By Chiranjib Haldar
If we accept the premise that ecological concerns are as worthy as developmental needs, then the decision to have a transhipment terminal, an international greenfield airport or a solar power plant or even a township must be weighted by its ecological detriment. The final environmental clearance for the Great Nicobar infrastructure project by the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change was inevitable. As a precursor, large swathes of coastal landmass, including portions of the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve and Galathea Bay, were stripped of their protected status or denotified to make way for the project envisioned by the NITI Aayog and proposed by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation.
Decks were cleared for ‘the holistic development of Great Nicobar Islands’ as the ministry suggests, despite red flags on one of the world’s most sensitive archipelagos. Concerns over ecology, rights of the indigenous communities, tectonic volatility and vulnerability of the island towards disaster – which bore brunt of the 2004 tsunami have all been put on the backburner. The mega project envisages an International Container Transhipment Terminal, a greenfield international airport, a township and a gas and solar power plant. Nearly 244 sq km of this is lush green forestland, declared a biosphere reserve in 1989 and included in UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Program in 2013.
Though forest and environmental clearances are independent approvals and follow separate procedures, they are like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. There is a compensatory afforestation programme to balance the felling of 8.5 lakh trees in pristine rainforests but the trees would be planted in non-notified forest land in faraway Haryana. In addition to this festering ecological wound, there would be an irreparable loss of 10 to 12 hectares of mangrove cover in an immensely rich and diverse ecosystem in the world. With an expanse of over 1,000 sq km, Great Nicobar Islands is a biodiversity hotspot and one of the best-preserved tropical rainforests in the world. Environmentalists have warned that this will result in drastic and devastating changes to the ecology and sociology of the islands.
Great Nicobar is home to hundreds of rare species of flora and fauna, including endemic ones, some of them listed as ‘vulnerable’ in the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) list of threatened species. Though mitigation measures as translocation of coral reefs have been proposed, experts and palaeontologists feel thousands of reefs would be destroyed for ever. Conservationists and biodiversity experts have objected strongly to this project as they fear it will put the island’s ecosystem in peril. So, despite the hype, is the Great Nicobar project a monumental folly, a flagship endeavour being sold under a misleading nomenclature of ‘holistic development’. The numerous concerns include hazards of developing a township on seismically volatile landmass, impact on coastal nesting sites of vulnerable sea turtles, devastating loss of emerald green forest cover. Geological volatility of these secluded islands has just been brushed under the carpet.
Votaries of the project assert that the idea is to leverage the locational advantage of being on the international sea route and develop Great Nicobar as a sustainable, green, global destination for business, trade and leisure. They feel the union territory can truly participate in the regional and global maritime economy by becoming a major player in cargo transhipment. The terminal would attract the existing traffic of ports along Bangladesh and Myanmar as they form the primary catchment. The airport would be developed as a joint military-civil, dual use airport under the operational aegis of the Indian Navy and will boost tourist traffic currently zeroing in at Port Blair.
Great Nicobar Island lies on a major seismic fault line and building a mega shipment terminal at this location may be an ecological disaster. The islands have experienced over 400 minor earthquakes in the last decade and seismologists are worried about the fact that Great Nicobar is aerially close to Banda Aceh in Indonesia, the epicentre of the December 2004 tsunami that caused unprecedented damage. The coastline sank nearly four meters and the lighthouse at Indira Point is still submerged in the Andaman Sea indicating land subsidence of 3 to 4 metres. After the completion of the port, should any seismic activity recur or snowball, it would result in spilling of oil and chemicals spelling doom for the regional environmental.
There are future recipes for disaster which would augment once the Great Nicobar project hinges towards completion. The Environmental Impact Assessment report says over 6 lakh people will inhabit the island in future up from little more than 8000. Can we imagine how this manifold repopulating will burst the fragile island at its seams? The present sparse population is reeling under scarcity of drinking water despite heavy rainfall. Shompens and Nicobarese, the two indigenous tribal communities inhabiting Great Nicobar would be further displaced, a process set in motion after the 2004 tsunami. The indigenous tribes fear that with the development bandwagon finally zooming in on Great Nicobar, settlers from the mainland would infringe on their rights and livelihood.
It may be ironical that we can foresee the destruction of some of the finest tropical rainforests in the world at a time when India opined at the recent Sharm-el-Sheikh COP 27 Climate Conference that it was ‘a part of the solution and not the problem’. Many ecologists have criticised the government for envisioning this colossal and natural catastrophe in the making. Years back, Brazilian President Jair Bolsanaro had relaxed laws and regulations meant to protect the Amazon rainforests. Once he set the ball rolling, landgrabbers, miners and loggers had a free run in the pristine Amazon rainforests. Environment Support Groups have alleged that India has given clearance to a project that makes a mockery of the Forest Conservation Act where the rights of the indigenous people who are supposed to have access to the use of forest land have been stamped out. Strategic, imperative, ecological concerns may have been overridden.
(The writer is a commentator on society and politics.)