Agencies
New Delhi: Asserting that the mega infra project in Great Nicobar Island is a “grave threat” to the natural ecosystem, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has urged Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav to suspend all clearances accorded to the project and called for its thorough and impartial review, including by the parliamentary committees concerned.
In a letter to Yadav, former environment minister Ramesh said the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change must fulfil its dharma, and not allow itself to be reduced to becoming a project proponent, especially when the project has decidedly “disastrous” human, social and ecological consequences.
“You may recall our recent exchange in the Rajya Sabha during Question Hour. The Union Government's proposed Rs. 72,000 crore ‘Mega Infra Project' in Great Nicobar Island is a grave threat to Great Nicobar Island's tribal communities and natural ecosystem,” Ramesh said.
The project can have “catastrophic ecological and human consequences” and has been pushed through by violating due process and sidestepping legal and constitutional provisions protecting Tribal communities, he claimed.
“First, the project will require the diversion of 13,075 hectares of forest land 15% of the island's area, and a nationally and globally unique rainforest ecosystem,” he said.
Compensatory afforestation, which is no substitute whatsoever for the loss of natural biodiversity-rich forests, is being planned thousands of kilometres away and in a vastly different ecology, Ramesh said.
“Parts of the project site reportedly come under CRZ 1A (areas with turtle nesting sites, mangroves, coral reefs), as had been noted in an National Green Tribunal (NGT) order in response to petitions challenging the clearances. Port construction is prohibited in this zone,” he said in his letter dated August 10.
However, recently, a High-Powered Committee (HPC) set up by the NGT has concluded that the port does not fall in CRZ- 1A, but in CRZ-1B where port construction is allowed, Ramesh pointed out.
