Great Nicobar tribal council alleges administration nudge to ‘surrender’ Tsunami-hit ancestral lands

However, the council members refused to sign them and sought time to discuss the matter.

The tribal chiefs said they were sent messages on January 3 regarding “surrender” certificates. They said that they were neither provided with any further details nor the meeting agenda was shared with them.

The Nicobarese community faced casualties in the 2004 Tsunami, and have repeatedly made demands to the Andaman and Nicobar Island administration to relocate them to their ancestral villages. Following the Tsunami, they were relocated to a settlement in Rajiv Nagar and New Chingenh, towards the eastern coast.

The council members said that accepting the administration’s request would “permanently deprive” them of access to these lands. They said they had been living in the settlement for the last 21 years and their tribal culture had been hampered due to the prolonged displacement.

The Nicobarese population is around 1,200 on the Great and Little Nicobar islands. They have traditionally grown coconut, pandanus or screw pine on these lands and also used the coastal waters for fishing. Around 27 such villages are situated on the western coast of the Great Nicobar Island.

Barnabas Manju, chairman of the tribal council, said that in the past too, authorities got the council to sign no-objection certificates for denotification of a 84 sq km vast tribal reserve without revealing the full extent and impact of the mega infrastructure project on the tribal reserve and the forests they use for livelihoods. The council had later revoked its no-objection certificate within months, in November 2022.

In the November 2022 letter, the council had pointed out that it was shocked to learn that parts of their pre-Tsunami villages of Chingenh and Kokeon, Pulo Pucca, Pulo Baha, and In-heang-loi will be diverted as part of the Great Nicobar project plans.

In a letter, the council had pointed out that it was shocked to learn that parts of their pre-Tsunami villages of Chingenh and Kokeon, Pulo Pucca, Pulo Baha, and In-heang-loi will be diverted as part of the Great Nicobar project plans.

Chief Secretary of the Andaman and Nicobar administration as well as the district magistrate of the Nicobar island did not respond to the mail and text message sent by The Indian Express seeking an official comment.

Pegged at an estimated Rs 81,000 crore, the Great Nicobar transshipment port, township and infrastructure project will be spread over 166 sq km. Diversion of 130 sq km of dense forest has been approved for the project that will involve construction of a transshipment port, a civilian-military use airport, a township, a 450 MVA gas and solar power-based plant and associated logistics infrastructure.

“We are against forest diversion and de-notification of the tribal reserve. Forest Rights Act has not been implemented here; the certificates issued on vesting of Forest Rights Act also did not follow due process. We have sought relocation several times, and said that we want to settle back in our ancestral villages, but there has been no effort to relocate us,” the tribal council members said during the virtual press briefing.

The tribal council of the Little and Great Nicobar Islands had written to the Lieutenant Governor’s office in August 2022, appealing to the administration to facilitate the relocation of the Nicobarese community to their pre-Tsunami villages at the earliest.

The Indian Express had reported in December that the tribal council wrote to the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes on December 6, reiterating their demands for relocation to their ancestral lands.