Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote to Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram on Wednesday, flagging a flagrant violation of the rights of tribal communities in the Great Nicobar Island Project and seeking immediate remedial action, days after his letter to Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav.
In his letter to Oram, the former environment minister termed as "entirely false" the assertion in the government FAQs issued on May 1 that all statutory procedures and policy safeguards for the protection of tribal communities were duly complied with in the project.
"The Great Nicobar Project: FAQs issued by the Union Government on May 1, 2026 stated that 'all statutory procedures and policy safeguards for the protection of tribal communities have been duly complied with in the Great Nicobar Island Project. Necessary consultations were undertaken with competent authorities and domain experts, including the Anthropological Survey of India, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and other stakeholders, in line with the Jarawa Policy, 2004, and Shompen Policy, 2015. This is entirely false," Ramesh said.
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs as the nodal agency for implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, must take serious note of the "flagrant violation" of the rights of tribal communities and due processes under that historic law in the case of the Great Nicobar Island Project and take credible remedial action immediately, the Congress leader demanded in his letter.
"The Gram Sabha has necessarily to (i) consider any proposal for diversion of forest lands in which tribal communities live; (i) certify that their claims under the FRA, 2006 have been settled; and only thereafter (iii) consent to the diversion of such forest lands, if indeed that is its decision. The Hon'ble Supreme Court in the Niyamgiri judgment of April 18, 2023, held that such consent is mandatory under the FRA, 2006," he pointed out.
However, for the diversion of more than 13,000 hectares of forest lands for the Great Nicobar project, which includes the traditional, ancestral lands of the Nicobarese and Shompen settlements, the island administration admits to convening gram sabhas of the settler communities in Campbell Bay, Laxmi Nagar and Govind Nagar on August 12, 2022, he said.
The resolutions of these gram sabhas of the settler communities are cited as consent of the gram sabhas under the FRA, 2006, Ramesh noted.
"The illegality in the above exercise is patent and self-explanatory. Only the Nicobarese and Shompen scheduled tribes are entitled to settlement of individual and community rights under the FRA, 2006," he said. Further, the local administration claims that an "NOC" signed by the Chairman of the Tribal council of the Little and Great Nicobar, as part of the proceedings of the Sub-Committee (SLDC) dated August 13, 2022, amounts to obtaining divisional-level consent ot the entire Nicobarese tribe in Great Nicobar, he said.
"Such contention is in contravention of the FRA, 2006. No single person can accord consent on behalf of an entire community that is entitled the rights provided for in FRA, 2006. It is also relevant to note that the Chairman himself later wrote to various authorities including your office on November 22, 2022, withdrawing the 'NOC'. However, this extra-statutory 'NOC' continues to be cited as consent of the Nicobarese," Ramesh wrote.
"The Shompen, as you are aware, are a semi-nomadic group of hunter gatherers in the Great Nicobar Island. They are classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) and their habitat, way of life etc. are protected. The A&N administration has claimed that an officer of the Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti (AAJVS) has consented on behalf of the Shompen tribe. The law does not permit such proxy consent," he asserted.
Besides, there is also a serious conflict of interest arising out of an overlap between the top leadership of the AAJVS and ANIIDCO (Andaman and Nicobar Islands Development Corporation), which is the project proponent in the first place, Ramesh argued.
The certificate dated August 18, 2022, issued by the Nicobar district deputy commissioner, relies on the above fraudulent "consent" and goes on to certify that all rights under the FRA, 2006, have been settled, he said.
"You are aware that even the committees for implementation of the FRA, 2006 in the Great Nicobar Island did not exist prior to July 26, 2022, when the committees under the FRA, 2006 were constituted for the first time. The fact is that the process of settlement of rights has not even commenced. The certificate dated August 18, 2022, is, therefore, patently false," he said.
Incidentally, the FAQs mentions the Jarawa policy, when it is well known that the Jarawas do not live on Great Nicobar Island, Ramesh said.
The Nicobarese, now living in tsunami relief colonies, have been writing repeatedly to the authorities expressing their wish to return to their ancestral, traditional lands and requesting the administration to facilitate their return, but nothing has come of these requests, he said.
"In sum, I urge you as Minister of Tribal Affairs to direct the Andaman and Nicobar administration to withdraw (i) the certificate dated August 18, 2022; (ii) the SDLC proceedings dated August 13, 2022; and (iii) the illegal gram sabha resolutions of the non-tribals of August 12, 2022," Ramesh said.
The FRA 2006 must be implemented in letter and spirit, in provisions and processes in a transparent and accountable manner, the Congress leader asserted.
The letter to Oram comes days after Ramesh wrote to Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, criticising the use of baseline studies instead of a comprehensive environmental impact assessment (EIA) from the Great Nicobar Project. He claimed that the Great Nicobar Island development project would "destroy" the unique ecosystem there, and urging him to pause, reflect, and revisit the venture in its present design and detail.
He also demanded that the report of the National Green Tribunal-mandated high-power committee (HPC) be made public.
The opposition party claimed that the Modi government is "rattled" and in damage control mode after Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi's recent visit to Great Nicobar.
During his visit to Great Nicobar in the last week of April, Gandhi alleged that the Great Nicobar project at Campbell Bay in Andaman and Nicobar Islands was "one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against the natural and tribal heritage of the country." The Centre on May 1 released a detailed statement with answers to FAQs (frequently asked questions).
"The Great Nicobar Project is a strategic initiative to strengthen India's presence in the Andaman Sea. It seeks to balance port-led growth with calibrated environmental safeguards. Protection of indigenous communities remains central to its planning," the government statement read.