The autochthonous tribes of Shompen and Nicobarese have lived on the island of Great Nicobar for thousands of years. The Shompen are a semi-nomadic, hunter-gatherer community and they live deep in the forests in Great Nicobar. They are, by and large, isolated from the rest of the population on the island. They are a particularly vulnerable tribal group with a population of just around 250 people.
The Nicobarese are also a tribal community but they are largely a settled population. They grow plantations, fish and hunt, and in recent years, they have also taken up daily wage work to make a living. They are spread across the Nicobar Islands like Car Nicobar, Little Nicobar and Great Nicobar. The population of the Nicobarese in Great Nicobar is about 1,200.
In the Nicobarese language, the Great Nicobar Island is called ‘Patai Takaru’, meaning ‘the big island’, because, with an area of 920 square kilometres, the island is the biggest one in the Nicobar group of islands. We do not know how the Shompen conceptualise their land and forests because their language has not been deciphered yet.
The project will displace Nicobarese and Shompen communities whose way of life is closely connected to their lands. It will take over forests comprising settled villages and areas used for foraging, hunting and plantations. Like Chingenh, Kirasis and Kurchinom in Galathea Bay; In Haengloi and Pulo Baha in Pemmaya Bay; and Kokeon, Bui Jayae and Pulo Pakka in Nanjappa Bay.
‘All these villages will go when the project comes. These are all tribal villages,’ Barnabas said, pointing to the map prepared by Chandi, taped onto the wall in his office. Chandi prepared the map between 2000 and 2004 when he was working with the Andaman Nicobar Environment Team (ANET). Later, he went on to pursue a PhD in the field of human ecology. To date, this remains the only comprehensive map of the island that lists tribal lands.
The map shows settlements like Chingenh, In Haengloi and Kokeon along the south and southwest coasts of the island. These are ancestral villages of the Nicobarese who were settled by the government in a tribal colony in Rajiv Nagar after the 2004 tsunami. Some of these areas also belong to the Shompen. The two communities share a bartering relationship over forest and agricultural products.
In fact, Chingenh, which Barnabas pointed to on the map, is located right in the area where the transshipment terminal is proposed to be built in Galathea Bay. This location is a biodiversity hotspot and serves as one of the largest nesting sites in the world for giant leatherback turtles.
The Nicobar division of the Andaman and Nicobar Forest Department did not permit us to visit Galathea Bay even while a steady stream of tourists and government officials from the island, Port Blair and New Delhi were allowed and even escorted by the department during the same time. Many of the officials were visiting Galathea Bay for project-related work.
A ‘Babu’s’ Idea of Demarcation
It is no secret that, for decades now, the local administration in Great Nicobar has been relying on the map prepared by Chandi to identify tribal areas. The map was used as and when it was convenient to contact the tribes but ignored when the proposed project directly threatened the tribes’ way of life.
The maps that have been used to plan the megaproject do not list lands used by the two tribal communities. This, even while it seeks to take over such lands. This disingenuity reveals that no attempt was made to sincerely assess the impact of the land acquisition on the affected communities or be deterred by the protections that covered the land. The rescue and relief efforts after the tsunami of 2004 relied heavily on Chandi’s map to locate tribal areas. In fact, the office of the then Assistant Commissioner in Campbell Bay specifically requested Chandi’s help in locating tribal communities and their villages. Chandi also provided details of tribal community demographics and land ownership patterns.
After 2004, he added more Nicobarese settlements and Shompen community areas to this map. However, given that these are efforts undertaken by one individual, the map is not exhaustive. It is safe to assume that there are many more unmapped tribal settlements and foraging grounds, more so those belonging to the Shompen community.
This reporter visited and spoke to various officials from the Andaman and Nicobar administration, such as the office of the Assistant Commissioner (Campbell Bay), the Nicobar division of the Forest Department and the Directorate of Tribal Welfare. None of them possessed maps where tribal settlements and foraging grounds were marked. Every office only displayed maps with broad boundaries like revenue areas, tribal reserves and national parks.
‘The government has no proper map of tribal areas. There has been no systematic mapping effort,’ said Vishvajit Pandya, an anthropologist and Director of Andaman Nicobar Tribal Research Institute under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. ‘They use vague language like “upper road Shompen” and “lower road Shompen”. And these roads have been washed away in the [2004] tsunami! It’s a babu’s idea of demarcation.’ Babu, in colloquial Hindi, means a bureaucrat.
Even the Anthropological Survey of India (AnSI), including its regional centre in Andaman and Nicobar, does not have a map that chalks out lands belonging to the Shompen and the Nicobarese in Great Nicobar. This was confirmed by Anstice Justin, a Nicobarese anthropologist and former deputy director of AnSI. Anstice also belongs to the Nicobarese community from Car Nicobar.
Consider the report prepared by AECOM, the consultancy engaged by NITI Aayog to assess the feasibility of the megaproject. The land use map contained in this report shows the location of national parks, forest reserves and revenue lands but not tribal settlements and foraging grounds, something that is clearly shown in the map prepared by Chandi (see Map 3).
The documents submitted as part of environment clearance also listed the project only in the revenue areas of Campbell Bay, Govind Nagar, Joginder Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Laxminagar, Gandhi Nagar and Shastri Nagar, completely ignoring the fact that tribal areas will also be taken over.
This excerpt from ‘Island on Edge: The Great Nicobar Crisis’ by Pankaj Sekhsaria has been published with permission from Westland Books.