Greater Nicobar project a recipe for ecological disaster: Jairam Ramesh

📌 Summary:

• Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh wrote to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh (May 17, 2026) terming the Great Nicobar Island Development Project in its current form an "ecological disaster"
• Centre has been citing strategic interests (Indo-Pacific dominance, countering China in Indian Ocean Region) as justification for the project
• Ramesh proposed less-damaging alternatives: (i) expand INS Baaz at Campbell Bay (commissioned July 2012) — already-approved runway lengthening and naval jetty plans pending for ~5 years; (ii) expand existing Andaman & Nicobar Command assets (INS Kardip, INS Kohassa, INS Utkrosh, INS Jarawa, Car Nicobar AFS) with fewer environmental costs
• Argued the transhipment port and township components of the project add no military capability and emerged only recently as justification
• Project involves a ₹72,000-crore "holistic development" of Great Nicobar — international container transhipment terminal (Galathea Bay), greenfield airport, township and a 450 MVA gas/solar power plant
• Concerns: clearing of ~130 sq km tropical rainforest, displacement of Shompen and Nicobarese tribes (PVTGs), impact on Galathea Bay leatherback turtle nesting and Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve
• Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi had earlier raised the same objections

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 (Environment – Conservation, EIA; Internal Security – Maritime/Border) and GS2 (Governance – Tribal rights, FRA). Tests EIA, PVTG rights, Indo-Pacific strategy vs ecological conservation.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• Great Nicobar — southernmost island of Andaman & Nicobar Union Territory; closest Indian territory to Indonesia (~150 km from Aceh)
• INS Baaz — naval air station at Campbell Bay, Great Nicobar; commissioned 2012; India's southernmost air base
• Andaman & Nicobar Command — India's only Tri-Service Theatre Command (Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard under one commander)
• Shompen and Nicobarese — Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) of Great Nicobar
• Galathea Bay — known nesting site of giant leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea), world's largest sea turtle
• Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve — UNESCO Man & Biosphere Programme site (2013)

🔑 Key Term: Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) — sub-category of Scheduled Tribes with pre-agricultural technology, low literacy, declining/stagnant population, and physical isolation; 75 PVTGs in India, including Shompen of Great Nicobar.