Even as the Calcutta High Court is set to hear objections to the Great Nicobar Island (GNI) Center project on allegations that the Forest Rights Act was violated while seeking consent from local residents, the Nicobar Tribal Council has now highlighted another violation of the law in a government notification on three wildlife sanctuaries on Little Nicobar, Menchal and Mero islands.
The Union Government in October 2022 notified these three parts of Nicobar Island and small sanctuaries, Nicobar Islands, Nicobar Islands, Conserve Islands, Nicobar Islands Sanctuary and their nesting habitat. Menchal Island – all north of HND.
However, since August 2022, the Tribal Council of Little and Great Nicobar has written to the Union Government and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Administration that the process of denotifying these sanctuaries has been initiated without informing their community members who have been living and maintaining these islands for generations.
In a letter to the Assistant Conservator of Forests of the Nicobar Forest Division on April 23 this year, the tribal council reiterated that the three sanctuaries at Little Nicobar Island, Meroe and Menchal were notified without any consultation with the residents and traditional owners and administrators of the islands. The council noted that of the three sites, the islands of Meroe and Menchal have “high cultural and spiritual significance” for the Nicobarese; they believe that the places are home to the spirits of their ancestors.
The council was responding to a notice of a meeting of a committee set up to establish an ecologically sensitive zone around the three sanctuaries – the leatherback turtle reserve in parts of LNI, the megapod reserve in the whole of Menchal Island and the coral reserve in the whole of Meroe Island. In the letter, the council said its chairman was not consulted before the committee was set up – he was only told he was part of the committee a month later.
The council said that the notification of these shrines should be canceled and the Environmentally Sensitive Zones Committee should be disbanded as it was against the will of the community.
Jairam Ramesh writes to the Minister
Meanwhile, on Wednesday (May 13, 2026), Congress leader and former environment minister Jairam Ramesh wrote to Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram that clearance procedures under the Forest Rights Act were violated in the case of the HND project. Consent was sought through the Gram Sabhas, which represented settler families, when it should have been sought through the tribal council of the Nicobar communities, who are the people who are entitled to forest land under the FRA.
He also questioned how the government-controlled Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti could grant approval for the project on behalf of the Shompen, a particularly vulnerable tribal group. Mr. Ramesh urged Mr. Oram to intervene and get the A&NI administration to withdraw the permissions granted under the Act.
Also read | Confusion over clearance for the Great Nicobar project persists
A few days ago, Mr. Ramesh also wrote to Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav saying that the project’s environmental impact studies at GNI were rushed and did not include detailed studies over multiple seasons as required by law.
A village in the dark
In 2022, even before the A&NI administration called Special Gram Sabhas to seek approval to divert forest land in Great Nicobar Island for the project, the administration in April of that year announced its intention to declare wildlife sanctuaries for corals, megapods and leatherback turtles in the three islands. In May, the administration sought objections or claims to these lands and on 19 July the Nicobar Deputy Commissioner issued an order confirming that there were no objections to the notification and that no claims to the lands had been received.
That year, in August, the Tribal Council of Little and Great Nicobar wrote to the district administration, noting that the July 19 order was issued without ensuring that notification of the sanctuary plans reached the people of Little Nicobar Island. The council said no notice calling for objections or land claims as required by law had been made in the villages of Little Nicobar or in Rajiv Nagar in Great Nicobar.
The council explained that the Nicobarese have a traditional belief system handed down by their ancestors “through which we administer the islands of Meroe and Menchal”. “We have a deep respect for these islands because they are inhabited by the ancient spirits of our ancestors. Our customs and practices have ensured that the integrity of all life on these islands remains intact,” the council said. He added that they were never asked how they managed to keep these wildlife species intact on their beaches and remote islands “which we own and use as residential and plantation assets”.
Read more: Tribal people’s forest rights not settled for Nicobar project: council
The council further said Little Nicobar Island’s beaches, which have been declared part of the leatherback turtle sanctuary, are actually owned by the villages of Bahua, Muhincoihn and Kiyang along the west coast of the island, adding that none of the residents of those villages were consulted about the plans.
However, in October 2022, three sanctuaries were announced by the administration.
Permanent opposition
Since then, the Tribal Council has been consistently writing to the local authorities and the Union Government about their opposition to the declaration of the three wildlife sanctuaries, claiming that it would encroach on their pre-existing rights in these lands, which they exercise to conduct ritual hunts, maintain plantations, worship their ancestors and protect the wildlife species around them.
Objecting to the proposed Island Coastal Regulatory Zone plans for the three nature reserves, the council noted that the plans indicated possible ecotourism activities on the islands that “we don’t want on our islands”. In those November 2024 objections, the council also provided a list of what the islands really needed, including provisions for clean public toilets, community facilities, piers, footpaths, circular water wells and cell towers, among other infrastructure.
In an attempt to respond to concerns raised by the tribal council, the Nicobar administration issued a “clarification” in May 2025, stating that the declaration of the three sanctuaries would not affect the “hunting rights granted to the Scheduled Tribes of the Nicobar Islands”. A month later, the Tribal Council wrote again to the administration and reiterated its objection to the tabernacles.
Life’s miseries
The council added: “We do not only use the coasts and forests of our islands for hunting – we depend on them to harvest forest crops, wood for huts and canoes and medicinal plants. There are many trees, rocks etc. which are our places of worship and where we celebrate our festivals. Menchal and Meroe are actually also primary areas with the exception of the South Nicobar coconut resource area, so by being for South Nicobar were not enough, no ban is enough.”
Earlier this month, a Bench comprising the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court dismissed preliminary objections raised by the Union government on petitions alleging violation of the Forest Rights Act in diverting forest land in the GNI for its project. The court referred the matter to the final hearing in June this year.
Published – 13 May 2026 22:27 IST
