Isolated island tribes should choose their own destinies, says Manish Chandi [Interview]

Manish Chandi, a former research scholar who has spent over two decades working on tribal communities speaks to Mongabay about the latest threats and activities affecting isolated and contacted tribes in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Isolated tribes face threats ranging from trawlers entering buffer waters and development projects planned in hunting grounds, to government perspectives that can limit their independence and capacity to decide their future on their own terms.
Chandi discusses the impact of curious outsiders trying to visit isolated tribes, how contact can affect different tribes differently and how to protect isolated peoples’ autonomy.

What to know about Isolated island tribes should choose their own destinies,

From above, the North Sentinel Island tribal reserve in India’s Andaman and Nicobar archipelago is a thick, unbroken patch of dark green — starkly surrounded by the shimmering coastal blue waters of its buffer zone.

On these shores, Sentinelese people, who live in voluntary isolation protected by a strict government no-contact policy, spear fish, hunt turtles and collect mollusks in shallow reefs surrounded by mangroves. The coastal reefs are intact ecosystems rich in fish life, say biologists.

“I have seen them [groups of men, women and children] foraging and collecting these food resources during low tide on several occasions,” says Manish Chandi, a tribal expert who has watched the island from afar. “The Sentinelese are aware of these as nutritious and sparsely available resources in such [mangrove] habitats, which are very few on and around the island.”

Like other tribal reserves on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, in the southeast of mainland India, North Sentinel Island is a biodiversity hotspot; and, like other tribal reserves, the isolated people who live there have attracted influencers and misunderstandings, says Chandi.

“Curiosity and ignorance regarding the islanders is quite high and understandably so amongst outsiders and [government] bureaucrats who have little association with the islands,” he tells Mongabay in an interview.

Isolated island tribes should choose their own destinies, says Manish Chandi [Interview] — The giant trees along the North Sentinel Island coastline are its first natural defence against storms and hold its coastal soil together. The shore is lined with sandy beaches and rocky shores, while the foreshore is dotted with coral reefs and mangroves — excellent nurseries for marine biodiversity. Image by Manish Chandi.

There are six recognised tribes living in the reserves and islands of the archipelago — some tribes have experienced full contact while others, such as Sentinelese and Shompen people, live in voluntary isolation. The Shompen in the Great Nicobar tribal reserve maintain minimal contact with officials but prevent outsiders from entering their reserve forests and remain clear on “non-interference and wanting interactions on their terms.”

In the Andaman Islands, the Ang people (also known as ‘Jarawa’) in the Jarawa tribal reserve maintain limited contact, while the Onge in their tribal reserve are settled and have ongoing interactions with the Andaman administration. The Great Andamanese, whose population greatly declined due to disease and colonisation, are fully contacted as are the Nicobarese of the Nicobar archipelago who are integrated into mainstream Indian society.

The isolated tribes, including those with limited contact, are facing potential threats, many of which are outside their control, says Chandi.

Near North Sentinel Island, fishers and trawlers are encroaching inside buffer waters and exploiting sharks, crabs and marine resources that Sentinelese people depend on, he says. In Great Nicobar Island, he adds, a planned large-scale development project overlaps with foraging and hunting lands of the Shompen people.

According to Chandi, many of the issues tribes face are grounded in social and governmental misunderstanding, through which relatively isolated peoples are viewed as primitive and in need of industrial development and which deny their need to access their land and food resources to maintain self-sufficiency and a capability to decide their future on their own terms.

A Shompen person in 2013 with vanaraja chicks from the veterinary department. Image courtesy of Manish Chandi.

“Some officials in the islands do not see this as a priority and… consider supplies of external food resources as a means to well-being,” he says. “This has actually caused the increased dependence on supplies of food that the communities cannot grow or gather themselves and eventually makes them immensely dependent on governmental mechanisms.”

