#New Delhi: The Trunk #Infrastructure Road that can minimize by #Great Nicobar Island (GNI) and join all villages on it, will result in giant scale employment, facilitate enterprise and likewise make “unconnected areas on the route prosper,” the draft social influence evaluation (SIA) examine for the undertaking claimed. The highway by the island is a part of an formidable effort to develop it as a logistics hub, with an airport, container terminal, township, and energy plant. (AP/Representative picture) The draft, printed on A&N administration’s Directorate of Social Welfare web site this week added that numerous bushes will must be felled for the highway and that tribal populations of Shompen and Nicobarese have agreed to land diversion for the highway. “As per the project report, there was no alternative location for the proposed Trunk #Infrastructure Road Project which would involve less land acquisition,” the draft SIA mentioned. “The Trunk #Infrastructure Road will link all villages in GNI , making movement of people and goods smoother. Better connectivity of all the villages will lay the foundation for large scale employment opportunities for the local people along with development of the area. It will facilitate business activities and will contribute towards all the villages and the hitherto internal and unconnected areas on the route to prosper. Moreover, the upcoming Green Field International Airport, International Container Transhipment Terminal (ICTT), Township Development, etc., will also require a proper road network for its proper functioning,” the report said. The highway by the island is a part of an formidable effort to develop it as a logistics hub, with an airport, container terminal, township, and energy plant, at a complete price of ₹81,834.22 crore. The draft SIA , ready by #Ranchi based mostly Atlas Management Consultancy Services Private Limited, additionally claims that the Shompen and the Nicobarese, the 2 tribal teams who reside and forage totally different elements of the island, have agreed to land diversion for the trunk highway. “These people from the tribal community had their opinion on the way they wanted to lead their lives. The Nicobarese were more affable in comparison to the Shompens. However, like their other non-tribal counterparts, people from these tribal communities stated that they were not averse to any development work in the island, including the proposed Trunk #Infrastructure Road (main road and subsidiary roads) Project. As such, they preferred to settle along the coast line and for that they also used the present road network in the island,” the draft SIA added. It additionally claims that the highway undertaking is not going to influence their lifestyle. “As none of the proposed roads were infringing on their way of life, they expressed support for the Trunk Project. They said that so long as living in the jungle in a natural surroundings, hunting and fishing was not adversely affected, they had no objection,” it mentioned. The SIA has been carried out just for six income villages the place non-public land is proposed for acquisition. A complete of 80.0302 hectares of personal land was proposed to be acquired for the mentioned Trunk #Infrastructure Road Project in Campbell Bay, Govind Nagar, Joginder Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Laxmi Nagar and Gandhi Nagar. According to a a notification issued by the directorate of social welfare, A&N administration on April 11, a complete of 666.44 hectares is prone to be impacted by the trunk infrastructure. “While the report gets into great details of private land to be acquired from the six revenue villages, complete with maps, nowhere does it give out any details about the extent of the road that passes through protected areas and Tribal Reserve areas,” mentioned a researcher who has labored within the islands. “The authors of the report claim to have conducted detailed deliberations with Shompen and Nicobarese but the Chairman of the Tribal Council is not aware of any of it. It says that none of the areas to be acquired are individually owned by the Shompen and Nicobarese, but that is because they each have their unique traditional land ownership systems which are supposed to be protected by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation and the Forest Rights Act,” added this particular person, asking to not be named. Anthropologists have cautioned that such a highway undertaking wants the consent of tribal communities and forest dwellers such because the Shompen and the Nicobarese who’re prone to be impacted by it. “It’s important to understand how such a multi-infrastructure project impacts the Nicobarese and the Shompen. We know that the Andaman trunk route had a huge impact on the Jarawas, exposing them to several negative sides of tourism and access. Such a trunk route could erode the Shompen culture. If at all, a road can connect the Nicobarese and Shompen villages because they have a symbiotic relationship. It’s also very important to have the actual consent of these tribal communities,” Anstice Justin, a Nicobarese anthropologist based mostly on Port Blair mentioned in May when HT reported that the Andaman and Nicobar Administration had invited monetary bids to conduct a social influence evaluation for land proposed to be acquired for the Trunk route. “This is a draft report. Normally, 21 days time is given for public comments. All community members have been consulted,” mentioned an workplace bearer of Atlas Management Consultancy Services. The draft SIA concludes that “without any doubt t, the proposed acquisition of 80.0302 hectares of private land for the construction of the Trunk #Infrastructure Road is beneficial to all stakeholders with minimal net adverse bearing on cost to any of them, if adequate and timely compensation is imparted to all the deserving stakeholders.” “In the name of infringement on native and tribal life and exploitation of resources, the people of GNI cannot be abandoned to the vagaries of nature and left uncared for, to suffer impoverishment, deprivation and exploitation,” the report concluded. The A&N administration didn’t reply to queries from HT on the way it plans to minimise the influence of better publicity, tourism and visitors on the Shompen and Nicobarese. The Nicobar Islands fall inside the Sundaland Biodiversity Hotspot, protecting the western half of the Indonesian archipelago. Bhupender Yadav, union setting minister mentioned in August final 12 months that “exemplary mitigation measures” have been included within the Great Nicobar Holistic Development undertaking to minimise the environmental influence of the undertaking, “keeping the strategic, national and defence interests” in thoughts.

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