Former civil servants writes to NCST against infra project in Great Nicobar island

New Delhi: A group of 70 former civil servants on Tuesday sought the intervention of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes on the proposed mega infrastructure project in the Great Nicobar island and its environmental implications.

In an open letter, they raised concerns not only on the environmental and ecological destruction that the project is likely to wreak, "but about the fate of the two groups of tribal people that the island of Great Nicobar harbours".

The former civil servants said they had on January 27 written an open letter to the President of India on the proposed port and container terminal on the island of Great Nicobar that will virtually destroy the unique ecology of this island and the habitat of vulnerable tribal groups.

"But neither our letter, nor the very many others written by other individuals and groups, about the flaws in the environment and forest clearances, seem to have had any effect in making the Government of India re-examine the project," the letter said.

It is only very recently that the National Green Tribunal has ordered a closer look at some of the environmental issues raised, it said in the open letter to the chairperson and members of the NCST. They said the project will be "extremely detrimental" to the Shompen -- a particularly vulnerable tribal group which stands to lose much of its traditional forest foraging grounds-- and the southern Great Nicobarese -- a scheduled tribe, who have already been badly affected by the tsunami of 2004, having had to move out from their ancestral villages and resettle closer to the administrative hub of the island.

"We are aware that in this major matter of a mega project coming up in the Great Nicobar, displacing the vulnerable tribes from their traditional forest and tribal reserve areas, this consultation has not been done," said the letter written under the aegis of the Constitutional Conduct Group (CCG).

Seventy signatories include former health secretary K Sujatha Rao and former coal secretary Chandrashekar Balakrishnan, among others.

They said a notice had been sent on April 20 by the Commission to the Andaman and Nicobar administration asking it to explain the facts of the matter within 15 days.

This letter was sent on a complaint made by E A S Sarma, a former secretary in the Union Ministry of Finance , and an expert on tribal matters, the letter said.

"We would like to add our voice to that of Dr Sarma and of the many others who have expressed their concern about the many flaws in the clearances given and the damage that the displacement will cause to the tribal groups. We hope you will look into this matter thoroughly and ensure that a project meant for the holistic development of Great Nicobar does not result in the immiseration and ultimate extinction of these highly vulnerable tribal communities, whose original and only home the island is," it added.

The former civil servants said several people have written to the government objecting to the use of tribal reserve land for the project, among them the anthropologists of the Indian Anthropological Association.

They wrote to the Andaman Nicobar Pollution Control Committee ahead of the public hearing, stressing the need to take great care when clearing the project, particularly where it concerned the lands of the Shompen and the Great Nicobarese.

"They emphasised the damage that would occur if the project came too close to the dwellings or foraging grounds of the Shompen. They too mentioned that the Nicobarese were anxious to return to their pre-tsunami settlements. Yet all these calls for caution have gone unheeded and the project has been cleared despite the damage it will cause to these defenceless tribal people," the letter added.