The development of a port and airport in the pristine Nicobar islands “will not disturb or displace” any of the Shompen, one of the indigenous, vulnerable tribes native to the island, according to Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav. He offered the assurances in a written response this week to concerns raised by Rajya Sabha MP and Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh earlier this month.
The development, which is part of the ₹72,000-crore Great Nicobar Project, will also help India counter expansionist action by China in the region, curb the stealing of marine resources by Myanmarese poachers, bridge infrastructural gaps, and promote international trade, Mr. Yadav said in his letter. Finally, the site of the project is unlikely to witness an earthquake of the scale that had uprooted the region in 2004, for another 400 to 700 years, he added.
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‘Revoke clearances’
Mr. Ramesh had written to Mr. Yadav on August 10, demanding that all environmental clearances accorded to the project be revoked. He further demanded that Parliamentary panels review the project. The nub of his objections were that the project involved diverting 13,075 hectares of forest land, amounting to about 15% of the island’s area; that some parts of the proposed project fell under parts of the coastal zone where construction was prohibited; that the project was being pushed without seeking the permission of the Shompen and Nicobarese, the resident tribal groups; and that existing laws that prescribe the process to gauge the consent of the tribal communities had been violated.
The project, Mr. Ramesh said, was coming up in an earthquake-prone zone that had seen the ground shift by 15 feet during the 2004 tsunami. The Congress leader also noted that a high-powered committee constituted by the Union government to examine these issues, which were originally raised by environmentalists, had been “opaque” in its findings.
Mr. Yadav replied that the reports of the high-powered committee had not been made public because it was a project of “national importance with strategic and defence dimensions.”
Consent issues
The Environment Minister claimed that due consultation with the resident tribal councils had been conducted in the form of meetings with the Andaman Adim Janjati Vikas Samiti — an organisation run and set up by the administration since 1976 — and that the Chairman of the Tribal Council had attended these meetings.
However, as The Hindu has earlier reported, the Tribal Council had withdrawn its consent for the project. Moreover, the island administration had neither recognised nor granted ownership of any forest land to local tribes as per the provisions of the Forest Rights Act.
These points were not addressed in Mr. Yadav’s letter, which underlined that no objections were raised during the “statutory period” prescribed in the Forest Rights Act. He also added that there are provisions to compensate those who will lose their land due to the proposed airport.
Quake-prone islands
Seismologists opine that an earthquake of the magnitude (9.2 on the Richter scale) that had generated a tsunami in 2004 would likely occur again only after 420 to 750 years, Mr. Yadav said. In the next five to 10 years, the Andaman and Nicobar regions could witness a quake of 5.5 or 6.4 magnitude and a 7-magnitude quake was likely in the next 30 to 50 years. “Criteria prescribed by the National Building Code would be adhered to in building the structures,” he added.
According to a survey by the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, an Environment Ministry body, no part of the project is expected to come up in the most sensitive parts of the islands, that fall under coastal zone 1A.
The Nicobar Islands project will be developed over 30 years in a “phased” manner and the number of trees expected to be felled would likely be “half” of what was estimated, the Environment Minister claimed. Nearly 9.64 lakh trees are expected to be cut for the project, the government told the Rajya Sabha last year.
