Bengaluru: The union government is currently pushing through a Rs-72,000-crore mega project in the Great Nicobar island without the consent or taking into account the concerns of the Nicobarese and the Shompen—the tribes that have inhabited the islands for thousands of years—said a senior former government official from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 

On 28 August 2024, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation, the main implementing agency, called for proposals by 30 September to begin cutting about a million trees for the project, which includes a container port, an international airport, a town, roads and tourism resorts.

The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not conducted any meaningful discussion with the Nicobarese about the project and has had no discussions with the Shompen, who communicate in a unique language that is yet to be deciphered. 

In an interview, Anstice Justin, 70, former deputy director, Anthropological Survey of India and a Nicobarese, spoke at length about the tribal communities to whom the island is home and the threats posed to them by the mega infrastructure project.

Justin’s native name is Asenga Ta-aunj. He was born in Car Nicobar, one of the 22 Nicobarese islands, of which 12 are inhabited, and lives in Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, renamed Sri Vijaya Puram on 13 September 2024.

On 21 August, union environment minister Bhupender Yadav, responding to a letter from Jairam Ramesh, Congress member of parliament and former union environment minister, claimed “legal safeguards and constitutional provisions related to the tribal communities have been duly followed”. 

This is not true (here, here and here).

Justin agreed with Ramesh’s warning about “the grave threat” that the project posed to the island’s tribal communities and its rainforests and challenged Yadav’s claims. 

“Has the environment minister conducted an assessment? Has he ever talked to the Shompen or the Nicobarese about the problems they are facing and the other ground realities?” said Justin. “We do not understand the language of the Shompen but this is not the only problem. We are imposing ‘development’ on them.”

In September, 2023 Article 14 reported how the mega project intends to take over the ancestral lands of the Nicobarese, where they lived before the 2004 tsunami, by listing them as “uninhabited”. In November 2022, as we reported, the Nicobarese tribal council withdrew consent for the “diversion” of forests, an official term that refers to clearance to cut them down. The chairman of the local tribal council said the government had rushed them to initially agree without giving them enough information or time for consultations. 

Ramesh, too, pointed to these issues in another letter he wrote to the environment minister on 27 August. He referred to safeguards under the Shompen Policy framed in 2015, which recognises the “integrity” of the community. This integrity, Ramesh said, is threatened by the project. The project would require “permanent displacement” of the Nicobarese from their ancestral villages, he added.

On 29 September, Ramesh again wrote to Yadav, accusing the government of inviting proposals to begin cutting Great Nicobar’s forests even as the National Green Tribunal hears petitions against the project. “I believe the government of India is hell-bent on inflicting an ecological and humanitarian disaster on our country,” wrote Ramesh. The forests to be cut are supposed to be replaced by “compensatory afforestation” in Haryana.

In April, 2023 the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) also raised concerns about the violation of forest rights of local communities. The NCST is a constitutional body meant to safeguard rights of tribal communities and investigate violations. 

Justin’s primary and secondary education were in Car Nicobar, after which he moved to Port Blair for higher education and then to the mainland to the anthropological department at Ranchi University. He cleared the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examinations for civil services and joined the regional centre of the Anthropological Survey of India in Port Blair. 

Edited excerpts:

Recently, the union environment minister Bhupender Yadav and former environment minister Jairam Ramesh discussed the Great Nicobar project in a series of letters. Ramesh pointed to ecological and tribal rights concerns. In response, Yadav claimed, among other things, that legal safeguards and constitutional provisions related to tribal communities had been followed. What do you make of his exchange?

We have read the statements made by the environment minister and the response from Jairam Ramesh. Shompen and Nicobarese villages like Chingen and Kokeon will be affected by the project. But has the environment minister conducted an assessment? Has he talked to the Shompen? The Shompen are least concerned with the administration and they are misunderstood by ministers and policymakers. This is not safeguarding [tribal rights] in the real sense. Has the minister ever talked to the Shompen or the Nicobarese about the problems they are facing and the other ground realities? We do not understand the language of the Shompen but this is not the only problem. We are imposing ‘development’ on them. 

What do you think about the mega project? How do you think it would affect the Nicobarese and the Shompen and the local ecology?

Let us understand the forest and the people who are native to these forests. The Shompen are a particularly vulnerable tribal group. They are semi-nomads. And then there are the Nicobarese who are more ‘contemporary’.  

‘Shompen’ is what the Nicobarese call them. It is a distorted form of ‘Shamhanp’ or ‘Somhanp' which means forest dweller. In earlier literature, it was spelt ‘Shom Pen’. Till today, we do not know how the Shompen identify themselves. They prefer a life of their own. Sometimes, some of them come out of the forest to gather fishing lines and hook from the Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti (AAJVS) and also the Nicobarese with whom they share a reciprocal bartering system. During this time, AAJVS offers them ration which they gladly accept. But this does not mean they are dependent on AAJVS or that they come to Campbell Bay to collect ration. 

(Editor’s Note: Run by the Andaman and Nicobar administration’s department of tribal welfare, the AAJVS addresses issues related to the welfare of particularly vulnerable tribal groups, such as the Shompen.) 

The Shompen are usually not concerned about the Andaman and Nicobar administration. They practise animism which is nature worship. The project will destroy nature. We will be destroying their source of sustenance and foraging grounds. To them, nature is sacred and similar to temples, churches and mosques. Do we destroy our places of worship? When we have no respect for the beliefs of people, our approach to develop the area is very profane and unconsecrated. 

The Shompen believe in a nature-man-spirit relationship. It is man-to-man cultural ecology, which they employ for practical purposes like collective hunting-gathering activities, raising edible roots, construction of their traditional dwellings etc. They have immense knowledge of forests, other terrestrial resources and also aquatic bodies, creeks, morass lands, swamps, the sea… there is a totality of the sacredness of nature which we cannot isolate from the survival of the Shompen. 

