Great Nicobar Island infrastructure project recipe for ecological, humanitarian disaster: Jairam Ramesh

Jairam Ramesh. File Pic

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Monday said the present design of the Great Nicobar Island infrastructure project "endangers ecology" in a "needlessly unacceptable manner".

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh on X cited the views of former Chief of Navy Admiral Arun Prakash, who has stated that it is both desirable and possible to bolster security without harming ecology.

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Sharing a report on Prakash's remarks, Ramesh said on X, "These views on the very controversial Greater Nicobar Integrated Development Project expressed by a very distinguished former Chief of the Indian Navy, Admiral Arun Prakash, who has served in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands merits serious attention. His basic point is this: It is both desirable and possible to bolster security without harming ecology."

"The present design of the project being pushed through by the non-biological PM endangers ecology in a needlessly unacceptable manner," Ramesh said.

The Congress general secretary also shared the views of a professional Nicobarese anthropologist Anstice Justin on the Great Nicobar Integrated Development Project and claimed that the project is a "recipe for ecological and humanitarian disaster".

On Saturday, Ramesh had written to Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav over the Great Nicobar Island infrastructure project, alleging the high-powered panel tasked to revisit environmental clearances to the project was "biased" in its very composition and did not carry out any meaningful reassessment.

Ramesh had also expressed "grave concern" over expressions of interest being invited even as the National Green Tribunal deliberates on petitions before it.

In his letter to Yadav, Ramesh had also questioned the credibility, composition, and conclusions of a high-powered committee (HPC) tasked to revisit the environmental clearances granted to the Great Nicobar Island infrastructure project.

Ramesh and Yadav have had a series of exchanges via letters on the project.

Ramesh on August 27 had hit back at the Environment Ministry's assertion that clearances for the Great Nicobar Island infrastructure project were granted after careful consideration, saying the Environmental Impact Assessment study for it appears to have been primed to ensure its clearance in the form proposed by the NITI Aayog.

In a 10-page letter to Yadav, Ramesh had said even if one were to accept the strategic and defence importance of the project, it would not preclude any discussion of its impact on the island's tribal communities and natural ecosystem.

"Nobody can be against 'strategic considerations' but surely a better balance between them and ecological concerns can and must be struck which is certainly missing in this case," he had said in his communication to Yadav which came in continuation of a series of letter exchanges between the two.

In response to a letter from Ramesh on August 10, Yadav, on August 21, had said the environmental and forest clearances granted by his ministry have "withstood judicial scrutiny".