One of the most remote tribes in the world is facing an existential threat on their doorstep
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An uncontacted tribe is at risk of annihilation at the hands of the Indian government, a group of experts say. A letter shared by the charity Survival International and signed by almost 40 leading researchers on the crime of genocide claims that the indigenous Shompen people of India’s Great Nicobar Island are being threatened by a government-backed ‘Mega-Development’.
The $9bn project would see a third of the Shompen’s home on the Indian Ocean island land stripped of ancient rainforest and a river flow crucial for their survival severely disrupted. This would make way for a ‘Hong Kong of India’ according to the Modi government, a free-trade zone with international transport and a city of 650,000 inhabitants.
The letter read: ‘The Shompen have lived for hundreds if not thousands of years in harmony with the rich natural world of Great Nicobar Island, largely without contact from outsiders.
‘Should the government of India’s proposal to create an international container transshipment terminal, associated port and harbour facilities, airport, power plant, defence base, industrial zones, as well as major urban development, proceed, even in a limited form, we believe it will be a death sentence for the Shompen, tantamount to the international crime of genocide.
‘We call upon the government of India to urgently cancel all plans for the Great Nicobar mega-project.’
Under international law, companies and governments must gain indigenous people’s Free, Prior, and Informed Consent for any industrial projects undertaken in their territories. But the approximately 300 Shompen living on the island have ‘no idea’ of the extent of the plans for what is their legally designated territory, claim Survival.
‘It will be a death sentence for the Shompen, tantamount to the international crime of genocide.’
Speaking to Geographical, Survival’s Callum Russell said: ‘[This project] is going to totally rip to shreds the entire way of life of the Shompen.
‘It’s going to increase the population by 8,000 per cent. They want to bring 650,000 settlers onto the island. They’re going to cut down some 800,000 trees. These are some of the oldest rainforests in the world and in great Nicobar the forest is millions and millions of years old. It’s an incredibly unique place with full of endemic flora and fauna. It will be an ecocide catastrophe basically, and a genocidal catastrophe for the Shompen.’
He noted that most uncontacted tribes have limited immunity to outside diseases such as measles, so even being in proximity to a new settlement could ‘wipe out’ their population.
Most of the Shompen tribes reject contact with outsiders. The few who encounter strangers through limited trade now quarantine before rejoining their groups, after previous occasions decimated island families. But the Shompen rely mostly on local wildlife, hunting the endemic Nicobar wild pig and harvesting plants that are fed on the flow of the Alexandra, Amrit Kaur, Dogmar and Galathea rivers that run across the island.
Dr Mark Levene, fellow at the University of Southhampton and one of 39 genocide experts to sign the letter, said: ‘This isn’t just about a people under imminent and lethal threat – they’re under threat from a project that in biospheric terms shouldn’t even exist. It should be completely off the map.
‘The notion of creating that huge mega port in a biospheric space which is self-contained and lush and tropical – you’re going to devastate a vast part of the island and you’re going to deteriorate the rest of it beyond repair.’
Dr Levene noted that the Indian government do not have to kill the Shompen with their own hands for the Shompen’s fate to be termed a ‘genocide’. By creating unliveable conditions, destroying the tribe’s way of life and effectively driving them to death, the state would become responsible for the destruction of a people.
He said: ‘The people will not be able to survive on their own terms within this framework. And the people living there, they won’t just suffer physically, they will be psychically destroyed. It will kill them.’
The Indian Government claim that no harm will come to the Shompen. But documents seen by Geographical indicate where their priorities lie.
The project’s ‘Vision Document’ submitted to the Government’s planning committee starts with a quote from Dr Vivek Rae, the former chief secretary of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He praised the ‘untapped economic potential’ of the island chain, which he claimed ‘have been neglected and ignored due to ecological and environmental constraints’.
The project documents also suggest that tribal people can be relocated if necessary.
Russell said: ‘[The Indian government] have this crazy idea that they’re just going to move people about – and they have the same attitude to the flora and fauna – as if they’re just moving rocks about somewhere.
‘It’s a kind of mega project that also shows the sort of arrogance on the world stage of Modi’s vision for India, which are these big, glamorous projects in totally unsuitable locations.’
‘A human tragedy and an ecological disaster’
The translocations would likely be disastrous. The island is known for its incredibly unique ecology and is even recognised under India’s highest law of environmental protection.
The mouth of the Galathea river is home to some of the most significant nesting sites for vulnerable leatherback turtles, who return to the same beach every time they nest. The development, which would cause a 90 per cent reduction in the river flow, would destroy three key nesting sites and many of the plant species the Shompen depend on.
The development site also has one of the best preserved tropical rainforests in the world, home to 648 species of flora and 330 species of fauna including rare and endangered species and its waters are home to some of the most pristine coral reefs in the region. The project would cause a major disruption of these delicately balanced eco-systems. Yet, the planning documents describe the project as ‘holistic’ and ‘green’, promoting elements of eco-tourism.
Dr Mark Levene, who is also an environmental activist, said: ‘This is just the most grotesque greenwashing to act as a pretext for something which has nothing at all to do with protecting this island. This project’s aims has to do with the geopolitical interests of India and with corporate interests.
‘No government in the world should be entering into a project like this if they have any commitment at all to environmental healing – at a time when we’re heading for climate catastrophe.
‘This story is a microcosm of what is wrong with the world. If we can’t stop this sort of thing, we can’t stop the juggernauts of corporate states causing a mega genocide through the climate crisis.”
Survival has launched a campaign to lobby the Indian government and the companies who are being considered for tender. Almost 7,500 people have already sent letters to India’s Tribal Affairs Minister, Arjun Munda, calling for the project to be scrapped.
The Indian government was approached for comment.