“Resource exploitation by non-tribals makes dependence on governmental schemes of rehabilitation the only possibility: It makes once independent communities who were geographically spread across their own landscapes and territories, sedentary and ensconced within reservations using accommodation built for them, leaving the larger landscape devoid of their presence and use … This has more recently resulted in denotification attempts [state-led removal of a legally protected status], developmental visions and proposals to transform some lands of tribal reserves into tourism or business enclaves.”

To further understand the latest threats and activities affecting the lives of tribal peoples living in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Mongabay interviewed Chandi, a former research scholar who has spent two and a half decades working on tribal communities with the Andaman Nicobar Environment Team and Nature Conservation Foundation. He was an advisory board member of the Tribal Research Institute, part of the Andaman and Nicobar Administration’s Department of Tribal Welfare, from 2011-2019. Chandi is currently a consultant in social ecology.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

A board at Jirkatang where the Andaman Trunk Road enters territory legally notified as the Jarawa tribal reserve, photographed in the late 1990s. Image by Pankaj Sekhsaria.

Mongabay: You’ve said that tribal reserves in India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands, such as the North Sentinel Island and the Great Nicobar Island tribal reserves which are home to voluntarily isolated Sentinelese and Shompen people, are among the best biodiversity hotspots as well as culturally unique spaces. Why is that? And what has enabled them to maintain such richness?

Manish Chandi: The Andaman and Nicobar Islands have approximately 100-odd declared protected areas, that include wildlife sanctuaries, national parks (marine and terrestrial) and a biosphere reserve as well. Among all these, none of them compare in size, biodiversity, both density and diversity, of flora and fauna on both the island land and nearshore or coral reef habitats to what exists in the tribal reserves of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

This is primarily because the areas declared as tribal reserves are large and encompass geographical extents of where each tribal community exists. In the case of the Onge tribal reserve on Little Andaman Island, for example, the geography encompasses everywhere the Onge existed during their declaration in 1950. All these tribal reserved areas have not been used for timber extraction and settlement and therefore retain the biodiversity of both various habitats and also species — both endemic and otherwise.

Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve is the only area that has a biosphere reserve that includes a tribal reserve too [home to the Shompen people who live in voluntary isolation], and is the single largest area in the Nicobar archipelago. Meanwhile, the Jarawa tribal reserve [home to the Ang, as the community call themselves, who are not in voluntary isolation] is the single largest tribal reserve in the Andaman, even in comparison to the Nicobar islands.

The Jarawa reserve and the Onge reserve are the largest and most important biodiversity repository in the Andaman Islands, which is composed of a range of habitat and species.

The tribal reserves have remained relatively intact, except that with cultural change and acculturation [the adoption of the cultural traits and values of others], poachers and infiltrators from within the Andaman Islands have begun exploiting the tribal reserves for biological resources including lobsters and crabs, fish, timber, wild pigs, deer and birds from the Onge and Jarawa tribal reserves in particular.

It is because of their declaration as tribal reserves and, more importantly, the original hostility of the inhabitants, that poachers took a while to reach and begin exploitation. But they have done some luring and made friends with some inhabitants. Poor enforcement of the Wildlife (Protection Act), 1972; the Forest (Conservation Act), 1980; the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (Protection of Aboriginal Tribes) Regulation; and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, adds to the problem.

A green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas). Image by Michele Roux/Ocean Image Bank. — A green sea turtle (*Chelonia mydas*). Image by Michele Roux/Ocean Image Bank.

A crab-eating macaque. Image by Pankaj Sekhsaria.

Mongabay: Species of mangrove and littoral mangrove species surround the areas of North Sentinel Island where the uncontacted Sentinelese people live. Biologists are unable to conduct studies there, but do you know what species these are exactly? Are these reef patches important to the Sentinelese people? And do these species of mangrove face any threats?

Manish Chandi: The island of North Sentinel is devoid of any major saltwater inlets or creeks, there are just a few minor ones. Mangroves are sparsely scattered in patches of the island’s coast. The southeastern shore has a small emergent reef which is like an islet, on which littoral mangrove vegetation has colonised and established (I forget the specific species, but they are not the more common varieties of Rhizophora or Bruguiera).

