‘Biggest Scam, Largest Theft’: Great Nicobar Project Needs To Be Stopped, Says Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi: In a social media video post on X on April 29, Lok Sabha leader of the opposition Rahul Gandhi said that the projects proposed by the Union government on the Great Nicobar island are one of the “biggest scams” and “largest thefts of ecological property” that has taken place in the country.
Gandhi was referring to the slew of infrastructure projects that the Union government is constructing on the Great Nicobar Island, the southernmost island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago in the Bay of Bengal. Claiming that the project is of immense ‘defence importance’ and ‘national security’, the Union government proposes to build an international transshipment terminal, a township, a power plant and a greenfield airport and these projects will replace 130 square kilometres of lush, primary rainforest, apart from causing other impacts such as the destruction of coral reef and turtle nesting sites.
'To fulfil Adani’s fantasies'
Standing under large old-growth rainforest trees on the Great Nicobar island on April 29, Gandhi said that this was “easily the most beautiful forest” he had seen in his life. However, all these trees are going to be cut “with total disregard for the people who live here, with total disregard for the damage this is going to do to India’s ecology”, he said.
He also alleged that the Union government was going ahead with these projects so that Gautam Adani, the owner of the Adani Group, would benefit from this:
“It’s amazing that 160 sq km of this forest is going to be chopped up so that one businessman Mr. Adani can fulfill his fantasies. Just the wood here is worth lakhs of crores,” said Gandhi.
“This is possibly one of the biggest scams and largest thefts of Indian property, of ecological property, that has ever taken place,” he added.
According to a report by The Hindu, Gandhi spoke with leaders of the Nicobarese community at Rajiv Nagar in Campbell Bay on April 28, and the islanders explained their concerns and fears about the Union government's Rs. 92,000-crore infrastructure project on the island. Per the report, Gandhi’s visit to the island comes weeks after a delegation from the island visited him in Delhi to raise these issues.
In his social media post on April 29, Gandhi said that every single person who lives on this island was against this project, that they have not been asked about this project, and that they do not know what compensation they are going to get for their land.
“The government calls what it is doing here a “Project.” What I have seen is not a project,” Gandhi wrote on X. “It is millions of trees marked for the axe. It is 160 square kilometres of rainforest condemned to die. It is communities that have been ignored while their homes have been snatched away. This is not development. This is destruction dressed in development’s language. So I will say it plainly, and I will keep saying it: what is being done in Great Nicobar is one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against this country’s natural and tribal heritage in our lifetime.”
The project must be stopped. And it can be stopped if Indians choose to see what he has seen, Gandhi said.
I travelled through Great Nicobar today.
These are the most extraordinary forests I have ever seen in my life. Trees older than memory. Forests that took generations to grow.
The people on this island are equally beautiful - both the adivasi communities and the settlers - but… pic.twitter.com/vYdBWdYfIJ
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 29, 2026
Travel restrictions placed during Gandhi’s visit
On April 27, the Nicobar Times reported that helicopter services to the Nicobar group of islands had been suspended from April 28 to May 1, or until further orders, due to the issue of Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) by the Chennai Flight Information Region. NOTAMs are time-sensitive alerts issued to pilots regarding temporary hazards, closures or changes in procedure. Per the report, the temporary halt in services was expected to impact inter-island connectivity, and specifically helicopter transport. This is the fastest means for residents, tourists or visitors to commute between islands.
The timing of the issuance of the NOTAM with Gandhi’s visit had raised criticism from the Congress.
“And now I understand why the government didn’t want me to come here,” Gandhi said in his video post on April 29. “And why the government did a whole exercise to stop me from getting here. It’s wholesale theft and I wish more people could come and see this,” he said.
He said that there are local communities, tribals and settlers from the defence forces who had asked him to raise the issue in parliament.
These people are doing this “in a hidden manner, surreptitiously, and this needs to be told to the whole nation, especially young people because this is your future”, Gandhi said in his video post.
'A recipe for ecological disaster'
“Viability aside, it is a recipe for ecological disaster,” commented Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who is also a former Union environment minister, on April 27 in a social media post on X.
This is a distinguished former navy chief giving his professional view on the Great Nicobar Infra project. Viability aside, it is a recipe for ecological disaster. https://t.co/gbP3UPUrW7
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) April 28, 2026
Ramesh was responding to a comment by former admiral Arun Prakash that the “future viability” of the transshipment container terminal “seems doubtful” because it lies equidistant from the established bunkering and transshipment hubs of Singapore, Port Klang and Hambantota, and because Vizhinjam in Kerala has just taken off as a major trans-hub.
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