India's plan for untouched Nicobar isles will be 'death sentence' for isolated tribe

Academics from around the world have urged India to cancel a huge construction project on Great Nicobar Island, warning it would be "a death sentence" for the Shompen hunter-gatherer people who live there. The $9bn (£7bn) port project, planned to transform the Indian Ocean island of 8,000 inhabitants into what has been called the "Hong Kong of India", includes the construction of an international shipping terminal, airport, power plant, military base and industrial park. It will also develop tourism. In an open letter to the Indian president, Droupadi Murmu, published on Wednesday, 39 scholars from Asia, Europe and the US…