afforded specific constitutional and adminis-
trative protections not only because they
are “scheduled” but because the state
regards them as attached to a “protected”
physical environment. About eighty-five
percent of Great Nicobar was designated as
Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve (GNBR) in
1989 by India”s Ministry of Environment
and Forests, in accord with the UNESCO
Man and Biosphere Programme (MAB). MAB
specifically states that one function of bios-
phere reserves is to “ensure the traditional
[human] resource use patterns.”^1 In estab-
lishing the GNBR the Indian government
has recognised the global significance of
Great Nicobar”s ecosystems and has sig-
naled a commitment to preserving human
micro-cultures being eroded by modernity.Indeed, the crisis facing the
Shompen is not to be down-
played, given the recent history
of the region. The Great
Andamanese, one of six remain-
ing tribal societies inhabiting the
ANI, numbered only twenty-
eight individuals in the 1991
official census, reduced from
625 in 1901.^2 The Jarawas of
the Andamans are another
threatened population, despite
having been given protection,mainly through land reservations, since the
1950s. The Shompen population is larger
than it was thirty years ago but the
Shompen represent a shrinking segment of
the total population of Great Nicobar (see
Figure 3). Their way of life is certainly
endangered. Rapid increase in the island’s
non-indigenous human population, unsus-
tainable agricultural and commercial activi-
ties bordering the biosphere reserve, and
sometimes impinging upon it, and illegal
activities, such as poaching, by non-tribal
people have contributed to habitat destruc-
tion, species loss and other observable
ecosystem instability on Great Nicobar.^3Government policies with respect to pro-
tected areas in ANI and elsewhere in India
incorporate some of the principles
advanced in environmental policy circles, by
ecologists and by advocates of indigenous
peoples. Yet, policy-makers have privileged
the idea of national (social) development—
and the removal of social inequalities—over
preservation of cultural diversity or environ-
mental conservation. Upon India’s inde-
pendence, there existed a consensus that a
crucial function of the state was to coordi-
nate efforts to lift up “backward” social
groups, those suffering legacies of discrimi-
nation and deprivation. The Constitution of
the Republic of India in 1950 thus recog-
nised not only Scheduled Castes but also
more than six hundred Scheduled Tribes in
need of “development”. In 1979 the gov-Conservation aas ccultural aand ppolitical ppractice
Figure 2.View of Great Nicobar Biosphere
Reserve from Mt. Thullier. (Courtesy Suresh
Babu)
Figure 3.Graph showing the growth of populations of ANI. Note
that the populations are in log scale.