Mains⬡ gs3-environment-ecology◆ High yield

Jairam Ramesh Presses Centre Over Great Nicobar Project Clearances

3 June 2026·5 arguments·4 dimensions

Summary

Congress leader and former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has written to Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, strongly criticising the environmental and forest clearances granted to the ₹72,000-crore Great Nicobar Island holistic development project.

●Ramesh contends that the project — which includes a transshipment port, an international airport, a township, and a power plant — is primarily a commercial enterprise being pushed through under the guise of strategic necessity, thereby endangering the island's unique and irreplaceable biodiversity.

●Great Nicobar Island is home to the Shompen and Nicobarese tribal communities, the Leatherback sea turtle nesting sites, the Nicobar Megapode, and vast stretches of tropical rainforest, all of which face severe disruption.

●The project has received clearances from the Forest Advisory Committee and the Expert Appraisal Committee despite objections from ecologists and civil society.

●For UPSC aspirants, this controversy encapsulates the tension between India's infrastructure ambitions and its environmental governance obligations under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 and the Forest Conservation Act.

⬡gs3-environment-ecology ⬡gs3-infrastructure ⬡gs2-governance-institutions

Core Arguments

1
The Great Nicobar project exemplifies the structural tension in India's development paradigm: strategic and economic imperatives (proximity to Malacca Strait, transshipment hub potential) are being prioritised over ecological carrying capacity and tribal rights, raising questions about whether the EIA process is a genuine safeguard or a procedural formality.
2
The island's biodiversity is not merely locally significant — it is globally irreplaceable. The Leatherback sea turtle nesting beach at Galathea Bay is among the largest in the Indo-Pacific, and the loss of such habitat cannot be offset by compensatory afforestation in ecologically dissimilar regions, exposing the limits of the 'net zero forest loss' doctrine.
3
The rights of the Shompen PVTG under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 and the requirement of Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) under international frameworks (ILO Convention 169, UNDRIP) have been inadequately addressed, making the clearance process legally and ethically vulnerable to challenge.
4
Jairam Ramesh's intervention highlights a governance deficit: the separation between the political executive (which drives project approvals) and the technical-regulatory bodies (EAC, FAC) has been eroded, with critics alleging that expert committees are being pressured to fast-track clearances for projects of 'national importance'.
5
From a federalism and local governance lens, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a Union Territory under direct central administration, meaning there is no elected state government to provide a check on central decisions — a structural asymmetry that weakens local accountability in environmental governance.

Dimensional Angles

Environmental

Great Nicobar's ecosystems — tropical rainforests, coral reefs, mangroves, and nesting beaches — represent a convergence of biodiversity hotspots. The diversion of over 130 sq km of forest land will fragment habitats irreversibly. Compensatory afforestation in mainland India cannot replicate island-endemic species assemblages. The project also risks altering coastal hydrology and sediment dynamics, threatening coral reefs that serve as natural buffers against storm surges. The precautionary principle, a cornerstone of international environmental law and India's National Environment Policy, demands that where scientific uncertainty exists about irreversible harm, development must be deferred.

Governance

The controversy exposes weaknesses in India's environmental governance architecture. The EIA Notification, 2006 has been criticised for allowing project proponents to commission their own impact assessments, creating a conflict of interest. The EAC's composition and independence have been questioned. The absence of a robust, independent National Environment Appraisal Authority — as recommended by multiple committees — means clearance decisions remain susceptible to executive influence. Jairam Ramesh's letters serve as a form of parliamentary and public accountability in the absence of stronger institutional checks.

Social

The Shompen and Nicobarese communities face existential threats from large-scale development. The Shompen, a hunter-gatherer PVTG with a population of fewer than 500, have historically resisted contact with the outside world. Forced integration into a development corridor — through construction labour influx, habitat loss, and disease exposure — could devastate their population and culture. India's constitutional obligations under Articles 15, 16, and the Fifth Schedule, combined with the Forest Rights Act, 2006, require meaningful consent and benefit-sharing, not mere notification.

International Relations

Great Nicobar's strategic location near the Malacca Strait gives the project a strong geopolitical rationale — countering China's String of Pearls strategy and establishing India as a transshipment hub in the Indian Ocean Region. However, India's credibility as a responsible environmental actor in multilateral forums (CBD, UNFCCC, CITES) is undermined if it is seen to sacrifice globally significant biodiversity for commercial infrastructure. Balancing hard power projection with soft power through environmental stewardship is a nuanced challenge for Indian foreign policy.

Value-Adds for Answers

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Data: Great Nicobar Island spans approximately 910 sq km; the project requires diversion of ~130 sq km of forest land, representing roughly 14% of the island's total area — one of the largest single forest diversions approved in recent Indian history.
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Concept: The 'Precautionary Principle' in environmental law holds that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation — enshrined in Principle 15 of the Rio Declaration, 1992, and referenced in India's National Environment Policy, 2006.
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Comparison: China's Hambantota Port in Sri Lanka and its Gwadar Port in Pakistan are often cited as examples of strategic port development under the Belt and Road Initiative; India's Great Nicobar transshipment port is partly conceived as a counter-move, illustrating how geopolitical competition can override domestic environmental governance norms.
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Quote: The Supreme Court of India in T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India (1997) held that the 'forest' under the Forest Conservation Act must be understood in its dictionary sense, not merely as notified forest land — a ruling that has implications for the scope of clearances required for the Great Nicobar project.