Rahul Gandhi. File | Photo Credit: Neither
The leader of the congress Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, wrote to the Minister of the tribal affairs Jual Oram about the alleged violation of the Forest Rights Act in the forest of the 72,000 Crore project Nicobar Island Mega Infrastructure.
In August Tribal Council of Little and Great Nicobar emphasized these violations in a letter to Mr. Oram, saying that Andaman and Nicobar Islands administrations in August 2022 performed false representation, as mentioned last month, and how they were reported last month. The Council, the key representative body of Nicobarese people, says that no processes under the FRA have even launched on the islands.
“No representation”
The members of the Council also added that the Gram Sabha meeting, where their consent was reportedly accepted in August 2022, had no representation of Nicoboy people or Shompen people. The records claim that they were represented by social security organizations directly under the control of the local administration. Months after this consent was allegedly accepted, the tribal council wrote a letter to which the consent was.
The proposed project Great Nicobar Island will include a translation port, airport, power plant and a black neighborhood. Local tribe has raised several fears, including the deviation of almost 13,075 hectares of forest land for the project and its impact on vulnerable groups.
Ignoring the dialogue
The tribes, which are waiting to answer the Minister of the tribal affairs of their complaint, also wrote to Mr. Gandhi and emphasized the government “ignoring” for involvement in the dialogue with them about the provision of the projects of the project. In this letter, the members of the Council noted that the rejection of the government with them was “painful and unacceptable”.
Mr. Gandhi attached these complaints on Wednesday (September 3, 2025) to Mr. Oram and urged him to explore the advice of the Council. “I write to express my profound concerns about the violation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in granting the permission for the Great Nicobar project … Any development initiative must be based on our constitutional values of justice, equality and respect for human dignity,” wrote the leader of Congress. The leader of Congress wrote and performed the true spirit “.
Soon after taking over the leadership in 2024, Mr. Oram told Hindu that his ministry would deal with questions evoked by the Council. At the beginning of this year, he said that their concerns were “examined” without offering further details.
No Fra implementation
Tribal Council claims that only this year was informed of the certificate of August 2022 issued by the Deputy Commissioner for Nicobar, which indicates that the FRA processes have been launched and completed by law.
However, the tribal council claims that no process under the FRA has launched on the islands. This is supported by monthly reports to the Ministry of Mistal Affairs in FRA, where it claimed that in 2023 it did not have to carry out FRAs on the islands, because forests that already in 2023 reported the protection of the native tribes of 1956.
While the 1956 law gives the administrators of the islands the power to unilaterally deepen the tribal forest land, FRA provides the mechanism of consent to divert forest land. At that time, the National Commission for Planned Tribes also indicated suspected FRA violations. The High Court in Kalcato is now also hearing the petition of demanding permission obtained for the infrastructure project.
Published – 4 September 2025 20:26
