NGT Upholds Great Nicobar Clearance, Shifting Debate to Safeguard Implementation

The National Green Tribunal has upheld the environmental clearance for the Rs 80,000 crore Great Nicobar infrastructure project, finding no grounds to interfere while emphasising that safeguards attached to the approval must be strictly implemented. The project covers approximately 166 square kilometres in southern Great Nicobar and requires diversion of nearly 130 square kilometres of forest land.

The project entails a transshipment port, integrated township, dual-use airport and 450-MVA power plant. The NGT described its approach as balanced, placing weight on conditions embedded in the environmental clearance, forest diversion approvals and Island Coastal Regulation Zone requirements. Safeguards include protections for the leatherback sea turtle, Nicobar megapode, saltwater crocodile and other endemic fauna; requirements that sandy nesting beaches sustain no net loss; and coral protection and translocation measures. The Tribunal acknowledged the project's strategic importance while stating that these safeguards must be strictly implemented.

Biodiversity and ecosystem researcher Deepanjana Saha argues that island ecosystems differ fundamentally from mainland landscapes and the safeguards face inherent difficulties. Freshwater in small islands exists as shallow aquifer lenses resting above saline groundwater, highly sensitive to over-extraction and changes in forest cover affecting recharge. Forest diversion at the proposed scale carries hydrological implications that compensatory afforestation on the mainland cannot replicate, as ecological functions tied to island hydrology are location-specific. Great Nicobar also sits on the Sunda subduction boundary, where the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami permanently altered the island's coastal geography.

Saha argues that for the NGT's decision to be meaningful in practice, monitoring must extend beyond plantation targets to measurable indicators including forest regeneration rates, canopy density, soil stability, groundwater salinity, shoreline erosion rates, coral health and key species populations. Beach profiling and sediment flow studies should be institutionalised rather than reactive. The Shompen and Nicobarese communities' consultation mechanisms should remain continuous as project phases unfold. Saha concludes that environmental clearance is not the conclusion of scrutiny in a fragile island system but the beginning of ecological accountability — one that will be tested as construction proceeds.

Key figure — Rs 80,000 crore Great Nicobar project requires diversion of ~130 sq km of forest land