Overview
- Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who wrote to Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav on Sunday, urged the ministry to publish the National Green Tribunal’s High-Powered Committee report and to pause and redesign the Great Nicobar project.
- He argued the final environmental review used only a single winter baseline from December 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021, with quick biodiversity and leatherback turtle surveys lasting days, falling short of multi-season studies required for island port projects.
- Environmental Impact Assessments test how projects affect air, water, wildlife and people, and Ramesh cited a 2009 ministry memo, the ports EIA manual and coastal rules to say the review lacked the seasonal and oceanographic data those standards expect.
- The environment ministry’s May 1 FAQs said impacts were comprehensively assessed and managed under a detailed plan and described the project’s four parts as a strategic buildout of a transshipment port, airport, 450 MVA power plant and a new township.
- A February 16 NGT order kept the clearances in place by relying on the committee’s conclusions, a step critics say heightens the risk of mass deforestation and harm to the Shompen and Nicobarese communities and leatherback turtle nesting sites.