• The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has cleared the decks for a mega infrastructure project in Great Nicobar Island—the stage-1 (in-principle) forest clearance were granted on October 27, 2022, and the environmental clearance on November 11.
  • The project has a Rs.35,000 crore transshipment port at Galathea Bay, an international airport, a power plant, and a greenfield township on more than 160 square kilometres of land, including 130 sq km of primary forest.
  • Researchers and NGOs from across the country have raised nearly 400 concerns relating to ecology, rights of indigenous communities, and the tectonic volatility and disaster vulnerability of the island.
  • A Right to Information (RTI) application filed in October seeking details of the clearance, including the proposed compensatory afforestation scheme, was rejected citing security, strategic, scientific, or economic interests of the state. Not a single document pertaining to the forest clearance has been made available on the Ministry’s Parivesh portal to date.