For the first time, members of the Shompen on 19th April 2024 took part in the election process by casting their votes in the Andaman and Nicobar Lok Sabha constituency.
- Seven members of the Shompen tribe exercised their voting rights at polling station 411 named as ‘Shompen Hut’ built inside the forest staff quarters.
- Other two primitive tribes like Onge and Great Andamanese too exercised their voting rights like in 2019 Lok Sabha election but seven Shompen did it for the first time out of 98 Shompen voters.
- 100 per cent voting happened at Strait Island which is an exclusively restricted area for the Great Andamanese tribe.
- Nearly 91 per cent of voting happened at Dugong Creek (little Andaman tehsil of South Andaman district) where Onge primate tribes live exclusively (it is a reserved forest area).
- Shompen is one of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in the country. They reside in the dense tropical rain forests of the Great Nicobar island. The estimated population of Shompen was 229 as per the 2011 Census data.