The species I recall are more littoral and those that survive in rocky saltwater habitats rather than mangrove marsh, which is specifically absent on the island.

These shallow-water patches and habitat are a very important resource of edible bivalves and mollusks for the Sentinelese islanders. I have seen them, groups of men, women and children, foraging and collecting these food resources during low tide on several occasions. The Sentinelese are aware of these as nutritious and sparsely available resources in a type of habitat that is very scarce on and around the island.

Beyond these patches, there are several major coral reefs all around the island. These vary in size, placement and distribution. They include shallows, deep-water reefs and shelves also. These habitats are among the most important food resource for the Sentinelese, as they are rich in fish life. The Sentinelese punt their canoes over these nearshore habitats, as far as their punting poles can still reach the bottom, to hunt fish and turtle.

Fishermen from the Andamans also encroach upon these habitats — not just in South Andaman, but nowadays, even those from far away such as Middle Andaman — for sharks and export-value fish, crabs and lobsters. South Andaman fishers have long evaded detection when using these waters as there has been no real patrolling by administrative machinery, except for stray instances when an official would tour the region around North Sentinel, reprimand any fishermen or poachers in the vicinity and let them off.

Fishermen from South Andaman lay gillnets around North Sentinel Island in 1999. Skin diving lobster fishing, hook & line fishing, trawlers, etc. are also being operated, says Chandi. Image courtesy of Manish Chandi.

This laxity has emboldened these same resource exploiters to venture further in and closer to the shores to reach the salable marine resources that the Sentinelese depend on and exploit them for their own gain. They bring these to the export markets and sell at fish landing centres in South Andaman, particularly at Wandoor and Guptapara villages.

Key context and latest developments

Sea turtles, such as green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata), are found locally in these waters and are exploited by poachers and fishermen who both spear and lay nets in nearshore waters. The Sentinelese, on the other hand, use bow and arrows or harpoons to hunt fish and turtles in their waters for survival.

This unequal use and exploitation between non-tribal peoples from the Andaman and the Sentinelese Islanders is very concerning, particularly with the poor implementation of laws and regulations regarding the future of the Indigenous islanders.

Moreover, recently, trawler operators from mainland India have obtained some official agreements to fish in the Andaman waters. This will further exacerbate exploitation of marine resources of the Sentinelese, if the exploitation goes unchecked. Even as far back as 20-odd years ago, there were small-scale trawler operators from the islands, visiting, fishing and anchoring off North Sentinel Island. This will increase manifold and the authorities in the islands will need to give due attention and implement the laws to deter and prevent such resource exploitations in the future.

Mangroves along the coast of Katchal Island, one of the Nicobar Islands, India, photographed in the late 1990s. Image by Pankaj Sekhsaria.

Mongabay:

As you’ve mentioned, there’s a planned development project on Great Nicobar island where isolated Shompen live, which includes much infrastructure and industry. There’s a lot of back-and-forth and legal proceedings about the exact impacts of the project. The tribal council and environmentalists say the project could destroy coral reefs and turtle and megapod habitats — and around 84 square kilometers (32 square miles) will fall in the tribal reserve that will be de-notified.

Some bodies, including the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management (NCSCM) and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ruled in favor of the Great Nicobar Island project, with the latter citing that “adequate safeguards” have been provided. Litigation is underway as of August 2026. What is your opinion on the potential impacts of this project? If it impacts tribal peoples in the reserve, what will that look like?

Manish Chandi: This is a contentious issue that’s been and continues to be deliberated on with some frequency in the Indian media and some international press as well. In my opinion, yes, the proposed project will have severe, negative results on the Shompen tribal people and the Nicobarese islanders of Great Nicobar.

Firstly, none of them have consented to the project. They have, in fact, asked for their lands (forested, coastal and streams) to be left out of the agenda and scope of the project. They have no interest in the transhipment or commercial enterprises proposed. What has emerged despite these requests are obfuscations to on-the-ground and spoken realities, and deviations from responding to requests to rehabilitate the displaced and marginalised Nicobarese back in their ancestral lands on the southern east and entire west coasts.

