India's plan for untouched Nicobar isles will be 'death sentence' for isolated tribe

Source: The Guardian

India’s plan for untouched Nicobar isles will be ‘death sentence’ for isolated tribe

Exclusive: $9bn port, airport and military base on Great Nicobar Island will cause ‘genocide’ of isolated Shompen, academics warn

Amrit Dhillon in Delhi
Wed 7 Feb 2024 05.00 GMT
Last modified on Wed 7 Feb 2024 10.04 GMT

Academics from around the world have urged India to cancel a huge construction project on Great Nicobar Island, warning it would be “a death sentence” for the Shompen hunter-gatherer people who live there.

The $9bn (£7bn) port project, planned to transform the Indian Ocean island of 8,000 inhabitants into what has been called the “Hong Kong of India”, includes the construction of an international shipping terminal, airport, power plant, military base and industrial park. It will also develop tourism.

In an open letter to the Indian president, Droupadi Murmu, published on Wednesday, 39 scholars from from 13 countries have warned: “If the project goes ahead, even in a limited form, we believe it will be a death sentence for the Shompen, tantamount to the international crime of genocide.”

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There is little mention in the government’s plans of what will happen to the Shompen and the Nicobarese people, who also live on the island, other than to state that Indigenous people can be relocated “if required”. The Nicobarese are less isolated than the Shompen and considered less vulnerable.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/feb/07/india-port-airport-power-plant-military-project-great-nicobar-island-death-sentence-shompen-indigenous-people-warning