4 min readNew DelhiMay 3, 2026 01:36 PM IST
The Congress Sunday issued a rebuttal to the Centre’s fact-sheet on the Great Nicobar Island mega infrastructure project, terming it ‘damage control’ following Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the island.
It said the government has failed to address the “serious concerns” raised on the project by the local affected communities, environmentalists, anthropologists, and academics.
The rebuttal by Jairam Ramesh, Congress general secretary in-charge communications, centred on the island’s ecological concerns, tribal rights, the project’s financial and physical feasibility, and transparency. The former Union environment minister also said that India’s “legitimate security imperatives” should not be linked with “a so-called development project” and that security considerations needed at the very least a debate in Parliament.
The Centre had issued a lengthy press release on Saturday, days after Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the Great Nicobar Island. The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha called the project “one of the biggest scams” and “gravest crime” against natural and tribal heritage after meeting Nicobarese community leaders and settlers from the ex-servicemen community. The Centre had claimed in its press note that no tribal will be relocated while underlining the project’s strategic and defence purpose.
Congress’s rebuttal dwelt at length on the ecological concerns, ranging from the project’s impact on the island’s ecological and biological richness to raising questions on allowing the proposed transshipment port in Galathea Bay, a Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) 1A area site where ports are not allowed.
“Galathea Bay, the site of the port, is unequivocally a Coastal Regulation Zone 1A site where… construction is not allowed. As per records of the Zoological Survey of India, Galathea Bay is home to more than 20,000 coral colonies, a key marker of a CRZ-1A categorisation. Similarly, the beach here is the most important nesting site of the Giant Leatherback turtle in the Northern Indian Ocean,” Ramesh stated.
Calling the proposal to compensate for the loss of Nicobar forests in Haryana a “travesty” of ecological principles, Ramesh underscored that a “tree cut in Nicobar can simply not be replaced by two, five, or even 10 trees planted elsewhere,” especially in Haryana’s semi-arid ecosystem. Taking aim at the Centre’s claim that 7.11 lakh trees are to be cut within 49.86 sq km, Ramesh said there is no evidence to back these claims.
Story continues below this ad
“The number of trees to be cut according to the May 2022 minutes of the expert appraisal committee was 8.52 lakhs. In a statement in Parliament in August 2025, the Union Minister of Environment, Forests and Climate Change claimed that the (number of) trees to be cut was 9.64 lakh. The latest press release puts that number at 7.11 lakh. Which one is to be believed?” he asked. Further, referring to the expression of interest invited for the enumeration, felling, logging, and transportation of these trees, Ramesh said this indicated that the government does not know the number of trees to be cut.
The Nicobarese tribe, the senior leader added, has expressed concerns several times on the project’s impact on forest rights and their way of life, and questioned whether the government obtained consent from the Shompen tribe, a largely uncontacted, particularly vulnerable tribal group.
Pointing to a recent government meeting of the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Committee on the port project, Ramesh said that its financial feasibility was flagged within the government itself. The greenfield transshipment port, he added, must divert existing traffic from established ports like Singapore, Port Klang, and Hambantota to meet its projections.
