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Great Nicobar Project: Draft plan to ‘relocate’ affected Nicobarese families creates confusion

April 03, 2026 5 min read Social Issues Polity & Governance GS2 (Social Justice Tribal Rights) GS3 (Environment Infrastructure) GS1 (Tribes)
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What Happened

  • A draft plan for the "relocation" of Nicobarese tribal families affected by the Great Nicobar Island (GNI) Development Project has been circulated, but it has generated significant confusion and concern among tribal communities.
  • The draft lacks clarity on relocation sites, exact numbers of families to be displaced, the consent process, and rehabilitation timelines.
  • Tribal communities — particularly the Nicobarese, who were already displaced from their ancestral coastal lands following the 2004 tsunami and relocated to the island's east coast — fear permanent loss of their traditional territories.
  • Tribal council members allege they were pressured to sign land-surrender certificates to demonstrate community support for the project.
  • The National Green Tribunal (NGT) cleared the project in February 2026 citing its "strategic importance," while mandating strict compliance with environmental safeguards.
  • The project has faced multiple legal challenges, including a petition in the Calcutta High Court citing violations of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and Article 338A(9) of the Constitution.

Static Topic Bridges

Great Nicobar Island Development Project: Strategic Vision and Scale

The Great Nicobar Island Development Project is a ₹81,000-crore integrated infrastructure initiative on India's southernmost island, located at the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, close to the Malacca Strait. It is being developed by ANIIDCO (Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation) and involves four major components: a transshipment port, an international airport, a township, and a 450 MW gas/solar power plant.

  • Strategic location: Great Nicobar is approximately 140 km from the Malacca Strait — the world's busiest shipping lane — giving the project both commercial and strategic-military value.
  • The island covers approximately 910 sq km, of which a large portion is protected as a Biosphere Reserve and houses dense tropical rainforest with unique biodiversity.
  • The project requires clearing approximately 130 sq km of dense forest and involves 8.5 lakh trees being felled in the initial phase.
  • India seeks to develop Great Nicobar as a rival to the Port of Singapore for transshipment, potentially capturing traffic from the Indo-Pacific shipping corridor.
  • The project is being fast-tracked under India's Act East Policy framework.

Connection to this news: The scale of forest clearance and infrastructure development makes displacement of tribal communities and environmental disruption inevitable — and the lack of clear relocation planning is now a flashpoint of resistance.

Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) and the Shompen

India recognises 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) — the most marginalised among Scheduled Tribes, characterised by pre-agricultural technology, very small and declining populations, extreme geographic isolation, and near-total dependence on forest ecosystems. Great Nicobar Island is home to two PVTGs: the Shompen (interior forest dwellers) and the Nicobarese (coastal communities).

  • The Shompen are one of the most isolated peoples on earth, with most being uncontacted. The 2011 Census recorded only 229 Shompen; the actual population is unknown.
  • The Shompen are entirely forest-dependent and have consistently resisted contact with outsiders; they are legally protected under the Andaman and Nicobar Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation, 1956.
  • The Nicobarese are a somewhat larger and more settled community (~30,000 across the Nicobar group), several of whose clans were displaced by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and relocated by the administration — a displacement from which they have not returned.
  • Survival International has called the project potentially genocidal for the Shompen, writing to the UN Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples.
  • PVTG status triggers special protections under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and the Constitution's Fifth Schedule and Article 338A.

Connection to this news: The draft relocation plan's lack of clarity on consent processes is especially serious in the context of PVTGs — international standards (UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples) and domestic law (FRA 2006) require Free, Prior, and Informed Consent (FPIC) for projects affecting tribal communities, which has not been demonstrated.

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 — commonly called the Forest Rights Act (FRA) — is a landmark law that recognises the forest rights of tribal communities (Scheduled Tribes) and other traditional forest dwellers who have inhabited forests for generations. The Act requires that forest land cannot be diverted for non-forest purposes without (a) settling all forest rights claims of the resident communities and (b) obtaining the consent of the Gram Sabha (village assembly).

  • Section 5 of the FRA empowers tribal communities to protect and manage their forest habitats and to stop any activity that threatens the community's forest ecosystem — including infrastructure projects.
  • The FRA's Gram Sabha consent requirement applies to all forest diversion proposals under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
  • Article 338A(9) of the Constitution requires that the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes be consulted before any project affecting tribal areas is approved — a requirement that the Great Nicobar project has allegedly not fulfilled.
  • The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution provides for special administrative provisions for tribal areas, including the creation of Tribal Advisory Councils.
  • The 2013 Land Acquisition Act (now Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act) also requires social impact assessment and consent in tribal areas.

Connection to this news: The confusion around the draft relocation plan is, at its core, a failure to comply with FRA consent and rights-settlement requirements before project clearances were granted — a legally contestable gap that is now generating court challenges and tribal resistance.

Key Facts & Data

  • Project cost: approximately ₹81,000 crore.
  • Project implementing agency: ANIIDCO (Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation).
  • Forest to be cleared: approximately 130 sq km; trees to be felled in initial phase: approximately 8.5 lakh.
  • Great Nicobar Island area: ~910 sq km; distance from Malacca Strait: ~140 km.
  • PVTGs in India: 75 groups officially designated.
  • Shompen population (2011 Census): 229 (actual unknown; most are uncontacted).
  • The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami (December 26, 2004) displaced Nicobarese communities from the west coast of Great Nicobar.
  • NGT cleared the project in February 2026, citing strategic importance.
  • Article 338A(9): mandatory prior consultation with National Commission for Scheduled Tribes.
  • FRA 2006 requires Gram Sabha consent for any forest land diversion.
  • Petition filed in Calcutta High Court alleging FRA violations in project clearances.