Continuing his exchange of letters with Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav over the Great Nicobar Islands Infrastructure Development Project, Jairam Ramesh on Tuesday said the government had not chosen a site for the project that would have the least environmental impact. He also said the government had not considered how the Shompen people would cope with the social impact of tourist influx on the island.
The party leader said no one is opposed to “strategic considerations”, but there needs to be a better balance between strategic and environmental considerations.
He was responding to Chief Minister Yadav defending his government's environmental protection measures while pushing ahead with mega infrastructure projects including the construction of transshipment ports, airports, power plants and townships.
Ramesh said Campbell Bay, the least environmentally sensitive location, had not been considered despite red flags being raised in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for the project site. Ramesh charged that the EIA appeared biased towards approving the project as proposed by NITI Aayog.
Ramesh once again raised doubts about the impact of the project on the tribal community: “…direct displacement of the community is not the only threat to its existence. The project will require a large influx of people and tourists, and the Shompen people may not be ready to handle this social contact. Population growth will also inevitably create ecological and resource pressures on the island's land, forest and water resources, directly affecting the Shompen and Nicobar people,” he said.
He further said the proposed project would legally displace the Greater Nicobarese people who were displaced from their ancestral villages after the tsunami in 2004. “The project will close the door on any aspirations of the community to return to their ancestral villages, thus resulting in permanent displacement of the Nicobarese tribal people,” he said.
Ramesh said the ministry's defence that proper public consultations with tribal communities had taken place failed to acknowledge that tribal council chairpersons had very clearly expressed their desire to return to their ancestral villages.
Ramesh termed Yadav's assertion that the project clearance had withstood judicial scrutiny as a “partial truth”. He said the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had set up a high-powered committee to evaluate clearances and irreversible project activities had been suspended.
Ramesh questioned the NGT-appointed HPC's conclusion that no part of the project falls in the Insular Coastal Regulation Zone-IA area where port activities are prohibited. “As per the aforesaid NGT order, the original task of the HPC was to reconsider the environmental clearance considering that the project falls in an ICRZ-IA protected area. The HPC has now got creative by actually reconsidering and revising the nature of the classification from IA to IB,” he said.
Ramesh added, “By definition, areas with corals, turtle nesting sites and ground-nesting birds all fall under ICRZ-IA areas. It is highly implausible that HPC has reclassified the land from ICRZ-IA to IB, especially considering that no results of the field survey have been made public.”
“I hope that my comments will be considered a constructive contribution to the debate on a project that will have far-reaching environmental and humanitarian impacts,” he said.
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