More Than Two Lakh People Sign Petition Against Great Nicobar Projects
New Delhi: An online petition urging the Union government to withdraw the projects it has planned on Great Nicobar island has garnered more than 2.10 lakh signatures as of Thursday night (May 21). The petition highlights the “extensive deforestation” that the projects will cause and stresses on the need to promote sustainable alternatives for development on the island.
The Union government has planned a slew of infrastructure projects on Great Nicobar Island, the southernmost island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. These include an international transshipment container terminal, a greenfield airport, a township and a power plant.
Citizens including biologists, social scientists, conservationists and retired civil servants have raised numerous concerns such as the government’s underestimation of the trees that are likely to be felled for the projects, a flawed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), ignoring the dissent of local communities, and bypassing laws including the Forest Rights Act to provide permissions for the implementation of the projects.
Also read: The Great Nicobar Project – A Geological Folly and a Strategic Gamble
The petition reiterates several of these concerns, inlcuding the deforestation of 130 square kilometres of rainforest by felling 9.6 lakh trees, though some experts peg this number at close to one million, and that the port project will threaten biodiversity at Galathea Bay, in the southeastern part of the island.
The petition also highlights the concern that the infrastructure projects will displace and affect the indigenous Shompen and Nicobarese tribes, that the projects lack thorough ecological, social and environmental impact assessments, and that these have been proposed in a region that witnesses high seismic activity and is vulnerable to tsunamis.
View of rainfall over the forest and adjacent sea from a watchtower of the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve, Great Nicobar Island, 2016. Photo: Prasun Goswami/Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0.
“The project encompasses urban development through residential townships and hotels, highlighting business and economic advantages. However, this focus on economic growth comes at the expense of severe ecological and social impacts that cannot be overlooked,” the petition noted.
Also read: Gram Sabha that Cleared Great Nicobar Island Project Didn't Meet 50% Quorum
The petition initiated by PURA (Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas, a sustainable rural development strategy proposed by former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam) is addressed to President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, and the National Board for Wildlife under the Union environment ministry.
As of 7:50 pm on May 21, the petition — floated more than a year ago on Change.Org — had garnered 2,10,669 signatures.
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