For thousands of years, Great Nicobar Island has been inhabited by two primary indigenous groups: the Shompen, a semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer tribe living in the dense interior forests, and the Nicobarese, who live primarily along the coasts and rely on fishing and horticulture. Because of its extreme isolation, the island remained largely untouched by outside empires for most of its history, though it was briefly claimed by the Danish and the British before being integrated into independent India.
The modern history of Campbell Bay truly began in the late 1960s and 1970s when the Government of India initiated a settlement program. To secure the strategic island, the government offered land to ex-servicemen and their families from the Indian mainland, creating a string of agricultural settlements stretching from Campbell Bay down the island's eastern coast toward Indira Point (the southernmost tip of India).
December 26, 2004, remains the darkest day in the history of Campbell Bay. The catastrophic Indian Ocean earthquake and resulting tsunami devastated the settlement. Due to its proximity to the epicenter, the tsunami arrived within minutes, washing away coastal villages, destroying the infrastructure, and resulting in immense loss of life. Following the disaster, massive rehabilitation efforts relocated survivors to higher ground, though many of the southern settlements and the coastal road to Indira Point were permanently lost or submerged.
Today, Campbell Bay is experiencing a new historical chapter. The Indian government has greenlit a ₹72,000 crore mega-infrastructure project for Great Nicobar, which includes a transshipment terminal, an international airport, a power plant, and a township, aiming to turn the region into a maritime hub akin to Singapore, though this has sparked significant ecological and anthropological debates.