Calculation by project developer of the area that will remain protected as tribal reserve 'flawed', they write
Photo: iStock A group of experts have written to the National Commission of Scheduled Tribes (NCST) highlighting how the Great Nicobar Project will be harmful for the region’s indigenous population.
More than half of the area of the Rs 72,000 crore ‘Great Nicobar Project’ planned in the Great Nicobar Island lies over the Tribal Reserve Area, they pointed out. The riparian and forested parts of the area are currently in use by the forest dwelling particularly vulnerable tribal group, the Shompen, the group of anthropologists, social scientists, environmentalists and scholars of tribal studies added.
The diversion of such area for the project violates constitutional mandate, they mentioned in the letter.
The mega infrastructure project, titled ‘Holistic Development of Great Nicobar’, piloted by government think tank Niti Aayog and implemented by the Port Blair-based Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO), involves the construction of a transshipment port, an international airport, a township and a power plant.
The final environmental clearance by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) was given in November 2022. Since then, the project has been criticised by environmentalists and anthropologists for destroying a primary forest and rich biodiverse area, which is home to the indigenous Shompen and Nicobarese communities.
For example, Galathea Bay, where the transshipment port is to be constructed is a prime nesting site of the giant leatherback turtle.
Among several issues with the clearance is the denotification of ‘tribal reserve’. An Empowered Committee of the administration of the union territory recommended de-notification of the tribal reserve area. The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, in its letter on November 18, 2020, gave a ‘no objection’ certificate for the de-notification, subject to compliance under Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (recognition of Forests Rights) Act, 2006.
But the clearances granted to the project are riddled with legal lacunae, the 12 experts who have worked with the indigenous communities of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and other indigenous communities in India highlighted.
Their letter is a response to a 15-point submission (after allegations by EAS Sarma, former secretary to the Government of India) made by ANIIDCO, in which the Andaman and Nicobar administration justified the reduction of tribal reserve by re-notifying some other land area as tribal reserve as compensation.
The Great Nicobar Island has a tribal reserve measuring 751.01 square kilometres. ANIIDCO, in its submission on May 12, 2023, had said that out of the total area proposed for development measuring 166.10 sqkm, 84.10 sqkm falls within the tribal reserve.
“In order to compensate the reduction of Tribal Reserve and to protect the habitat of Shompen and Nicobar tribe, the A&N Administration proposes to re-notify 76.96 sqkm of land in Campbell Bay National Park, Galathea National Park and land outside the National Parks as Tribal Reserve. Therefore, effectively only 7.11 sqkm tribal reserve area will be required for de-notification for the project which is only 0.21 per cent of the total tribal reserve area of A&N islands and thus 743.96 sqkm of the Great Nicobar Island will remain protected as Tribal Reserve,” it had said.
This justification of calculating the total area that will remain protected as a ‘tribal reserve’ has been now called out as “flawed”. The group of experts wrote in the letter April 12:
The premise of just any land being equal and hence replaceable or suited for the needs of the tribals by the administration is flawed and indicative of the lack of understanding about the needs of the indigenous people as well as the bio-geophysical heterogeneity of the island by the UT administration.
“The fact that has not been admitted so far by the A&N administration is that the forested and riparian regions of the proposed project area are actually foraging grounds and also contain habitations of the Shompen community,” it said.
Moreover, in terms of statutory safeguards applicable to the islands, according to section 11 of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation, 1956 (PAT56), the regulation has an overriding effect over the laws applicable elsewhere.
Even if a portion of the Tribal Reserve were to be denotified, the justification for that should be “explicitly stated after due consultation with the affected tribal groups and it shall be consistent with the intent underlying the preamble to the Regulation, namely, for the protection of the interests of those tribal groups,” the letter stated.
It emphasised that the denotification of a tribal reserve adversely affects interests of two tribal groups -- Shompen and Nicobarese -- and that by issuing such an order, the A&N administration has violated an important constitutional directive.
The project area also covers parts of the southeastern and western coast, where the coastal dwelling Scheduled Tribe, the Great Nicobarese, have their ancestral villages.
Vishvajit Pandya, former director of the Andaman & Nicobar Tribal Research Institute and one of the signatories of the letter, was also a member of the above-mentioned empowered committee. According to him, the video report he and his team submitted included the response of the three broad communities of islanders, the Great Nicobarese, the Shompen, and the settlers from mainland India, but the report was not given any consideration in the committee’s decision.
In the report, the Great Nicobarese had stated that they wished to return to their ancestral villages on the coasts of southern Great Nicobar; the Shompen said they did not want any development in their areas and warned ‘developers’ to stay out of their land. The settlers mentioned the need for critical infrastructure such as for health and education and how tourism might increase employment opportunities within the island.
“The senior officers of the concerned government departments including the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Anthropological Survey of India, who were part of the Empowered Committee have completely failed to acknowledge and accept the views of the island-dwelling communities,” according to the letter.
Till date, the circular for the de-notification and re-notification of the Tribal Reserve Area has not been made public and neither are the minutes of the meetings of the Empowered Committee.
Apart from Pandya, the group which issued the letter also include Madhumita Mazumdar, team member, project ANG KATHA, Andaman & Nicobar Tribal Research Institute, Manish Chandi, independent researcher and former member, Tribal Welfare & Research Advisory Board, A&N Administration, Ajay Saini, assistant professor, IIT Delhi, TN Pandit, former director, Anthropological Survey of India, Anstice Justin, former deputy director, Anthropological Survey of India, Ashish Kothari, Kalpavriksh and Vikalp Sangam, Nicholas Barla, Adivasi Samanway Manch Bharat, Delhi, Virginius Xaxa, former professor, Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University, Ruby Hembrom, publisher, Adivaani, Purnima Upadhyay, founder, KHOJ, and Mukul Sharma, environmental writer.
Earlier, in February, academics from around the world, in an open letter, had urged India to cancel the project, warning it would be “a death sentence” for the Shompen community who live there.
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