1 Crore Forest Trees to be Uprooted, 32.123 acres of Pristine Forest to be deforested...
Union Government of India has planned mega infrastructure development project in Great Nicobar Island, situated in the south of Andaman Island. Union has also allocated 80,000 crores of public tax money to implement this ecocide.
The Government has proposed a host of new "development" projects, including an international cruise terminal to facilitate port-led city and accommodate high-end tourists, a ship-building and ship-repair facility, and an export-import (exim) port to help bring in construction material from neighbouring countries, a power plant and 130 sq.km township project and other real estate projects by destroying the 32,123 acres of forest.
A key concern with the project from the very beginning has been the scale of forest destruction proposed, with a large portion allocated for the township, real estate infrastructures, large commerical shipping port that are proposed. Initial numbers for trees to be cut ranged from 8.65 lakh, as mentioned in the March 2021 project proposal prepared by AECOM India Ltd to 9.64 lakh, stated by the government in Parliament.
Recent media reports based on calculations done by scientists suggested that the 8.65 lakh number, staggering as it was, has been underestimated.
One ecologist noted that if the government claims that 8.5 lakh trees are to be cut across 6,500 hectares, it is in effect claiming that there are 130 trees per hectare of the forest. This value for the density of the forest seems questionable, the ecologist argued. “This is the kind of density you would see in places like Gujarat or Rajasthan, where there are dry thorn forests, scattered trees with grass and shrubs,” said the ecologist who requested anonymity to ensure that the organisation they worked for did not face any backlash. “Whereas the Nicobars are almost a pristine forest.”
In contrast to the government’s estimation, scientific research on the Andaman and Nicobar islands by scholars has found that the density of the trees in the forests, which include mangroves, littoral forests and dense tropical rainforests, ranges between 500 trees and 900 trees per hectare. By this estimate, clearing 6,500 hectares of forest would mean cutting between 32 lakh trees and 58 lakh trees. If all 13,000 hectares of forests for which the government has granted clearance are cut, the number of trees that will be cut could be as high as 1 crore.
This alone vitiates the forest and environment clearances granted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in 2022—both because they were based on incomplete and inaccurate information, and due to the underestimation of the environmental impact and biodiversity loss.
The forests of Great Nicobar are an unexplored biodiversity treasure trove besides being the traditional home to communities such as the Shompen, who live there for centuaries whose survival is intricately linked to these forests and who have special status under Indian law.
This island are reserved forest which is protected by various law as the place holds importance in biodiversity. Union government has denotified these clauses to start the deforestation.
Academics from around the world have urged India to cancel a huge construction project on Great Nicobar Island, warning it would be “a death sentence” for the Shompen hunter-gatherer people who live there.
The Shompen rely on the rainforest for their existence and have little contact with the outside world. Isolated for so long, the academics believe they could die from disease if they come into contact with outsiders.
There is a little mention of what will happen to shompen tribes in government documents.
Gaint leather back Turtle has nesting site in Galatea bay, a beautiful beach where the development project is proposed. The great Nicobar is the only place where these turtles nest. If they are taken away, the entire Gaint Leather back turtle might go extinct. It is the largest of turtles that can grow upto 8 feet and can weight upto 900 kgs.
These turtles has been living in this planet since the time of dinosaurs before Human where there in Earth. Who are we to destroy their nesting site? How have we become so arrogant. Government also plans to create brabed fence so that shompens don't interact with us. We are entering into their territory and destroying their forest on which they have lived for generations and finally took their land and lock them away with barbered fence. Is this development?
Its is also important to note that the proposed area is in high seismic zone. This is means the place can experience heavy earthquakes more frequently. Now, critics argue that this 80,000 crore money invested in seismic zone can vanish, if one earthquake happens. Yet, Union government and Indian bureaucracy has become so arrogant tha they are not even ready to listen to very basic and important issue lying beneath it.
Its time to rethink what development is and what values we hold as a society and where we are heading in the name of development.
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Further Reading into the Subject:
1) The Great Nicobar Sellout:
When “development” means uprooting people, plundering forests, and selling paradise to profiteers, whose future are we really building?
2) Great Nicobar: Disaster in the making
The mega project on the island was cleared using incomplete, inaccurate data, grossly underestimating its environmental and biodiversity impact
3) "The Great Nicobar Project: A costly miscalculation?" - M Rajshekhar
The proposed container port lacks commercial logic, its naval merits are unclear—so why is this project being pushed through at any cost?
4) Great Nicobar’s mitigation plans reduce restoration to tree-planting and reef relocation—a deceptive fix for irreversible ecological loss.
5) On the brink: 10 endangered species of the Nicobar Islands
"The islands are home to a rare mix of wildlife found nowhere else on Earth. Here are ten that face the greatest threat from the Great Nicobar project.
6) 1 Crore Trees to be deforested not 8 lakh Trees
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