What is the Great Nicobar Project?

Table of Content

• About Great Nicobar
• About the Great Nicobar Project
• Significance of the project
• Concerns with the Great Nicobar Project
• What has Government been doing to address these challenges?

About Great Nicobar:

• Great Nicobar is located at the southernmost tip of India, part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
• Indira Point, earlier known as Pygmalion Point, lies at the tip of the Great Nicobar Island and is the southernmost point of the country.
• It is roughly equidistant from Colombo in Sri Lanka to the southwest and Port Klang (Malaysia) and Singapore to the southeast & located near the East-West international shipping corridor.

Ecology:

• It is a UNESCO biosphere reserve and part of the Sundaland biodiversity hotspot.
• It mainly consists of tropical rainforest, located in southeastern Bay of Bengal. 
• The vegetation of the island is broadly divided into evergreen hill forest, tropical rainforest, littoral forest, and mangrove vegetation. 
• The leatherback sea turtle is the island’s flagship species.
• Of the more than 2,500 species of fauna and flora found on the island, 17% are endemic.

About the Great Nicobar Project:

• It is a ₹72,000 crore development plan to develop Galathea Bay International Container Transhipment Terminal (GBICTT), Great Nicobar International Airport, Great Nicobar Gas and Solar Power Plant, and 2 new coastal cities the Great Nicobar.
• Itaims to make Great Nicobar a key player in global maritime trade and to promote tourism by enhancing the island’s infrastructure.
• The idea was first conceived in 2021, by NITI Aayog and is being developed by Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDC).

Details about each project:

• GBICTT: Its development will attract existing traffic of ports along the eastern coast of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, as they form the primary catchment for transshipment terminal.
• Great Nicobar International Airport: It will be developed as a “joint military-civil, dual-use airport”, under the operational control of the Indian Navy and will cater to tourism as well.
• Township: It will be made up of commercial, industrial and residential zones, but a major part of land will be set apart for tourism projects and activities.

Significance of the project:

• Enhance global maritime trade: Located near the Malacca Strait, an important maritime route, the project will increase India’s participation in global maritime trade. Malacca Strait connects the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.
• Strategic importance: It will help to counter the Chinese influence which wants to deploy maritime forces at the Indo-Pacific choke points, especially Malacca, Sunda, and Lombok.
• Tourism: Roads, public transport, water supply and waste management facilities, and several hotels have been planned to cater to tourists.

Concerns with the Great Nicobar Project:

Impact on Tribes:

• The project violates the rights of tribal communities living on the island such as Shompen, a PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group) and Nicobarese tribal communities.
• Shompen tribes are at the risk of contracting diseases, due to being isolated for many years.
• The use of tribal lands without proper consent.

Ecological Concerns:

• It has many endemic species such as the giant leatherback turtle, the Nicobar megapode, the Great Nicobar crake, the Nicobar crab-eating macaque, etc.
• The transshipment terminal will be developed at Galathea Bay, one of the world’s largest nesting sites for the giant leatherback turtle. 
• The project will clear 130 sq. km of forest land and Galathea Bay wildlife sanctuary and the Megapode wildlife sanctuary were denotified for this purpose.
• The Government had released a ‘National Marine Turtle Action Plan’ that lists Galathea Bay as a marine turtle habitat in India.
• Coral reefs and the mangroves on the islands are particularly threatened.

Earthquakes:

• Great Nicobar is located in a seismically active zone “ring of fire,” which is prone to earthquakes. Thus, safety & feasibility of the project may be compromised.
• The area is in Category V: the geographical zone with the most seismic hazard.

What has Government been doing to address these challenges?

• Compensatory afforestation for the trees felled in the Great Nicobar has been planned, in the different ecological zone of Haryana. 
• India has translocated a coral reef from the Gulf of Mannar to the Gulf of Kutch earlier.

Ref: Source

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