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A tribe’s crisis highlights an Asian dilemma – survival or development?
The indigenous Shompen tribe faces an existential threat from a port, resort and naval base. But can any country afford to be sentimental when national priorities are at stake?
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The Shompen live in the forested interior of Great Nicobar Island. They won’t survive the destruction of their homeland.
PHOTO: ANTHROPOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA
On an island in the Bay of Bengal that sits strategically close to one of the most vital sea lanes of communication, a human drama is unfolding that goes to the heart of a dilemma: How to balance development and survival.
Recent weeks have seen much attention focused on a tribe of hunter-gatherers called Shompens, who live on Great Nicobar Island at the southern end of the Andaman and Nicobar chain of which the northern part is under Myanmar control and the southern half is with India.
