Overview

• The Rs 72,000-crore 'Holistic Development of Great Nicobar' proposes a transshipment port, international airport, township and power plant over more than 160 sq km.
• Gandhi alleges the government is advancing the project without consulting key statutory and local bodies, citing the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes and the Tribal Council, which she says revoked a previously issued no-objection letter.
• She warns that the Nicobarese could be permanently displaced because their ancestral villages fall inside the project area, while the Shompen face denotification of reserve land and isolation from their forests.
• She flags large-scale deforestation risks, noting an official estimate of 8.5 lakh trees to be felled and independent estimates ranging from 32 lakh to 58 lakh, with the loss of old-growth rainforest called irreplaceable.
• She questions biodiversity studies for relying on off-season and limited methods, alleges coastal-zone protections were weakened through an unpublished high-powered committee report, and highlights seismic hazards in the earthquake-prone location.