Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh wrote to Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, raising serious concerns over the Great Nicobar Island Project. He termed its environmental impact assessments ‘demonstrably inadequate’ and alleged a lack of transparency.
Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh has raised serious concerns over the Great Nicobar Island Project, terming the environmental impact assessments “demonstrably inadequate.”
In a strongly worded letter addressed to Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, Ramesh alleged that the project’s clearances fall “woefully short” of the ministry’s own guidelines. “I am sorry to say yet again that the environmental impact assessments of different aspects of the Great Nicobar Island Project are demonstrably inadequate and fall woefully short of guidelines set by the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change itself,” Ramesh stated in his letter.
Transparency and Procedural Lapses Questioned
Highlighting a lack of transparency and procedural lapses, Ramesh submitted five key points for the Minister’s consideration.
He wrote, “Six-monthly compliance reports are to be made public. But after March 2024, no such compliance report has been made available. Minutes of the project monitoring committee meetings are being uploaded several months after they have been held.”
The MP noted that crucial plans from top scientific bodies remain hidden from the public eye. “The environmental clearance calls for conservation and mitigation plans to be submitted within 15 days after the clearance was granted on November 11, 2022. These plans also are not publicly available. These include the plans to be prepared by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology (SACON), the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) and the Andaman and Nicobar Forest Department (ANFD).”
Expressing doubt over the reliability of the process, Ramesh said, “Some of these institutions had been asked to submit revised proposals for monitoring and mitigation plans after incorporating suggestions made by the Environmental Appraisal Committee. These plans, too, are not publicly available. Moreover, it is strange, to say the least, that such plans may have been submitted after appraisal by the committee concerned, raising doubts about their adequacy and reliability.”
The letter further alleged that the updated Environment Management Plan (EMP) is missing from the public domain. “The updated Environment Management Plan based on existing and additional studies is not publicly available. There are at least, as far as I have been able to make out, twelve such studies by different institutions,” the letter read.
Mitigation Strategies Deemed ‘Unrealistic’
Concluding his concerns, Ramesh criticised the feasibility of the project’s ecological mitigation strategies. “A number of studies are still pending proving that the environmental clearance was granted prematurely and hastily. Some of the mitigation plans, like the large-scale relocation of coral colonies, are clearly unrealistic and almost impossible,” he added.
Sustained Opposition to the Project
Earlier in June, Congress MP Ramesh also wrote to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, urging him to reconsider the proposed greenfield airport at Gandhi Nagar-Shastri Nagar in Great Nicobar Island, citing severe ecological and social impacts.
Congress General Secretary (In-charge of Communication) continued to raise strong objections to the Great Nicobar Island mega infrastructure project, flagging that “serious and systematic environmental impact” and accusing the government of bypassing comprehensive environmental assessment norms. (ANI)
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