Evaluate the adequacy of legal protections for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in the context of large infrastructure projects.

Q. Evaluate the adequacy of legal protections for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups in the context of large infrastructure projects. (15 marks, 250 words)

India's 75 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)—such as the ~200 Shompen of Great Nicobar—are its most fragile citizens. A lattice of laws shields them, yet mega-projects like the ~₹72,000-crore Great Nicobar Project [3] test whether these protections are substantive or merely notional.

A robust framework on paper - Habitat and consent rights: The Forest Rights Act, 2006 grants PVTGs special habitat rights over customary forests and mandates written Gram Sabha consent before any forest diversion [2]. - Special safeguards: Group-specific instruments—the A&N Protection of Aboriginal Tribes Regulation, 1956, presidential regulation-making under Article 240, and the Shompen Policy, 2015—prioritise welfare and bar displacement [1]. - Project-level guarantees: For Great Nicobar, MoEFCC mandated an independent monitoring committee and a net increase in tribal reserve area (76.98 sq km re-notified against 73.07 sq km de-notified) [1].

Gaps exposed by large projects - Territorial dilution: De-notification of tribal reserves to enable clearances erodes the very land-based protection the law promises. - Attenuated consent: Obtaining genuine free, prior and informed consent from isolated hunter-gatherers is procedurally near-impossible, reducing FRA safeguards to formality. - Strategic-zone exemptions and advisory-only bodies (NCST, monitoring committees) leave enforcement weak, while EIAs lean on proponent-funded studies.

The protections are comprehensive in design but their adequacy falters at implementation. Making consent binding, monitoring genuinely independent, and clearances ecology-sensitive—aligned with SDG-10 and SDG-16—can reconcile strategic imperatives with tribal survival.

(~250 words)

Sources: 1. Great Nicobar Project: FAQs — PIB (1 May 2026) — Shompen Policy 2015, no-displacement mandate, independent monitoring committee, net increase in tribal reserve area 2. Forest Rights Act, 2006 — Ministry of Tribal Affairs — PVTG habitat rights and Gram Sabha consent for forest diversion 3. Great Nicobar Project — PIB — project scale and cost