Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has raised serious alarms regarding the Great Nicobar Mega Infrastructure Project, asserting that it will gravely endanger and displace the island’s tribal communities. He emphasized that such an outcome would directly contradict all existing laws, policies, and regulations designed to protect these indigenous groups.
The former Environment Minister noted the ongoing public discourse surrounding the project, referencing Sonia Gandhi’s recent newspaper article and Union Minister Bhupendra Yadav’s subsequent response. However, Ramesh pointed out that the Minister’s reply failed to address the fundamental concerns: that the environmental impact assessment was hastily carried out, incomplete, and inherently flawed.
He further highlighted a critical flaw: additional impact studies were only mandated *after* the project had already received clearance, exposing the assessment’s inherent weaknesses. Ramesh expressed surprise that the initial assessment commenced even before its official terms of reference were formally established.
The Congress leader unequivocally stated that the project would undoubtedly uproot and endanger the tribal communities of Great Nicobar, jeopardizing their existence and welfare. Such actions, he stressed, would be a direct violation of all existing regulations, policies, and laws.
He also lamented that extensive reports from experts, who have dedicated their lives to studying the Shompen and Nicobarese tribes, have been entirely overlooked.
Ramesh dismissed the notion that simply designating new tribal reserves could compensate for the areas being removed, calling it a profound misunderstanding of both the indigenous people’s needs and Great Nicobar’s unique biological and geographical diversity.
He critically noted that from an ecological standpoint, planting trees in Haryana—a necessary initiative in its own right—cannot possibly offset the irreversible damage caused by clear-felling the incredibly diverse, multi-species forests of the Great Nicobar Island. He labeled this comparison as fundamentally false and misleading.
Ramesh further alleged that scientists within public institutions faced pressure to produce favorable reports for the project, with some even resigning rather than endorsing it with a ‘clean chit.’
This aligns with Ramesh’s earlier statements where he described the project as an ‘ecological disaster’ being aggressively pushed forward by the government, despite its environmental clearances facing active legal challenges in the courts.
Previously, the Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson herself condemned the project, accusing the government of disrespecting legal and deliberative processes. She labeled the Great Nicobar infrastructure initiative a ‘planned misadventure,’ warning it imperils the island’s indigenous tribal communities and is being insensitively advanced, thereby ridiculing all established procedures.
However, Environment Minister Yadav defended the project, stating that all necessary clearances had been secured and asserting its crucial importance for national development.