Danish Admiral Steen Bille was the first to contact them in 1846 and Frederik Adolph de Roepstorff, a British officer who had already published works on the languages of Nicobar and Andaman,[7] collected ethnographic and linguistic data in 1876.

Since then very little has been added to the stock of reliable information on the Shompen, mainly because access to the Nicobar Islands has been restricted for foreign researchers since Indian independence.

[1][8] Survival International, a global NGO campaigning for indigenous rights, says that the Shompen are one of the most isolated peoples on earth, with most of them being uncontacted and refusing interactions with outsiders.

In keeping with the tropical climate of the islands, traditional attire includes only clothing below the waist.

A man usually carried a bow and arrows, a spear and through his loincloth belt, a hatchet, knife and fire drill.

The Shompen are a hunter-gatherer subsistence people, hunting wild game such as pigs, birds and small animals while foraging for fruits and forest foods.

In the late 1980s, the Shompens were living in ten groups, ranging in size from 2 to 22 individuals, scattered across the interior of the island.

[6] Paul Sidwell (2017)[12] classifies Shompen as a Southern Nicobaric language, rather than a separate branch of Austroasiatic.

Due to proposed Great Nicobar Development Plan, hectares of land on Great Nicobar Island will be reclaimed to build a "Hong Kong India" with an airport, an international port, and an industrial park.