Ecoclub GeoFocus™

India's President Murmu flew to Great Nicobar on February 20th, 2024 to review works progress for the Great Nicobar Island Development Project, a USD 10bn+ mega infrastructure defence, transhipment, trade, tourism and real estate project. Sparsely populated, rainforest-covered, Great Nicobar (area 921 sq. km.), is the home of around 300 uncontacted indigenous Shompen people (recognised by India as a "Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group") who are dispersed in the island's lush interior, a Biosphere Reserve with endemic, endangered species. Earlier in February 2024, 39 genocide experts wrote to President Mumu stressing that if the island becomes "India's Hong Kong" it will be a death sentence for the Shompen. The island, the southernmost of India's Nicobar Islands, lies right on Indian Ocean's East-West shipping route. Can the global growth-worshipping system, corporate profits, or ambitious nationalists put the lives of 300 indigenous people and biodiversity first? Given the way governments just ignore genocide warnings these days it seems only a miracle or geopolitics can save the Shompen, perhaps dressed as environmentalism/humanitarianism.