• The Shompen in India’s Nicobar Islands are on the verge of extinction  

The Shompen, a hunter-gatherer tribe with fewer than 300 members on India’s Great Nicobar Island, have accused the local administration of seeking to ‘drag them into a modern lifestyle’ to clear the way for the controversial $ 10 billion Great Nicobar Island Development Project (GNIDP).  

The 300-strong Shompen in India’s Nicobar Islands are already on the verge of extinction due to outsiders’ intrusions, studies point out. 

The GNIDP includes a power plant, a container terminal, and an Indian Air Force base in Galathea, near Shompen settlements. 

The Indian Government presents the initiative as critical for economic and geopolitical positioning in the Indo-Pacific, especially amid China’s growing regional presence. It has, however, drawn strong opposition from environmental scientists, policy experts, and civil society groups over its environmental damage, procedural irregularities, and threats to indigenous communities. 

Great Nicobar Island sits near the Strait of Malacca, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. Much of India’s cargo currently routes through Singapore and Colombo, costing an estimated $ 200–220 million annually in lost revenue. The proposed terminal aims to reduce this dependency and establish India as a regional shipping hub. 

According to www.earth.org, the project covers roughly 166 sq km – nearly one-fifth of the island. It requires diverting over 130 sq km of forest, including 84.1 sq km of tribal reserve land, as noted in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). 

The island’s population, currently just over 8,000, could rise more than 80-fold if the planned township reaches capacity, risking severe overpopulation in a region long dominated by indigenous communities. 

Living in the Stone Age 

Anthropologists describe the Shompen as maintaining a stone-age existence, living much as their ancestors did for millennia. They survive through hunting, gathering, and limited horticulture, relying on intricate knowledge of the rainforest passed down over generations. 

They build temporary stilt huts from bamboo, leaves, and palm materials, raised above the ground for protection against moisture, insects, and animals. These structures can be quickly assembled and moved seasonally. For transport, they use dugout canoes called horis to navigate inland waterways and occasional coastal routes. 

Their staple food is the Pandanus fruit, known locally as larop. They also gather honey, roots, tubers, and fruits, and cultivate chillies, lemons, and betel in small gardens. They extract materials from the white dhup tree for incense, mosquito repellents, and chewing gum. This deep botanical knowledge allows them to thrive in conditions that would challenge most outsiders. 

Threat of extinction 

The Shompen’s population remains critically low and fluctuating. 

The 2011 census recorded 229 individuals, although exact numbers are uncertain because most remain in the forest with minimal outside contact. Estimates placed the figure near 300 in 2001. Earlier decades saw sharp declines: from 223 in 1981 to 131 in 1991 – a 41% drop linked to a gastroenteritis epidemic that killed up to 100 people. 

Like many isolated groups, the Shompen lack immunity to common diseases. Even minor infections can prove fatal. Those who interact with outsiders often quarantine themselves in special houses upon return, recognising the lethal risks of contact. 

India designated the entire island a tribal reserve under the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation of 1956. Portions later became a biosphere reserve. The Shompen are classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, a status reserved for communities with primitive traits, isolation, stagnant or declining populations, and pre-agricultural technology.  

Despite these protections, development pressures now threaten their homeland and way of life. 

Larger environmental impact 

Over 85% of Great Nicobar is a biosphere reserve under UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme, containing tropical rainforests, coral reefs, and more than 1,700 endemic animal species. The Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change has proposed  environmental and coastal regulation zone clearances that would allow the felling of up to 852,000 trees. 

The planned transshipment terminal at Galathea Bay sits on one of the Indian Ocean’s most important nesting sites for the endangered giant leatherback turtle, a Schedule I species under Indian law and globally listed as vulnerable. Port construction, dredging, and breakwater work would narrow the bay’s effective entrance (currently about 3.8 km), restricting turtle access. 

Proposed mitigations – restricting work during nesting season, reducing artificial lighting, and installing deflectors – have been widely criticised by marine biologists as inadequate and unvalidated, www.earth.org points out. Galathea Bay is unique in India for supporting leatherback populations, making disruption especially consequential.

Coral reefs are also expected to suffer from dredging; the EIA’s suggestion of coral transplantation lacks site-specific plans or proof of feasibility at the required scale. 

Recent conservation actions linked to the project have raised further doubts. Hatchlings of leatherback and olive ridley turtles were released at B-Quarry Beach, a site with no recorded nesting history. Standard practice requires release at natal beaches to support proper imprinting. Critics suspect these releases aim to shift nesting patterns away from the port site. 

Gaps in EIA

The EIA, spanning more than 1,000 pages, has been criticised for weak baseline ecological data and insufficient disaster-risk assessment despite the island’s seismic vulnerability. It shows incomplete biodiversity studies, limited ecological expertise of the assessment team, and non-compliance with treaties such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. 

The Expert Appraisal Committee noted in 2021 that site selection had prioritised technical and financial factors over environmental ones. Independent reviews highlight a series of regulatory relaxations, including the de-notification of protected areas such as the Galathea Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, which further weakens safeguards. 

The central question remains whether one of the world’s last isolated hunter-gatherer cultures, sustained for thousands of years in balance with its island environment, can survive the pressures of large-scale modern development, as www.earth.org points out. 

(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this publication)