Great Nicobar tribe faces genocide if mega project goes ahead, experts write to President Murmu [Video]

Indian President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday (February 21) visited the Great Nicobar Island — which is set to be transformed into a shipping hub. President Murmu’s visit comes a few days after a group of scholars wrote to the her, raising concern for the lives of an uncontacted indigenous tribe.

According to experts, the development of a container port in Galathea Bay on the Great Nicobar Island will be “a death sentence” for the Shompen Tribe.

In the letter, the 39 experts said, “The Indigenous Shompen people of India’s Great Nicobar Island will face genocide if the plan to turn their island into the ‘Hong Kong of India’ goes ahead.”

These experts have appealed to the Government of India to “urgently cancel all plans for the Great Nicobar Mega Project,” in a letter to the president. The project also involves the development of the Greenfield International Container Transshipment Port (GICTP).

Image: Survival Interantional

According …