Govt hell-bent on inflicting ecological disaster: Jairam Ramesh on Great Nicobar project

Jairam Ramesh expresses grave concern over Great Nicobar Island project, questions credibility of high-powered committee in letter to Environment Minister.

Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has written to Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav over the Great Nicobar Island infrastructure project, alleging the high-powered panel tasked to revisit environmental clearances to the project was "biased" in its very composition and did not carry out any meaningful reassessment.

Mr. Ramesh also expressed "grave concern" over expressions of interest being invited even as the National Green Tribunal deliberates on petitions before it.

In his letter to Mr. Yadav, he also questioned the credibility, composition, and conclusions of a high-powered committee (HPC) tasked to revisit the environmental clearances granted to the Great Nicobar Island infrastructure project.

"It is also a matter of grave concern that while the NGT deliberates on petitions before it, ANIIDCO has already invited expressions of interest that is a precursor for the clearing of around 65 square km of biodiversity-rich forests. I believe the Government of India is hell-bent on inflicting an ecological and humanitarian disaster on our country," the former Environment Minister said.

Mr. Ramesh cited media reports stating that the Ministry has filed a counter affidavit to the NGT's eastern zone bench in which it has said that the clearances granted for the Great Nicobar infrastructure project have not violated the Island Coastal Regulation Zone (ICRZ) notification, 2019 and NGT orders to revisit the project's green clearances have been complied with.

"I read news reports about the counter-affidavit filed by the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in the National Green Tribunal on the Great Nicobar Island Development Project on which we have had detailed exchanges earlier. "First, I am shocked that the High-Powered Committee (HPC) constituted by the MoEF&CC in pursuance of the NGT's directive to review environmental and CRZ clearances did NOT associate any independent institution or expert when the NGT had given it the flexibility to do so," he said.

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