“The forest is our supermarket,” says Anstice Justin. “We get almost everything from the forests on these islands. It is what we survive on.”
Mr Justin, an anthropologist, has grown up in the Andaman and Nicobar islands straddling India’s east coast. A federally-administered territory, the ecologically-fragile region consists 836 islands, of which only 38 are inhabited. The Nicobar Islands are a distinct group of islands in the southern part of the territory, located some 150 km (93 miles) south of the Andaman Island.
Now Mr Justin watches with trepidation as India plans a multi-billion ‘Hong Kong-like’ development project on the Great Nicobar Island, one of the largest and most secluded parts of the Nicobar archipelago.
Built on a budget of 720bn rupees ($9bn or £6bn) and spread over 166 sq km, the project includes a transshipment harbour, a power plant, an airport and a new township, all designed to link the area to crucial global trade routes along the Indian Ocean and the Suez Canal.
Positioned near the Strait of Malacca, one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, the project promises to boost international trade and tourism – the government reckons that some 650,000 people will be living on the island by the time the project is completed in 30 years.
Experts say the multi-billion plan is also a part of India’s larger goal to counter China’s growing influence in the region.
But the scheme has sparked alarm among the islanders who fear the loss of their land, culture, and way of life, with the project threatening to push them to the brink of extinction.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are home to some of the most isolated and vulnerable tribes in the world, with five groups classified as “particularly vulnerable.”
These include the Jarawas, North Sentinelese, Great Andamanese, Onge, and Shompen. While the Jarawas and North Sentinelese remain largely uncontacted, the Shompen – some 400 people – of the Great Nicobar Islands are also at risk of losing their way of life due to external pressures.
A nomadic tribe, most of them live deep inside the forest where they forage for survival – not much is known about their culture as very few of them have ever had contact with the outside world.
“The loss will be especially huge and traumatic for them,” says Mr Justin, who has been documenting the island since 1985.
“Whatever we call development in the outside world is not of interest to them. They have a traditional life of their own.”
Environmentalists say there are also huge environmental costs of the project.
Spread across 921 sq km (355.6 sq miles), around 80% of the Great Nicobar island is covered with rainforests, which are home to more than 1,800 animals and 800 flora species, many of which are endemic.
The federal environment ministry has said that only 130 sq km or 14% of the total area of the island will be cleared for the project – but that’s still about 964,000 trees. Experts warn the actual number could be much higher.
“The government always claims only a part of the forest will be cleared. But the infrastructure you’re building would lead to more pollution, which in turn would impact the entire habitat,” says Madhav Gadgil, an ecologist.
The environment ministry did not respond to BBC’s request for comment.
But Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav in August had said that the project “will not disturb or displace” tribespeople and that it had received environmental clearances based on the “rigour of environmental scrutiny and after incorporating consequent safeguards”.
Yet, not everyone is convinced.
Earlier this year, 39 international experts from different fields of social sciences had warned that the development project would be a “death sentence” for the Shompen as it would destroy their habitat.
It’s a fear that haunts Mr Justin too: “The Shompen people do not have the knowledge or the means to survive in an industrial world,” he says.
He worries the group could meet the same fate as the Nicobarese, the biggest tribal group on the island, which suffered displacement in 2004, when a massive tsunami in the Indian Ocean wiped out their villages.
Over the years, the government made efforts to resettle the people to a different area – but that too came at a price.
“Most Nicobarese here are now manual labourers and stay in a settlement instead of their ancestral lands,” Mr Justin says. “They have no place to grow crops or keep animals.”
There are fears that the project could also expose the Shompen to diseases.
“Uncontacted peoples have little to no immunity to outside diseases like flu and measles which can and do wipe them out – they typically lose around two thirds of their population after contact,” says Callum Russell, an official at Survival International, a conservation group.
There are other wider environmental concerns as well, especially about the marine life of the region.
Ecologists warn of the effect on the Galathea Bay on the south-eastern side of the island, which has been the nesting place for giant leatherback sea turtles for centuries.
Dr Manish Chandi, a social ecologist, says the project will also affect saltwater crocodiles and the island’s water monitors, fish and avifauna.
A government statement has said these nesting and breeding grounds of these species would not be altered.
But Mr Chandi points out that there are several other species which nest in the area in large numbers. “The government is proposing to translocate corals in locations where they are not found naturally. What are they going to do with these other species?”
Even though the project would take 30 long years to finish, people can’t help but feel anxious about how it will irreversibly alter the delicate balance of both the environment and the lives of the island’s indigenous people.
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