It's one of the world's most isolated islands. Here come the bulldozers

Apart from the indigenous people, the Great Nicobar island's population consists mainly of a few thousand settlers, who live in sleepy villages alongside dense forests. A major development project would dramatically alter the scene. Omkar Khandekar/NPR hide caption

THE GREAT NICOBAR ISLAND, India — Fireflies illuminate the edge of a forest on the Great Nicobar Island as field biologist Sumit Kumar tries to find a particularly shy creature.

A soft hoot wafts through the thicket. Kumar scans the trees with his flashlight: Sitting on a branch is a rare, wide-eyed, fat Nicobarese Scops owl. It narrows its eyes into what feels like a death-glare. Kumar smiles: "When you spot them, they look at you as if to say, 'You don't belong here.'"

The Great Nicobar Island is part of an archipelago that lies deep in the Indian Ocean. Until mainland Indians started settling here a few decades ago, its humans consisted of around a thousand indigenous folks.

It's governed by India but is so distant that it takes a flight from the mainland and a 30-hour ferry ride to arrive.

Great Nicobar Islanders clean vessels near Campbell Bay. R. Satish Babu/AFP/via Getty Images hide caption

The upcoming Great Nicobar Project is set to transform this sleepy island into a bustling township over the next three decades.

Once complete, the island will have a civilian and military airport, a transshipment port that caters to container ships, a power plant and a new town equipped to host a million tourists a year — nearly 100 times its current population.