India’s Planned Project Described as Ecocide

Varun Raj Wahane and Azma Khan 

The rights to health, nutrition, and shelter of some Indigenous tribes in the Indian controlled territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are being threatened by the Indian government’s planned huge development project. The 30-year development, at an estimated cost of US$9 billion, aims to create a shipping port, power plant, and airport to provide India with easier and shorter trade and tourism routes.

The project estimates about 650,000 tourists will visit Nicobar Island each year, which currently has a population of 37,000. There are several tribal groups in this area, including the Shompen—a small ethnic group of about 250 people—that remain isolated and dependent on the forest for both food and medicine.

Those opposed to this development, including opposition parties in India, claim the development project will destroy the environment and displace tribes, and argue there has been insufficient, if any, consultation with the local people. Environmentalists believe the project will ruin the island’s distinctive biological identity and describe the impact as ecocide rather than development.

Shompens are isolated semi-nomadic hunter-gathering tribes classified as Particularly Venerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs). They fear they will have no immunity to diseases that foreigners will inevitably bring to the islands, and in an interview with an anthropologist, they state their opposition to the project.

Along with other tribes in the archipelago, Shompen use traditional health care practices based on local plants and herbs. They understand the development project will deny them access to the areas from where these medicines are harvested, and they will then lose their traditional knowledge on their use.

International scholars have written an open letter to the president of India on behalf of the Shompen tribe, referring to the project as a ‘genocide’ by destroying their ecology and invading their habitat. However, the Indian government is unwilling to reevaluate the project clearance and there has been no response to the open letter.

These scholars and other advocates are calling on the UN, World Health Organization, and human rights activists everywhere to demand that the Indian government protect the rights of the Indigenous peoples in these islands and acknowledge the serious threat to their human rights, health, and existence.

Varun Raj Wahane and Azma Khan are practicing lawyers under Indian jurisdiction, working on multiple legal issues and human rights. Email: Varun Wahane varunwahane@gmail.com.