‘Great Nicobar Trunk rd will spur jobs, but sacrifice trees'

Hindustan Times

10 hours ago

New Delhi: The Trunk Infrastructure Road that will cut through Great Nicobar Island (GNI) and connect all villages on it, will lead to large scale employment, facilitate business and also make 'unconnected areas on the route prosper,' the draft social impact assessment (SIA) study for the project claimed.
The draft, published on A&N administration's Directorate of Social Welfare website this week added that a large number of trees will need to be felled for the road and that tribal populations of Shompen and Nicobarese have agreed to land diversion for the road.
'As per the project report, there was no alternative location for the proposed Trunk Infrastructure Road Project which would involve less land acquisition,' the draft SIA said.
'The Trunk Infrastructure Road will link all villages in GNI , making movement of people and goods smoother. Better connectivity of all the villages will lay the foundation for large scale employment opportunities for the local people along with development of the area. It will facilitate business activities and will contribute towards all the villages and the hitherto internal and unconnected areas on the route to prosper. Moreover, the upcoming Green Field International Airport, International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT), Township Development, etc., will also require a proper road network for its proper functioning,' the report stated.
The road through the island is part of an ambitious effort to develop it as a logistics hub, with an airport, container terminal, township, and power plant, at a total cost of ₹81,834.22 crore.
The draft SIA , prepared by Ranchi based Atlas Management Consultancy Services Private Limited, also claims that the Shompen and the Nicobarese, the two tribal groups who reside and forage different parts of the island, have agreed to land diversion for the trunk road.
'These people from the tribal community had their opinion on the way they wanted to lead their lives. The Nicobarese were more affable in comparison to the Shompens. However, like their other non-tribal counterparts, people from these tribal communities stated that they were not averse to any development work in the island, including the proposed Trunk Infrastructure Road (main road and subsidiary roads) Project. As such, they preferred to settle along the coast line and for that they also used the present road network in the island,' the draft SIA added.
It also claims that the road project will not impact their way of life.
'As none of the proposed roads were infringing on their way of life, they expressed support for the Trunk Project. They said that so long as living in the jungle in a natural surroundings, hunting and fishing was not adversely affected, they had no objection,' it said.
The SIA has been conducted only for six revenue villages where private land is proposed for acquisition. A total of 80.0302 hectares of private land was proposed to be acquired for the said Trunk Infrastructure Road Project in Campbell Bay, Govind Nagar, Joginder Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Laxmi Nagar and Gandhi Nagar.
According to a a notification issued by the directorate of social welfare, A&N administration on April 11, a total of 666.44 hectares is likely to be impacted by the trunk infrastructure.
'While the report gets into great details of private land to be acquired from the six revenue villages, complete with maps, nowhere does it give out any details about the extent of the road that passes through protected areas and Tribal Reserve areas,' said a researcher who has worked in the islands.
'The authors of the report claim to have conducted detailed deliberations with Shompen and Nicobarese but the Chairman of the Tribal Council is not aware of any of it. It says that none of the areas to be acquired are individually owned by the Shompen and Nicobarese, but that is because they each have their unique traditional land ownership systems which are supposed to be protected by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation and the Forest Rights Act,' added this person, asking not to be named.
Anthropologists have cautioned that such a road project needs the consent of tribal communities and forest dwellers such as the Shompen and the Nicobarese who are likely to be impacted by it.
'It's important to understand how such a multi-infrastructure project impacts the Nicobarese and the Shompen. We know that the Andaman trunk route had a huge impact on the Jarawas, exposing them to several negative sides of tourism and access. Such a trunk route could erode the Shompen culture. If at all, a road can connect the Nicobarese and Shompen villages because they have a symbiotic relationship. It's also very important to have the actual consent of these tribal communities,' Anstice Justin, a Nicobarese anthropologist based on Port Blair said in May when HT reported that the Andaman and Nicobar Administration had invited financial bids to conduct a social impact assessment for land proposed to be acquired for the Trunk route.
'This is a draft report. Normally, 21 days time is given for public comments. All community members have been consulted,' said an office bearer of Atlas Management Consultancy Services.
The draft SIA concludes that 'without any doubt t, the proposed acquisition of 80.0302 hectares of private land for the construction of the Trunk Infrastructure Road is beneficial to all stakeholders with minimal net adverse bearing on cost to any of them, if adequate and timely compensation is imparted to all the deserving stakeholders.'
'In the name of infringement on native and tribal life and exploitation of resources, the people of GNI cannot be abandoned to the vagaries of nature and left uncared for, to suffer impoverishment, deprivation and exploitation,' the report concluded.
The A&N administration did not respond to queries from HT on how it plans to minimise the impact of greater exposure, tourism and traffic on the Shompen and Nicobarese.
The Nicobar Islands fall within the Sundaland Biodiversity Hotspot, covering the western half of the Indonesian archipelago.
Bhupender Yadav, union environment minister said in August last year that 'exemplary mitigation measures' have been incorporated in the Great Nicobar Holistic Development project to minimise the environmental impact of the project, 'keeping the strategic, national and defence interests' in mind.