The project includes a proposed power plant at Galathea, located near Shompen settlements.
Tribal leaders have accused the Andaman and Nicobar island administration of seeking to drag the Shompen, an isolated indigenous community into a “modern lifestyle” as part of the controversial Great Nicobar Island development project.
Officials of the tribal welfare department did not respond when reached for a comment. At the July 16 meeting, which was meant to discuss the concerns of the Nicobarese tribe, a larger indigenous community on the islands, about the proposed GNI project, Council members reiterated their demand to relocate to their ancestral villages along the west coast of Greater Nicobar and asked why their consent had not been sought with regard to the notification of wildlife reserves in the Nicobar group of islands. In a recent letter to the administration, the Tribal Council said that instructions issued by the tribal welfare department referring directly to this July 16 meeting have not mentioned these issues, but only refer to issues that the Nicobarese had raised in a 2017 letter and subsequently in a 2019 representation.
Even though the Tribal Council was assured by administration officials that hunting rights would be retained for Nicobarese in islands where the new wildlife sanctuaries have been notified, its members said that this does not address the fact that these were notified without their consent.
