Ancient tribes, military, trade and China's rise meet on this island

Shompen people shun the outside world and live in the dense forest on Great Nicobar Island. (Anthropological Survey of India) Link copiedShareShare articleBulldozers are tearing through ancient forests home to some of the last remaining isolated people on Earth. Championed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ambitious $12.5 billion Great Nicobar Island Project in the eastern Indian Ocean is forging ahead, designed to counter China's regional rise, bolster military capability and capitalise on trade. Mr Modi said last year the project was "of strategic, defence and national importance" and would transform the region into a "major hub of maritime and air connectivity". The three-phase project has been planned for years and is expected to be completed by 2047, with phase one set to be completed by 2035. Preliminary works are believed to have started last year, however concerns remain for one of the last largely uncontacted tribes on Earth and the endemic species that rely on the island's delicate ecosystem. Here's what we know about the island, the Shompen people, the project and concerns surrounding it. The island is part of an archipelago in the Andaman Sea, in the Indian Ocean, sitting roughly 40 nautical miles from the Strait of Malacca. About 30 per cent of global trade passes through the strait, including significant amounts of China's oil and gas supplies. The island is home to roughly 9,000 people, including 1,200 from indigenous groups including the Nicobarese and the Shompen. Indigenous rights organisation Survival International says the 300 or so Shompen are hunter-gatherers who shun contact with the outside. It estimates they have been on the island for some 10,000 years. The Shompen language has never been fully translated, with communities choosing to stay away from outsiders. (Survival©) It says the Nicobarese on the island live in communal houses of between 20 and 30 people, and are better integrated with settler communities. Very few Shompen have contact with their Nicobarese neighbours or the outside world, with permits required from local island authorities to visit them. Great Nicobar Island is also home to dozens of endemic species according to UNESCO, and a nesting spot for the endangered leatherback turtle, the largest sea turtle in the world. Roughly 95 per cent of the 910 square kilometre island is forest, with much of the island's coast encircled by lagoons and coral reefs. The island's waters and forests are home to species found nowhere else in the world. (R.Satish Babu/AFP) Nearly one fifth of the island will be cleared for the massive project. The government estimates some 711,000 trees will be cleared, but some conservationists put the number in the millions. The first phase will include a $5.5 billion port at Galathea Bay, on the south-eastern coast of the island, and airport at Campbell Bay. The Indian government has talked up the economic potential of the port, shown here in an artist's impression. (X: Indian Ministry of Ports) Once finished, the container port will handle more than 20 million twenty-foot equivalent units, making it one of India's three largest ports. The archipelago's governor, former navy admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi, said it could eventually compete with Singapore and Malaysia's Port Klang. The government has already flagged expanding existing defence facilities to turn them into dual military and civilian use. Roads are already being built through the rainforest on the island. (AFP: R. Satish Babu) Gautam Chikermane, from New Dehli's Observer Research Foundation think tank, said the project offered India significant defence and economic benefits. "Located just 40 nautical miles from the Malacca Strait, through which about 30 per cent of global trade and significant oil flows pass, the island offers a strategic 'unsinkable carrier' position," Mr Chikermane told the ABC. "It enables naval monitoring, deterrence against choke point weaponisation, extends Andaman and Nicobar Command [armed forces] coverage, and secures India's energy imports and exports in the Indo-Pacific region. "It could anchor India's role and position in the Indo-Pacific." The plans would significantly change Great Nicobar Island. (Supplied: Nabil Naidu) In addition to the port, a gas-solar power plant, hotels, and a town across 161 square kilometres is set to be built. The island's population is projected to grow from 9,000 people today to 336,000 by 2055. Tourism projections anticipate 98,000 visitors by 2029, and more than 1 million by 2055. Some locals are not convinced about the project's merits. "If we lose control of these lands, our culture too will be lost," the Nicobarese's most senior leader, 54-year-old Barnabas Manju, told AFP. The Indian government insists that indigenous people on the island will be protected from the development. (AFP: R. Satish Babu) Director of research and advocacy at Survival International, Sophie Grig, told

Ancient tribes, military, trade and China's rise meet on this island

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