The Union government on Wednesday denied receiving a video report submitted by anthropologist Dr Vishvajit Pandya that documented opposition from the indigenous Shompen and Nicobarese communities to the Great Nicobar Island Development Project.
The Rs 72,000-crore project involves the construction of a Rs 36,000-crore trans-shipment port in addition to an international airport, a power plant, a township and tourism infrastructure spread over more than 160 square kilometres of land.
In January, Scroll reported on the Union government’s inaction on Pandya’s report.
Responding to questions by Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale in Parliament, the Union government said on Wednesday it had no record of receiving the report.
Pandya, an anthropology professor at the Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information Communication Technology and founder of the Andaman Nicobar Tribal Research Institute, had submitted the video as part of his work for an empowered committee set up by the administration to assess the project.
The film included interviews with Shompen and Nicobarese communities, as well as mainland settlers. In one excerpt shown at an online discussion, a Shompen man says: “If you want to cut the forest, cut in on the coast. Do not climb our hills.”
Gokhale had asked the Centre about its stand on the video, pointing out that it was prepared at the request of the Andaman and Nicobar administration as part of preliminary assessments for the project.
“The issue pertains to Shompen and Nicobarese tribes affected by the Great Nicobar project,” said Gokhale. “We are talking about a very vulnerable tribal group which does not have any representation in the House and therefore they have led isolated lives throughout and do not have any contact with the outside world.”
The Trinamool Congress MP asked whether the ministry had acted on a letter dated November 22, 2022, from the Tribal Council of Great Nicobar withdrawing its no-objection certificate for the project, alleging that the earlier approval was given under false pretences.
Union minister Jual Oram did not directly respond to this question, referring instead to post-tsunami resettlements on the island.
Oram later said of the video: “The anthropologist [Pandya] that has been mentioned, we have not got any video report by this anthropologist and if they can please send this video to the ministry we will definitely be looking into it.”
The denial comes despite former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh flagging the contents of Pandya’s video to the Centre in August. In a letter to environment minister Bhupender Yadav, Ramesh had noted that the footage “shows members of the Shompen community clearly stating that they are against any disturbances to their forested and riparian habitats”.
Pandya had told Scroll that the report was never acknowledged by the administration. “We never heard from the administration after that,” he said. “The video was never released. No one wants to yield to [the recommendations] and it is of no consequence to the administration.”
He said the Shompens expressed specific concerns about how forest clearance, river diversion and infrastructure construction would affect their soil regeneration systems, horticultural plots, water sources and kinship networks. “Land is not just a title of zameen,” Pandya added. “There is a social and cultural meaning of land. Sarkari babus will not understand this, and that’s why we got the people to talk on camera.”
Pandya, who helped draft the administration’s 2015 Shompen Policy, said the government had failed to ensure the tribe’s right to self-determination. “The rest of the world is acknowledging their indigenous peoples and recognising first people, why can’t we do it?” he asked.
The administration of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands did not respond to questions emailed by Scroll about the report.
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