Overview

• Posting on X, the Congress leader said warning of an ecological and humanitarian disaster is a civic responsibility and accused the minister of dodging basic questions.
• He questioned whether diverting lakhs of trees violates the National Forest Policy, 1988, and said the Forest Rights Act and due consultation with tribal bodies have been disregarded.
• Ramesh called the proposed compensatory afforestation in Haryana a poor substitute for Great Nicobar’s old-growth rainforest and noted that a quarter of the identified land there has been freed for mining.
• He warned that the plan threatens endangered species such as leatherback turtles, megapodes and saltwater crocodiles and asked how risks from the island’s seismicity and 2004 tsunami subsidence have been addressed.
• He also demanded publication of ground-truthing reports tied to the CRZ reclassification for the transshipment port, as Yadav defends the project’s strategic aims, limited forest use and components including a port, airport, power plant and township.