Great Nicobar project: A strategically necessity (IANS Analysis)

New Delhi, June 28: Located roughly 1,000 miles from the Indian mainland, Great Nicobar is one of the 500-plus islands that make up the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. The island is historically tied to two distinct indigenous groups: the Shompen and the Great Nicobarese. The Shompen are an isolated community of roughly 200 to 400 individuals who avoid the outside world and maintain a traditional lifestyle as some of the world’s last remaining hunter-gatherers and farmers. The Great Nicobarese originally inhabited the island’s western coastline until the catastrophic 2004 tsunami either claimed their lives or forced them to relocate. Multi-Layered…