Hello Jack,

Kakein was just six years old when a bottle washed up on a nearby beach. Believing it was palm wine, everyone in his community took a swig. But the bottle contained a deadly poison. Within hours, everyone except Kakein and his little brother Aho was dead.

Kakein’s people, the Shompen, are one of the world’s most isolated tribes. A few hundred of them have lived in the rainforests of Great Nicobar Island in the Indian Ocean since time immemorial, and, like their neighbors the Sentinelese, they shun the outside world. It almost always spells trouble, and the poisoning proved how well-founded this fear is.

Now the outside world threatens them once more, but this time the entire tribe, not just Kakein’s group, could be wiped out. Unless enough of us raise our voices in protest, the Shompen and their whole world could soon be gone.

India owns the island, and its government wants to turn it into “the Hong Kong of India.” The plans are vast in their ambition: to build a huge container port; a new city with a population of 650,000 people; an international airport; a power station; a defense base; and an industrial park.

There’s simply no way the Shompen will survive this catastrophic transformation of their small island.

Today is the first day of 2024’s Uncontacted Tribes Week – and there couldn’t be a more urgent case to kick off this year’s activities. Here’s how you can help:

• Please send an email TODAY to the Indian government – each voice raised in protest really makes a difference.

• If you use social media, please comment on India’s Tribal Affairs Ministry’s posts - on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook. Choose any recent post - and tell them that the “Great Nicobar Development Project” will destroy the Shompen.

• Join our “virtual vigil.” Take a selfie holding a sign saying “Don’t destroy the Shompen.” Then either post it on your own socials, tagging @survivalinternational (Instagram/ TikTok) / @Survival (Twitter/ Facebook), or send it to us at [email protected] and we’ll post it ourselves.

• Write a letter to the Indian Embassy/ High Commission in your country: tell them that the Great Nicobar project will destroy the Shompen, and must be scrapped.

Kakein survived the poisoning, but died by suicide aged just 24. The trauma he’d witnessed in his life was simply too much to bear. His friends wanted us to tell his story, to make the plight of his people better known. It serves as a terrible warning of just what the outside world can do to the Shompen. We can’t let history repeat itself.

For uncontacted tribes,

Caroline Pearce
Director