The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday (February 16) cleared the controversial ₹92,000-crore Great Nicobar Island mega-infrastructure project, disposing of petitions challenging its environmental clearances and citing the project’s “strategic importance.”
The tribunal said it “finds no good ground to interfere” with the project, which will transform one of India’s most remote and ecologically sensitive islands into a major maritime hub with a transshipment port, international airport, township, and power plant spread across more than 160 sq. km.
Tribal lands, pristine forests at stake
Of the total project area, approximately 130 sq km is forest land inhabited by the Nicobarese and Shompen communities—both Scheduled Tribes, with the Shompen classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group. The Shompen, a hunter-gatherer community believed to have lived in the island’s forests for over 30,000 years, largely avoid outside contact.
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The Hindu reported last month that members of the Tribal Council in Little and Great Nicobar had allegedly been pressured by the district administration to “surrender ancestral lands.” Parts of the project in Galathea Bay, Pemmaya Bay, and Nanjappa Bay require the diversion of forest lands where indigenous Nicobarese people had been living before the 2004 tsunami.
The project requires the diversion of nearly a million trees and will impact critical habitats, including Galathea Bay—a nesting ground for the endangered Leatherback Turtle—and home to the Nicobar Megapode, a bird species found nowhere else on Earth.
Government defends ‘national asset’
Defending the project before the NGT in October 2025, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati had emphasised that the Union government has mandated conservation and monitoring programmes to run for three decades. “We have brought in the best scientific resources available to man this,” she was quoting as saying, calling it a future “national asset.”
The government positions the project as India’s answer to Singapore in maritime trade, potentially transforming the country’s strategic presence in the Indian Ocean.
Sustained opposition
The project has attracted sustained criticism from experts. More than 70 scholars, former bureaucrats, activists, lawyers, and environmentalists wrote an open letter in 2025 urging Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav to “set aside political considerations” and focus on the project’s “grave and irreversible negative implications.”
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Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has described the project as a “grave misadventure,” warning it could permanently damage one of the world’s last untouched biodiversity hotspots. Critics have questioned the validity of tribal consent, alleging approvals were obtained through “fake gram sabhas” without genuine consultation.
Seismically active zone
Great Nicobar also lies in a seismically active zone severely impacted by the 2004 tsunami, raising safety concerns about building massive infrastructure in such a vulnerable area.
While the NGT has cleared environmental aspects, the challenge to forest clearances remains pending before the Calcutta High Court, scheduled for “final hearing” in the week beginning March 30. Despite ongoing legal challenges, ground work continues with port bids invited and power plant tenders issued.
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