Centre says tribal leaders are not ‘necessary’ parties to Great Nicobar forest rights dispute

The Union Tribal Affairs Ministry has said that Nicobarese leaders seeking to join a petition challenging the settlement of forest rights on Great Nicobar Island are “neither necessary nor proper parties,” in the case, court documents show. The Nicobarese are one of two major tribes affected by the development of the Island, and primary claimants to forest rights in the area. An ongoing petition in the Calcutta High Court, filed by former IAS officer Meena Gupta, has challenged the Union government’s claim that rights under the Forest Rights Act (2005) (FRA) were settled on the Island. The FRA recognises the historical rights of tribal and other forest dwelling communities over forest resources, and makes compliance with its statutes necessary in clearing forest land for diversion. On July 9, 2026, four Nicobarese residents sought to join Gupta’s plea, arguing that government certifications claiming the settlement of forest rights was based on gram sabha consent from non-tribal settler communities. Apart from the Nicobarese and Shompen — a particularly vulnerable and largely uncontacted tribe — the Island is inhabited by families of ex-servicemen from the mainland who were settled on the remote Island from 1969 onwards as part of a state-sponsored scheme. “This certificate falsely states that the concerned Gram Sabhas have consented to the diversion of forest lands and cites meetings of the Gram Sabhas of the settler community in which no Nicobarese were present,” the impleadment document submitted to the court, seen by Mongabay-India, says. “No Gram Sabha meeting of the…This article was originally published on Mongabay