Resettlement census to begin to make way for Great Nicobar project

📌 Summary:

• The Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration has notified the start of a Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) census in Great Nicobar Island to make way for the trunk-infrastructure component of the Centre's Rs 92,000 crore mega-project (container transshipment port, international airport and a tourist township)
• A public notice by the Office of the Assistant Commissioner, Campbell Bay (June 9, 2026) stated that document verification for the R&R census would begin on June 10 at the recreation hall in Kamal Basti
• Affected families were asked to keep about 24 types of documents ready for the census team
• The project has long drawn scrutiny over its ecological footprint (tropical rainforest, coral reefs, leatherback turtle nesting sites) and its impact on indigenous communities (the particularly vulnerable Shompen and the Nicobarese)

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 (environment, EIA, development vs. conservation, strategic infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific) and GS1/GS2 (rights of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, tribal displacement, FRA). A classic development-versus-environment-and-tribal-rights case study.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• Great Nicobar is the southernmost island of the Andaman and Nicobar group; its southern tip is Indira Point, India's southernmost point
• Home to the Shompen and Nicobarese — the Shompen are a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG)
• The island hosts the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, with Campbell Bay and Galathea National Parks; Galathea Bay is a key leatherback turtle nesting site
• Project cost: ~Rs 92,000 crore (port, airport, township, power plant)

🔑 Key Term: Rehabilitation and Resettlement (R&R) — the legally mandated process of compensating, relocating and re-establishing livelihoods of people displaced by a development project (governed in India largely by the LARR Act, 2013).