering a great deal of attention of late, because of the large number of ‘development’ projects that the government proposes to put in place there. That attention has increased even more because of the serious conflict of views that has arisen consequent on the government’s plans becoming known. The government and several others believe that the proposed mega-projects – a container transshipment port, an expanded military base, a greenfield international airport, a solar energy plant, a township for lakhs of people, international tourism facilities and more – are good for the country; that they will enhance trade, increase India’s economic prosperity, attract international tourism, and safeguard national security. 

However, dissenting voices, among whom are anthropologists, ecologists, foresters, security experts, seismologists, former defence personnel and administrators, are convinced that these developments will cause irretrievable harm to the island and to the country. They will destroy enormous tracts of ancient rainforests, increase the pace of climate change, extinguish, forever, animals and plants found nowhere else except in Great Nicobar, and, above all, ring the death knell for the ancient tribes living on the island – the Great Nicobarese, and, in particular, the Shompen, the fishing and foraging tribe classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), a distinctive people whose one and only home, for centuries, has been the island of Great Nicobar.

In preparation for the many proposed ‘development’ projects on Great Nicobar Island, the government has decided that a Trunk Infrastructure Road is first to be constructed. This road will run through tribal reserve land, reserve forest land, deemed forests and privately owned land. 

A social impact assessment (SIA) study of the proposed Trunk Infrastructure Road, and the land it proposes to acquire was taken up by Atlas Management Consultancy Services Private Limited under the Land Acquisition Act of 2013, in May-June 2025. This was followed by public hearings in mid-July, in two revenue villages on the island. 

The SIA has two major flaws: firstly, it confines itself to the private land to be acquired in six villages, lands which are owned by ‘settlers’, i.e. persons who have been brought in from the Indian mainland and encouraged to make their homes on the island. It does not pay any attention to the two indigenous tribal communities, who are the original inhabitants of the island, have lived there for centuries, and whose ownership over the land is of an entirely different character.

Also read: Ecologists, Researchers Ask Government to Halt Great Nicobar Mega Projects

Ownership of lands by tribal communities, especially isolated and self-contained tribal communities, do not take the same form as in the world we are used to; they do not take the form of ownership deeds, written on stamp paper and registered by a registrar or sub-registrar. Their ownership comes from long usage for sustenance, for habitation, and for other needs. One would have thought that the SIA working on a more or less pristine island inhabited by long isolated tribes would have at least taken some notice of the social impact on the acquisition of not only the private lands owned by the settlers, but also on the impact of acquisition of tribal lands (both the ancestral lands owned by the Great Nicobarese, as well as the lands being taken over from the tribal reserve primarily used by the Shompen).

Unfortunately, there is no such assessment. Although the SIA report does mention that extensive deliberations were conducted with the two tribal communities, it does not appear to be true. The Tribal Council of the island, consisting of the Great Nicobarese, was unaware of these deliberations; and even when this was subsequently pointed out by them, in writing, to the director, Social Welfare, Andaman and Nicobar Administration, no heed was taken.

The SIA study was evaluated by an expert group set up by the lieutenant governor of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Sadly, even this independent committee of experts which included social scientists from reputed organisations like the IIT Kharagpur and TISS, Guwahati, failed to note that the SIA study was incomplete because it did not consider the views expressed by the Tribal Council of Great Nicobarese, and because it did not study the impact on the Shompen tribe of the occupation of the tribal reserve area through which the road is proposed to run.

What is a tribal reserve area?

In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a tribal reserve is the land notified as such under the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation,1956 (PAT) for the dwelling and livelihood of the indigenous aboriginal tribes: the Andamanese, Jarawas, Onges, Sentinelese, Nicobarese and Shompen.

Under the PAT regulation, the power to declare tribal reserves was vested earlier with the chief commissioner of the islands, and now is with the lieutenant governor. It also gives the lieutenant governor the power to alter the tribal reserves. 

It stands to reason that both the declaration of any land as a tribal reserve, or any exclusion of land from a declared tribal reserve would have to be done based on proper justification and reasoning, such as the use of the land by the tribal people for whom it is reserved, and their dependence on it for their survival and well-being. The justification for alteration of the tribal reserve cannot be the needs of ‘development’, or because a road has to be laid through it, or because of the requirements of others. The reserve can and should be altered only if the tribal people concerned do not need the land any longer for their livelihood, habitation or any other needs. Neither the SIA, nor the expert committee’s report has thought fit to examine this.

Yet it has recently been mentioned in the news that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration has prepared a map for the denotification and renotification of tribal reserve land in Great Nicobar, apparently to the extent of 84 square kilometres. In whose interest is this being done? Not of the Shompen, certainly. It is unlikely that they even know about it, or have been consulted.

Also read: 'The Great Nicobar Infra Projects Make a Mockery of Legal Processes': Sonia Gandhi

The utter disregard for the tribal reserve and for the Shompen people for whose protection and benefit the reserve was created is astonishing. Are the Shompen not people of India? Are their lives any less valuable than those of other Indians? Are the needs of other people (for tourism, for trade, for business) more important than theirs? Does the government realise that incursions into the tribal reserve, or changing its boundaries will spell doom for the Shompen and lead inevitably to their extinction? And are they quite unperturbed by it? By the speed with which the government is going ahead with the Great Nicobar projects, it does seem so. 

Just as serious is the treatment of the other tribe of Great Nicobar – the Great Nicobarese whose ancestral lands are sought to be occupied. The Great Nicobarese had placed their faith in the administration and reached out to all concerned authorities to point out that the proposed project area included their ancestral home lands and that this was not acceptable to them. But their pleas to restore their lands to them have been steadfastly ignored. A sad commentary on the value that the government places on the lives of the most marginalised citizens of our country.

Meena Gupta, a retired IAS officer, is a former secretary to the Government of India in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and in the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

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