Why Modi’s Great Nicobar Project is a Recipe for Disaster

700 miles from the Indian mainland and scattered across the Bay of Bengal near the mouth of the Strait of Malacca lie India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The archipelago is known for its rich biodiversity, which includes nine National Parks, 96 wildlife sanctuaries and a major UNESCO-recognized Biosphere Reserve — the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve.

This island chain is now at the center of a controversy. The fragile ecosystem and biosphere of the Great Nicobar island, in particular, is in danger of being wiped out by the Narendra Modi-led government’s plans to “develop” the island chain via the Great Nicobar Project.

Proposed in 2021, the massive infrastructural project pegged at a cost of around $7.5 million involves the construction of an international airport, a trans-shipment port, and a township. In its draft plan for the island, the government explicitly states that the project will see the Nicobar Island emerge as a major tourism and entertainment hub.

Environmentalists, anthropologists and opposition leaders have slammed the government on the project.

The southernmost Great Nicobar island, with its rare coral reefs and unique rainforests, is also home to the indigenous Shompen tribe and Nicobarese tribes. It has been designated as a UNESCO biosphere reserve. It is this irreplaceable ecosystem that is now under threat from Modi’s project.

On June 5, Environment Day, Congress parliamentarian and Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi created a stir when he released videos of his visit to the Great Nicobar Island. Drawing attention to the pristine tropical rainforest, he explained how Modi’s infrastructure project endangered the ecology, unique flora and fauna of the island. The project involves felling 15 million trees and encroaching upon the land of the reclusive Shompen tribals.

Gandhi also pointed to the government’s plans to develop a port and township at Galathea Bay, which will be located within the biosphere reserve’s buffer zone. Experts have pointed out that the bay is a prime nesting site of the endangered species of the giant leatherback turtle, the largest of all sea turtles.

The Adani Group, which is closely linked to the Modi government, is a leading contender to develop the port terminal.

Gandhi pointed out that the infrastructure project is aimed at benefiting “one businessman” – Gautam Adani, a billionaire businessman who is the founder and chairperson of the Adani Group. “We don’t want Mr Adani sitting in Nicobar Islands,” Gandhi said.

The Congress leader has launched a campaign, “Great Nicobar island is not for sale.”

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are strategically located. They lie near the mouth of the Strait of Malacca. The Modi government has often claimed that the infrastructure projects are aimed at boosting India’s security and defense. Niti Aayog, the Modi government’s planning body, has described the Great Nicobar Project as one that strengthens India’s “defence presence in the Indo-Pacific.”

The government has also claimed that the proposed International Container Transshipment Port at Galathea Bay would help attract international maritime trade by offering large container ships, which otherwise head to Sri Lanka and Singapore, facilities to dock.

Gandhi has challenged the Modi government’s justification of the infrastructure projects at the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The project involves “building hotels and casinos,” Gandhi wrote in a post on X, reminding the government that “the country’s defense is done by the armed forces. Not hotels and casinos.”

The government is ignoring the climate and ecological costs of the Great Nicobar project and is persisting with its plans to open the island to tourism by developing an international airport, which would increase tourist footfall tenfold, from the current 1 million at Port Blair airport to over 10 million.

The government also plans to develop a settled township and a power plant.

Seeking to allay concerns over the Shompen tribals being displaced from their land, the government has said that only a minuscule portion of the notified Tribal Reserve is part of the proposed project area, and that the tribals would be compensated with other land elsewhere.

Experts have trashed the government’s explanations as “flawed” and lacking understanding of the needs of indigenous people.

Opposition parties have been challenging Modi’s Great Nicobar project over the last couple of years. When they raised questions about it in parliament, the government refused to divulge details about the environmental clearance, alleging that the matter was being discussed in the Calcutta High Court and therefore couldn’t be revealed.

A series of public interest litigations have been filed and the matter is being adjudicated in the High Court. Incidentally, the court has dismissed the Modi government’s stand that there is no need for a relook of the case since the National Green Tribunal has already cleared it.

The government has claimed that the local population of the island did not object to the project. This appears to be far from the truth, as revealed in video testimonies collected by anthropologist Dr. Visvajit Pandya for an assessment report on the project that he did for the Andaman and Nicobar administration in 2021. In the video testimonies he collected, the Shompen people clearly opposed the cutting down of the forests in their hills and river areas. If trees had to be felled, it should be only along the coast, they stated.

Not only was Pandya’s report never made public, but the Environment Ministry also denied ever receiving the report. Being an inconvenient hurdle in the way of the Nicobar project, the report’s existence was simply denied.

As Pandya told the online portal Scroll, the land on the island and along the rivers is intricately connected to the Shompen tribal society and family structure. Moreover, the project would end up destroying the area’s soil regeneration system.

According to Manish Chandi, whose research focuses on the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, “The Great Nicobar Project sounds like an open invitation to disaster.”

“It poses a threat to a huge amount of natural resources, its biological diversity and its indigenous communities,” Chandi said.

The government has tried to smear all objections to the project as “anti-national,” claiming that the projects will help India challenge China’s dominance in the Indian Ocean.

For centuries, the inaccessibility of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands helped preserve their pristine ecology and the natural habitat of its indigenous tribals. The government’s plans for massive infrastructural projects in the name of “development” and using the fig leaf of national security will leave open the archipelago’s sensitive ecology to plunder.

Recognizing the environmental importance of biosphere reserves, several governments across the world have restricted access and entry to such areas. They are not converted into tourist and entertainment hotspots for commercial benefit.

With its misplaced priorities, the Modi government is opening up the archipelago to loot and plunder.