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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.

In an open letter to the Indian president, Droupadi Murmu, published on Wednesday, 39 scholars from Asia, Europe and the US have warned: “If the project goes ahead, even in a limited form, we believe it will be a death sentence for the Shompen, tantamount to the international crime of genocide.”

Last year, 70 former government officials and ambassadors wrote to the president saying the project would “virtually destroy the unique ecology of this island and the habitat of vulnerable tribal groups”.

The government sees the project as vital for security and defence, given the island’s strategic location in the Indian Ocean, countering China’s growing presence in the region.

The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, an Indian constitutional body, said it was not consulted about the project, which it said would “adversely impact the lives of the local tribals”, according to media reports.

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