Great Nicobar Project 'Recipe for Ecological Disaster': Jairam Ramesh Writes to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh
New Delhi: In a letter to Union defence minister Rajnath Singh, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh on Sunday (May 17) has written against the Great Nicobar Island Project and said that its "present shape and form is a recipe for ecological disaster" and provided three alternatives.
The Union government has proposed a slew of projects on the Great Nicobar Island including an international transshipment terminal, a township, a power plant and a greenfield airport. The projects, costing more than Rs 80,000 crore, will also involve clearfelling trees in 130.75 square kilometres of the island. Experts have raised concerns around the project, while Ramesh himself has over the last week written two separate letters to Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav and Union minister for tribal affairs Jual Oram.
In his letter to Singh on Sunday, Ramesh said that the project which is a "commercial venture and is facing growing public criticism because of the ecological damage it will cause, is being sought to be justified by the Government of India supposedly on overriding security considerations."
Ramesh said that while there cannot be two opinions on the need to strengthen the nation’s defences, there can also be no two opinions on the need to project India’s strategic capabilities in a credible manner. He has suggested three alternatives.
“First, INS Baaz located in Campbell Bay on the Great Nicobar Island was commissioned in July 2012. But plans for at least trebling the length of the existing runway and making a naval jetty have been awaiting approval for almost five years. These plans have far less adverse environmental impacts as well,” he wrote.
After writing to the Union Minister of Environment, Forests, & Climate Change and the Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, I have written to the Raksha Mantri on the Great Nicobar Island Project. pic.twitter.com/wGJOJ3OqGK
— Jairam Ramesh (@Jairam_Ramesh) May 17, 2026
The Congress MP said that there are also assets of the Andaman and Nicobar Command that could be expanded.
“Second, there are also assets of the Andaman and Nicobar Command created many years ago that could be expanded with far less environmental costs. These include INS Kardip, INS Kohassa, INS Utkrosh, INS Jarawa & the Car Nicobar Air Force Station,” he wrote.
“Third, the transshipment port and the township that are an essential part of the Great Nicobar Island Project do not enhance our country’s military capability in any way. Yet, now that suddenly has emerged as a major justification for them.”
He added that the project in its “present shape and form is a recipe for ecological disaster.”
“I would urge you, as the nation’s Raksha Mantri, to seriously consider the above alternatives that have, in fact, been proposed by distinguished naval officers themselves in their writings,” the letter said.
Earlier on May 13, Ramesh had written to Oram and highlighted several violations of the Forest Rights Act 2006 in the processes followed to push forward the infrastructure projects on the island, and urged the tribal affairs ministry to take remedial action immediately.
Prior to that, Ramesh wrote to Yadav and reiterated that Great Nicobar Island’s biodiversity was “globally unique” and warned that the mega project would irreversibly damage the island’s fragile ecosystem.
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