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With immoderate sections of the ₹92,000 crore Great Nicobar Island mega-infrastructure project “nearing approval”, members of the Tribal Council successful Little and Great Nicobar connected Thursday (January 22, 2026) alleged that they are being pressured by the territory medication to “surrender our ancestral lands” to marque mode for the project.
Parts of the task successful Galathea Bay, Pemmaya Bay, and Nanjappa Bay necessitate the diversion of wood lands connected which the indigenous Nicobarese radical had been surviving earlier the 2004 tsunami.
In an online briefing to journalists, Tribal Council members said they had been called for a January 7 gathering with Nicobar territory medication officials, wherever they were orally asked to motion a “surrender certificate”, giving up their ancestral tribal lands. Hours aft the briefing, they were summoned for different gathering wherever they were asked if they would springiness up their claims connected a information of their lands if they were allowed to resettle villages destroyed by the tsunami connected a antithetic conception of the coast.
The Deputy Commissioner of Nicobar, Amit Kale Marutirao, and Assistant Commissioner (Campbell Bay), Keshav Narendra Singh, person not responded to The Hindu’s requests for comment.
‘Nothing for aboriginal generations’
“At [the January 7] meeting, a fewer officials of the territory were contiguous on with a typical of the administration’s Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti. We were shown assorted maps regarding the project, and we were asked astir our sentiment connected the improvement project. And past we were asked to motion the surrender certificate,” Tribal Council president Barnabas Manju said, adding that the meeting, held astatine the Andaman Public Works Department guesthouse successful Nicobar’s Campbell Bay, lasted astir 10 minutes. The Tribal Council members told the officials that they would person to sermon it amongst themselves.
At the property briefing, Titus Peter, 1st Captain of Pulobhabi colony and a subordinate of the Council, said, “We cannot motion a surrender papers similar this. It is our ancestral tribal land. We volition person thing for the aboriginal generations.” Mr. Manju noted that it had been 21 years since they were displaced by the 2004 tsunami and are yet to perceive from the medication astir their requests to instrumentality to the determination of their ancestral villages that had been destroyed by the tsunami.
Surrender template
Council members said they were not told immoderate specifics astir the “surrender certificate”, though Mr. Manju noted that “the officials said they would assistance america draught it if needed.” The Tribal Council is the apex typical assemblage of the Nicobarese community, which is recognised arsenic a Scheduled Tribe.
Four days earlier the gathering with territory officials, a Council subordinate received a WhatsApp message, suggesting a template for a “surrender certificate” addressed to the Chief Secretary of the A&NI administration, and requesting a gathering to sermon the presumption for specified a surrender.
“It is not wide what parts of our ancestral onshore the officials are referring to. Our knowing is that they privation the surrender certificate to notation areas that are covered nether what utilized to beryllium our villages earlier we were displaced by the tsunami,” said Mr. Peter, pointing to the westbound seashore connected a representation of Great Nicobar Island. These villages see Chingenh successful Galathea Bay on the south-eastern coast; In Haeng loi successful Pemmaya Bay, and Kokeon, and Pulo Pakka successful Nanjappa Bay, some on the westbound seashore of the island.
Compromise offer
Hours aft the property conference, Tribal Council members were called for different gathering successful the Office of the Assistant Commissioner successful Campbell Bay. “At the meeting, we were told that Old Chingenh successful Galathea Bay is already going to beryllium subsumed by the project. We were asked if we would beryllium consenting to springiness up our demands for this portion successful Galathea Bay if the westbound seashore villages are re-settled. We were past told that different gathering volition hap by 28th of this month,” Mr. Manju told The Hindu connected Thursday (January 22, 2026) evening.
Earlier this week, the Union Shipping Ministry informed the A&NI medication of “ground visits” being planned for the International Container Transhipment Port conception of the project, which is “nearing approval”. Last week, countering a petition challenging the project’s wood clearances successful the Calcutta High Court, the Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change said that the Union Territory’s medication is yet to taxable compliance with each conditions acceptable retired successful the Stage-I clearance, which see the colony of wood rights. This compliance would beryllium indispensable for last support for the project, the Ministry said.
In August 2025, the Tribal Council had complained to Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram that the A&NI medication had made a “false representation” to the Centre astir having identified and settled the wood rights of section residents nether provisions of the Forest Rights Act successful 2022. In fact, FRA processes had “not adjacent been initiated,” the Council said.
“If the administration’s assertion that our wood rights person been settled is true, past wherefore are they asking america to motion documents similar a surrender certificate?” Mr. Manju asked connected Thursday (January 22, 2026).
Clearances challenged successful court
The Great Nicobar Island task includes a transhipment port, an airport, a powerfulness plant, and a township. The project, being developed by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation, volition beryllium taking up astir 13,000 hectares of wood onshore of the Great Nicobar Island, according to Government responses successful Parliament. While the biology clearances granted to the task are being challenged earlier a Bench of the National Green Tribunal, the situation to the wood clearances is being heard successful the Calcutta High Court.
Last November, the NGT reserved its bid connected the petitions challenging the biology clearances. The Calcutta High Court has posted the substance earlier it for “final hearing” successful the week opening March 30 this year.
Last year, erstwhile the Tribal Council wrote to the Union Tribal Affairs Minister, Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi had besides written to the Tribal Affairs Minister, seeking the government’s attraction to the demands of the radical that they beryllium relocated to their ancestral villages.
