‘Revoke Social Impact Analysis Report on Greater Nicobar Int. Airport, Review Project’

New Delhi: Former top bureaucrat EAS Sarma has written to the authorities in Andamans & Nicobar Island flagging his objections to the “legality” of the ‘Social Impact Analysis’ (SIA) report of the Greater Nicobar International Airport Project.

In a letter addressed to the social welfare department, A & N Administration, Sarma demanded the immediate revocation of the report. He wrote that “report fails to evaluate the impact of the project on the interests of the local tribals, namely, the Shompens and the Nicobarese and the so-called “public hearing” notified by you ignores the interests of the Shompens and Nicobarese, whose homeland the Great Nicobar Island is.  

The report has been uploaded seeking public comments.

Sarma said he had pointed out in an earlier letter that the A&N administration “ought to have consulted the National Commission for the Scheduled Tribes (NCST) on taking up such a huge project that would have multi-faceted impacts on the local tribals and their lives, as required under Article 338A(9). Failure to do so would violate the letter and spirit of that Article.”

Read the full letter below:

To

Social Welfare Dept

A&N Administration 

Sir,

I refer to the “Social Impact Analysis” study published by you at https://www.andaman.gov.in/admin-pannel/whatsnew/1-2433-Draft%20SIA%20Report.pdf.In that connection, I had already raised objections against the legality of the study vide my letter dated 8-6-2024 (https://countercurrents.org/2024/06/social-impact-assessment-sia-report-for-greater-nicobar-international-airport-violates-the-an-pat-regulation-1956/). 
Prima facie, the SIA study, undertaken under the provisions of the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (RFCTLARR) Act, 2013, apart from its being sketchy and incomplete, violates the A&N Islands Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation (ANIPATR), as it fails to evaluate the impact of the project on the interests of the local tribals, namely, the Shompens and the Nicobarese and the so-called “public hearing” notified by you ignores the interests of the Shompens and Nicobarese, whose homeland the Great Nicobar Island is.  

I write this letter in continuation of the above.

The A&N Administration approved detailed guidelines on “Policy on Shompen Tribe of Great Nicobar Island” vide its gazetted notification No. 89/2015/F 1-892/2009-TW/557 dated 22-5-2015 (https://tribal.nic.in/downloads/PVTG/The%20Andaman%20and%20Nicobar%20Gazette%20dated%2022-05-2015%20-%20Policy%20on%20Shompen%20Tribes%20of%20Great%20Nicobar%20Island.pdf). 

Para 6.3 of the said notification states as follows:

“With regard to large scale development proposals in the future for Great Nicobar Island such as transshipment container terminal etc., the welfare and integrity of the shompen community should be given priority and be reviewed in consultation with the Department of Tribal Welfare and Andaman Administration Janjati Vikas Samiti and the Ministry of Tribal Affairs“

Evidently, the Social Welfare Department has failed to comply with the above requirement. Had it considered the welfare and the integrity of the Shompen tribe, which is a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), it would have obtained expert views from anthropologists familiar with the socio-economic concerns of the local tribals and, in particular, the views of the Tribal Council of Great Nicobar Island, before proceeding with the preparation of the SIA study at a high cost to the public exchequer.

In fact, the Tribal Council of Great Nicobar Island, in their letter of 22-11-2022 (enclosed) addressed to the A&N Administration, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (Forest Conservation Division) and the Commissioner cum Secretary (Environment and Forests), Union Territory Administration of A&N Islands, expressed their objection to the setting up of the proposed Mega Infrastructure Project (including the airport), saying that the authorities had earlier “rushed them” into signing a “No Objection” letter on the basis of misleading information and, after careful consideration among their members, they would revoke that No-Objection letter. 

In my letter dated 14-4-2023 addressed to the President of India (https://countercurrents.org/2023/04/mega-infrastructure-project-in-great-nicobar-island-need-to-consult-the-shompens-and-nicobarese/), I did bring this fact to Rashtrapatiji’s attention. 

As already pointed out by me in my earlier letter, the A&N administration ought to have consulted the National Commission for the Scheduled Tribes (NCST) on taking up such a huge project that would have multi-faceted impacts on the local tribals and their lives, as required under Article 338A(9). Failure to do so would violate the letter and spirit of that Article. 

It is unfortunate that the A&N administration should ignore the fact that it is the Shompens and Nicobarese who inhabited Greater Nicobar Island for generations, long, long before outsiders intruded their space and made inroads into their pristine habitat. Instead of playing its role as the custodian of the interests of the tribals, the A&N administration seems to be ironically sidelining them, knowing well that their numbers are far too small for them to be able to raise their voice, that they would find it difficult to understand a “social impact study” that ignores their existence and published faraway from their homes, and in a language that cannot be understood by them. 

I earnestly appeal to each and every member of the A&N administration, and all those who have insensitively taken it upon themselves the responsibility to push through such a huge project unilaterally, to ponder over this carefully in order to understand the extent of injustice that the administration would be meting out to such tribal communities, sheltered in their forest habitat, unaware of how the administration is planning projects that will disturb the tranquillity of their inherited space and natural habitat.

May I therefore request you to revoke the SIA study forthwith and review the project so as to accord the highest priority to the welfare and integrity of the Shompens, as also the Nicobarese.

Yours sincerely,

E A S Sarma

Former Secretary to the Government of India

Courtesy: Countercurrents.org