Tribes of Nicobar – Nicobari (Nicobarese) and Shompen

News: A draft plan to relocate Nicobarese tribal communities affected by the Great Nicobar Island mega-infrastructure project to their ancestral lands has created confusion and increased concerns among local people.

About Tribes of Nicobar – Nicobari (Nicobarese) and Shompen

About Nicobari (Nicobarese) Tribe

• The Nicobari tribe lives in all the inhabited islands of the Nicobar Islands.
• Origin: They belong to the Mongoloid racial group.
• Population: According to the 2011 census, the indigenous Nicobarese number 23,681.
• Language: They speak various dialects of the Nicobarese language, which belongs to the Austroasiatic language family. 
• They are not divided into sub-tribes, but territorially, they are divided into six groups:
  • The people of Car Nicobar, Chowra, Teressa with Bompoka, the Central Group, the Southern Group and the single inland tribe of the Shompen on Great Nicobar.
• Food: Their chief food  is Coconut, Pandanus pulp, fish and rice and tropical fruits. Pigs and fowls are mainly reared for feasts.
• Social structure: The Nicobari family system is patriarchal in nature.
  • They usually live in joint families, which are known as Tuhet.
  • In the Tuhet system, land, coconut trees, and pigs are owned jointly by the family, and there is no individual ownership.
  • Love marriage is very common and the age of marriage is comparatively high in the Nicobari society.
• Houses and Settlement Pattern:  They live in large and permanent villages, which are mostly located near the seashore.
  • Their houses are well-built and raised 5–7 feet above the ground on wooden piles, with entry through a movable ladder. Most of the houses are circular in shape.
  • Village Public Structures: In most islands, there is a place near each coastal village called Elpanam. 
  • The Elpanam consists of important public buildings such as a meeting house, a lying-in house, a mortuary, and a cemetery.
• Livelihood: They engage in pottery making, basket making, canoe and iron spear making, pig rearing and collection of forest produce.
• Feasting is one of the major cultural activities of the Nicobari people.
• Football is the most popular sport among them. Other popular sports played by them are canoe racing, volleyball, and wrestling.

About Shompen Tribe

• The Shompen tribe are the indigenous tribe of the interior of Great Nicobar Island. 
• They are designated as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group within the list of Scheduled Tribes.
• They are one of the most isolated tribes on Earth.
• Note: In 2024, for the first time, 7 members of the Shompen tribe cast their votes in the Andaman and Nicobar Lok Sabha constituency.
• Livelihood: They are semi-nomadic hunter-gatherers, and their main sources of livelihood are hunting, gathering, fishing, and a little bit of horticultural activities in a rudimentary form.
• Food: They collect a wide variety of forest plants, but their staple food is the pandanus fruit, which they call larop.
• Population: According to the Census (2011), the estimated population of Shompen is 229.
• Language: They speak their own language, which has many dialects. Members of one band do not understand the dialect of the other.
• Social structure: They have nuclear families comprising husband, wife, and their unmarried children.
  • The family is controlled by the eldest male member, who controls all activities of the women and kids.
  • Monogamy is generally practised, though polygamy is also permitted.