The commercial framing of the project by the Narendra Modi government cannot be allowed to avoid parliamentary scrutiny on strategic matters
During his visit to Great Nicobar island, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has drawn national attention to the proposed Great Nicobar Holistic Development Project — a deep-sea transhipment port and allied infrastructure valued at around Rs 80,000 crore.
He denounced it as the “largest theft of India’s ecological property” and “one of the biggest scams” in Indian history, describing it “destruction dressed in development’s language.” The project involves clearing 160 sq km of pristine forest, with nearly a million trees likely to be felled. Gandhi alleged that tribal communities were misled into granting consent, and that ancestral lands were being handed to the Adani Group.
The project has been deeply controversial ever since it was proposed by Niti Ayog in 2021 and more specifically, when the National Green Tribunal upheld its environmental clearance in February citing its ‘strategic importance’. Its location — 150 km from the Malacca Strait’s western entrance — can give India leverage over one of the world’s busiest maritime chokepoints.
The centrepiece of the project is an international transhipment port at Galathea Bay (Rs 40,000 crore), alongside a greenfield airport, a township of over 16,610 hectares, and a gas-solar plant. Critics warn of devastating ecological consequences: loss of mangroves, threats to endangered species such as the leatherback turtle, saltwater crocodile, Nicobar megapode, and Nicobar macaque. Indigenous Shompen tribes, classified as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), face existential risks from disease exposure due to the influx of outsiders.
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After the truth-shower 