Indian President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday (February 21) visited the Great Nicobar Island — which is set to be transformed into a shipping hub. President Murmu’s visit comes a few days after a group of scholars wrote to the her, raising concern for the lives of an uncontacted indigenous tribe.
According to experts, the development of a container port in Galathea Bay on the Great Nicobar Island will be “a death sentence” for the Shompen Tribe.
In the letter, the 39 experts said, “The Indigenous Shompen people of India’s Great Nicobar Island will face genocide if the plan to turn their island into the ‘Hong Kong of India’ goes ahead.”
These experts have appealed to the Government of India to “urgently cancel all plans for the Great Nicobar Mega Project,” in a letter to the president. The project also involves the development of the Greenfield International Container Transshipment Port (GICTP).
According to Survival International, the total population of the island is 8,000, which includes 100–400 members of the Shompen hunter-gatherers, around two-thirds of whom are uncontacted. These uncontacted members of the tribe have little to no immunity to infectious diseases.
In a video, the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways (MoPSW) revealed that the GICTP will be built at an estimated cost of ₹43,797 crore and will be around 40 nautical miles away from the Malacca Strait, a busy East-West Trade Route.
In the letter, the experts emphasised, “The cumulative effect of these developments and the proposed demographic shift entailing 650,000 settlers, or an 8,000% increase in population, will ensure the death knell of the Shompen.”
The effect of this development “will be a collective psychic breakdown” and could lead to a massive decline in the population of the tribe, the experts added.
The island will function simultaneously as a transshipment centre and a tourism destination . The project aims to improve the quality of life for current and future residents of Great Nicobar Island, the MoPSW added.