Great Nicobar Plan of NITI Aayog
Source : The Hindu
GS III : Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation, environmental impact assessment

Why in News ?

The Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC) Infrastructure I of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has flagged serious concerns about NITI Aayog’s ambitious project for Great Nicobar Island (‘NITI Aayog vision for Great Nicobar ignores tribal, ecological concerns.

Key Facts

• It has recommended it for grant of terms of reference (TOR) for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies which in the first instance will include baseline studies over three months.
• Great Nicobar Plan of NITI Aayog proposal includes
  • An international container trans shipment terminal
  • A greenfield international airport
  • A Power plant and a township complex spread over 166 sq. km
• All these include mainly pristine coastal systems and tropical  Forests) and is estimated to cost 75000 crore.
• What are the concern ?
  • There are some missing information.
  • That included
    • The minutes of the meeting note
    • details of the township to be developed over 149 sq. km
    • A note on seismic and tsunami hazards, freshwater requirement details
    • Details of the impact on the Giant Leatherback turtle
      • Galathea Bay is an iconic nesting site in India of the enigmatic Giant Leatherback.
    • The committee also noted that there were no details of the trees to be felled a number that could run into millions.
    • The project area has some of the finest tropical forest in India.
  • Concern of 6.5 lakh people are envisaged to finaly inhabit the island when the present population is only 8,500 and the  current total population of the entire island chain is less than 4.5 lakh.
  • Site selection for the port had been done mainly on technical and financial criteria, ignoring the environmental aspects.
  • The need for an independent assessment of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, a study on the impact of dredging, reclamation and port operations, including oil spills need to be done.
  • The last few years have reported a number of new species, many restricted to just the Galathea region.
    • These include the critically endangered Nicobar shrew, the Great Nicobar crake, the Nicobar frog, the Nicobar cat snake, a new skink, a new lizard and a snake of the Lycodon.

Giant Leatherback Turtle

• Galathea Bay is an iconic nesting site in India of the enigmatic Giant Leatherback.
• The world’s largest marine turtle.
• Conservation status : Vulnerable
  • Recent estimates of global nesting populations are that 26,000 to 43,000 females nest annually which is a dramatic decline from the 115,000 estimated in 1980
• The three major, genetically distinct populations occur in the Atlantic, eastern Pacific, and western Pacific Oceans.

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