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2 Jun 2026Environment & Ecology3 questions

Union Minister Defends Environmental Clearances for Great Nicobar Project

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Article summary

Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav has defended the environmental and forest clearances granted to the ₹72,000-crore Great Nicobar Island mega project, rejecting allegations of regulatory bypass raised by former minister Jairam Ramesh. The project, spearheaded by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO), includes an international transshipment terminal, an international airport, a power plant, and a township. Yadav asserted that the clearances strictly adhered to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, emphasizing strategic and economic imperatives alongside mandated ecological safeguards and compensatory afforestation measures.

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recallTests whether you read the article and retained key facts.
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applicationTests whether you can apply the concept to a new scenario.
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analysisTests whether you can reason across multiple related facts.
1Q

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Environment & EcologyRecallEasy

Q1. The Great Nicobar Island mega-infrastructure project, implemented by ANIIDCO, involves diversion of tropical forest for development. Which of the following correctly describes a key feature of the environmental clearance process for this project?

AEnvironmental and forest clearances were granted by MoEFCC under the EIA Notification 2006, with compensatory afforestation mandated in Haryana.
BEnvironmental clearance was granted by the National Green Tribunal under the Forest Conservation Act 1980, with compensatory afforestation in Madhya Pradesh.
CThe project was exempted from EIA requirements under a special island infrastructure notification issued in 2022.
DForest clearance was granted by the Supreme Court-appointed Central Empowered Committee, with compensatory afforestation within the Andaman archipelago itself.
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Environment & EcologyApplicationMedium

Q2. A parliamentary committee scrutinising the Great Nicobar project raises the concern that compensatory afforestation mandated in Haryana cannot adequately offset the ecological loss from diverting 130 sq km of tropical rainforest in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Which principle of environmental science most directly supports this concern?

AThe precautionary principle, which holds that developmental activity must be halted until scientific certainty about harm is established.
BEcological equivalence, which requires that compensatory afforestation replicate the biodiversity and ecological functions of the habitat being destroyed, not merely the area.
CThe polluter pays principle, which mandates that the project proponent bear the full financial cost of environmental remediation regardless of location.
DCarrying capacity theory, which posits that island ecosystems have a fixed maximum population of species that cannot be altered by external afforestation.
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Environment & EcologyAnalysisHard

Q3. Consider the following statements regarding the Great Nicobar Island project and the broader regulatory and tribal rights framework it implicates: 1. The Shompen of Great Nicobar Island are classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), a designation that triggers specific statutory protections under the Forest Rights Act 2006. 2. The EIA Notification 2006 classifies projects involving diversion of more than 50 sq km of forest as Category A, mandating appraisal by the Expert Appraisal Committee at the central level. 3. The proximity of Great Nicobar Island to the Malacca Strait is cited as a strategic justification for the project, as the strait is one of the world's busiest shipping chokepoints. 4. Compensatory afforestation under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016 (CAMPA) requires that replacement planting occur in the same biogeographic zone as the diverted forest. Which of the statements given above are correct?

A1, 2 and 3 only
B1 and 3 only
C2, 3 and 4 only
D1, 2, 3 and 4
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