Many times, I have learned a lot from the Shompen. Once they led us into the interior forests, and we were not allowed to cut leaves of small trees, stems of trees, weeds or even bushes to mark the pathway that could assist in returning to the main metalled road. So, we were astray for some time. But just imagine and contemplate this kind of respect to the tiniest, obnoxious weeds, trees, leaves, because they believe there is life in them all.

Now coming to the Nicobarese, they practise Christianity but it is not like the Christianity we see in European countries... It is Christianity blended with syncretic elements because they also have their own beliefs. It is a peaceful coexistence of christianity with animism. 

After the tsunami in 2004, many Nicobarese were displaced and they have been living in tsunami shelters which the government has turned into permanent shelters. But they have not been given land for cultivation. The project is coming up on ancestral land of the Nicobarese where they lived before the tsunami. 

There is a sense of betrayal among the Nicobarese community because their signatures for diversion of forest land for the project were taken by force and without providing correct information. They were made to attend the meeting without knowing the agenda. So, they withdrew their consent. With the Shompen, there is no dialogue at all! The government has not engaged in any dialogue with the Shompen about the mega project. 

If there is a forest, we need to take care of the people who live in the forest. But this project is being imposed on the original inhabitants of the island without their consent. 

What kind of development do you need in the Nicobar islands? Before the 2024 general elections, I spoke to members of the Nicobarese community from Great Nicobar and also other islands, such as Nancowry and Car Nicobar. They spoke about the lack of good education facilities, limited ship connectivity to Port Blair, the need for roads and water supply and medical care. So, the union government’s view of development, basically limited to a mega port and an international airport, is very different from the kind of development the Nicobarese community seeks. 

This is very true. There is no improvement in health facilities at primary health centres (PHCs) in Great Nicobar. PHCs only have general medical officers and nurses. There are no specialists. For many pregnancy-related issues, women are referred to hospitals in Port Blair. There was a recent case where, after a dialysis unit was opened, we found out that there was no technician. So, the purpose of installing the dialysis unit is defeated. We also face issues of shortage of medicines and sometimes, hospitals do not get tap water supply. Water is the elixir of life but in the Nicobar islands, this is the reality we face. And of course, the quality of education in government schools… Everyone can understand what it is. Connectivity to Port Blair is another issue. Sailing schedules of ships are erratic. [Flight] services are available Monday and Saturday, but priority is given for defence personnel. The condition of our roads is also very bad with potholes and stagnated water. The quality of internet facilities is excruciatingly painful for aspiring young people.  Come and reside in the remotest villages in Great Nicobar and you will see the kind of situations we are coping with.

I studied in a vernacular school [where the medium of instruction is a mix of Nicobarese and English] in Car Nicobar. There were no trained teachers. Currently, the education system is somewhat better than those days but it is still not very good. 

To my mind, policymakers and administrators have not taken care of these issues. Without looking at ground realities like hospitals and schools, how can we have development? There is a lot of talk about tourism but not about upgrading health facilities at PHCs. A country should be able to provide good health facilities to her citizens.

Is employment also an issue in Nicobar islands? Do people prefer to migrate to Port Blair or to the mainland for jobs?

You see, employment opportunities in Car Nicobar and Great Nicobar are the same as seen elsewhere in the country 

Do you believe there are parallels between how the development of the Andaman Trunk Road impacted the Jarawas (a tribe) and how this mega project could impact the Nicobarese and the Shompen? Are there any lessons to be learnt from past mistakes?

This is an issue which is very close to my heart. I had discussed it in many meetings with the ministry of tribal affairs during my service. 

With the Jarawas, the official government policy is ‘maximum autonomy with minimum intervention’. But as you know, rules and policies can be violated. And of course, there are lessons to be learnt. The situation with the interactions between the settlers and the Jarawa is deplorable. There were reports of molestation of Jarawa women and encroachment of forests. The road disturbed their foraging and hunting grounds and they were made welfare-dependent people. 

(Editor’s Note: The Andaman Trunk Road gave settlers and tourists unfettered access to areas reserved for the Jarawa tribe, sparking a number of problems, such as exploitation, exposure to diseases, logging, poaching and encroachment of forests.) 

The tribal council of Great Nicobar and Little Nicobar has written multiple letters on a variety of issues, such as the opposition to the declaration of wildlife sanctuaries in the islands to compensate for the loss of biodiversity from the mega project and the withdrawal of their consent for diversion of forest land. But they have never received a response, neither from the union government nor from the Andaman and Nicobar administration. What do you make of this?

The original inhabitants of the island are a miniscule population. All I can say is the Nicobarese have tried their best to protest against the mega project. But none of the policymakers are reading the representations they sent time after time. The Nicobarese feel cheated. We can only lament about this.

There were some incidents in the past when we were near Shompen settlements and they made gestures which, to me, seemed like they were saying do not intrude on our lands. These were codable gestures. They were reluctant to meet us. 

We do not understand the language of the Shompen. In this context, do you believe it is possible to obtain informed consent of the Shompen for the mega project?

We need genuine consent and approval from the native populations. Development can take place only after this. Now here is a situation where a language barrier exists. How can we tell them about this mega project? Even AAJVS officials cannot communicate with the Shompen. With the help of interpreters, we can touch some overt aspects of their culture. But what about covert aspects? 

The Shompen are not concerned about the overtures of the administration, leave alone development. They live a life of their own. 

Can we barricade the Shompen? Turn the forests into a zoo? The Shompen may have their own grievances. But who will understand their anxieties? 

(Rishika pardikar is a freelance environment reporter.)

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