They too wish for development and change, but on their terms and in their ancestral lands.

Similarly, various reports from consultants and the government do not acknowledge the presence of Shompen habitations within the forested and riverine landscape proposed to be cleared and developed for this project. It is a fact that three to four Shompen habitations and their entire foraging and hunting territories are within the forested area demarcated for this project.

Despite this factual reality, the official voice of governmental machinery denies their existence, the habitations and the use of natural resources in the said region.

Even the former administrative head of the Andaman Nicobar Administration has gone on record saying that there will be no displaced tribal communities on the island. However, all the Great Nicobarese and a few Shompen live in accommodation that was set up in the vicinity of Campbell Bay in 2010 by the government after they were displaced from their ancestral lands and homes by the tsunami of December 2004.

Salt packet disposed by Shompen people. Salt was among various commodities supplied as free ration to the Shompen but discarded by them as they have no use for it, says Chandi. Image courtesy of Manish Chandi.

They are an internally displaced people who are only requesting to return to their ancestral homelands in which they had lived for eons until the tsunami of 2004 displaced them. But the proposed uses of their ancestral lands include beach tourism, casinos, shopping malls and various other enhancements for tourists and outsiders — all while they currently remain in shanties and small clusters without any land of their own on their own island.

In the pre-tsunami years, what stood out in the administration of the Indigenous communities was ensuring self-sufficiency and the practice of autonomy, with the least interference in internal, socio-cultural and economic affairs. That was the general principle on which interaction for administration took place.

Currently, it is evident that the administrative machinery is fast tracked, resulting in fleeting interaction and poor understanding of the communities in question. It is also important to note, that not a single person from the administrative machinery can speak the Shompen language and communicate logically with them.

Despite this, you can read articles that express excitement at the administrative machinery getting a few men from the community to supposedly cast a vote during the general elections; men who supposedly expressed their agreement to the denotification of their food forests so that they can be converted into a township for mainlanders. It’s an extremely sad and vicious set of events that have taken place over the past eight years.

There’s a whole series of problems associated with the project and the Indigenous islanders. These have been written about to seemingly little effect. There are fundamental rights and requirements of the communities that can be very well addressed, rather than skirting and twisting them into various narratives which are untrue and not representative of the progressive vision of the Nicobarese and Shompen communities at large.

Lush mangroves in the Jarawa tribal reserve, South Andaman Island, photographed in the early 2000s. Tribal reserves of the archipelago are home to endemic, threatened and even undescribed biodiversity. Image by Pankaj Sekhsaria.

Mongabay: In your opinion, what are the prospects for the protections of these tribal reserves, home to voluntarily isolated people? What more needs to be done?

Manish Chandi: The administrative machinery needs to take a step back and assess the situations with each of the Indigenous islander communities and consider the range of issues — a few of which I have deliberated upon.

There’s much to learn, share and do to make other islanders on the archipelagos aware of the Indigeneity of the island communities. Similarly, mainland visitors and others need a change of perspective from vain curiosity to appreciation, respect and dignity when it comes to how these communities are perceived and attended to. This is a huge requirement for everyone’s benefit.

Conserving their lands and resources on their terms using our means and policing resources is a paramount need for future generations to thrive and evolve. We have the science and technology to develop better understandings and mechanisms which can help protect livelihood resources of these communities: These resources can be better employed for the protection of such people.

Imposition has never worked. Participation, respect, consensus and appreciation over time are what can make a huge difference to the positive future of the islanders, both Indigenous and settled.

Banner image: Shompen people in Great Nicobar Island in 1997. The Shompen are the original forest dwellers of the Island. Images courtesy of Manish Chandi.

This is an abridged version of the interview that was reported by Mongabay’s Global team and first published here on our Mongabay Global site on September 15, 2026.