Former A&NI Chief Secretary said Shompen tribe must ‘adopt modern lifestyle’ brought by GNI project, alleges Tribal Council

Tribal leaders have accused the Andaman and Nicobar island administration of seeking to drag the Shompen, an isolated indigenous community into a “modern lifestyle” as part of the controversial Great Nicobar Island development project. The project includes a proposed power plant at Galathea, located near Shompen settlements.

According to the Tribal Council of Great and Little Nicobar, when its members raised concerns about the Shompen being disturbed by the ₹91,000-crore project at a meeting on July 16, then-Chief Secretary Chandra Bhushan Kumar said that the Shompen “cannot continue” living the way they do and that they must also “adopt a modern lifestyle” that will come with GNI’s development. He added that a settlement for the Shompen may be built when the project comes up, the Council alleged in a statement on Monday (August 10, 2026).

Mr. Kumar, who was appointed Union Labour Secretary two weeks after that meeting, did not respond to The Hindu’s queries about the Council’s allegations.

The Shompen are a hunter-gatherer tribe with less than 300 members on Nicobar island, recognised as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). Two years ago, Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav had said in a written statement that the GNI infrastructure project “will not disturb or displace” any of the Shompen people.

Also Read | Nicobar project will not disturb or displace tribes: Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav

Concerns ignored

The Tribal Council also says its concerns about the GNI project raised at the July 16 meeting were ignored, with any mention of them omitted in later directions issued by the administration. Later this week, the Council is set meet with administration officials again to discuss plans for the township that is part of the GNI project.

At the July 16 meeting, which was meant to discuss the concerns of the Nicobarese tribe, a larger indigenous community on the islands, about the proposed GNI project, Council members reiterated their demand to relocate to their ancestral villages along the west coast of Greater Nicobar and asked why their consent had not been sought with regard to the notification of wildlife reserves in the Nicobar group of islands.

In a recent letter to the administration, the Tribal Council said that instructions issued by the tribal welfare department referring directly to this July 16 meeting have not mentioned these issues, but only refer to issues that the Nicobarese had raised in a 2017 letter and subsequently in a 2019 representation. Officials of the tribal welfare department did not respond when reached for a comment. 

‘Sanctuaries notified without tribal consent’

The meeting with the Chief Secretary did nothing to clarify concerns that the Council raised expressed about the GNI project, it said, adding that on issues of relocation and project-affected villages, there were contradictory versions being given by the Chief Secretary and a member of the Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Sangathan.

Even though the Tribal Council was assured by administration officials that hunting rights would be retained for Nicobarese in islands where the new wildlife sanctuaries have been notified, its members said that this does not address the fact that these were notified without their consent.

On the issues of developmental and infrastructural needs that were mentioned by the Tribal Council in its 2017 and 2019 letters, the Council members said that many of these issues remain pending.