NITI Aayog’s vision for Great Nicobar ignores tribal, ecological concerns

What appears to be a replay of recent developments in Little Andaman Island (a bullet through the heart of an island, Hindu, 1 February), over 150 sq km. Land is being made available for Phase I of a NITI-Pilot-‘comprehensive ‘and’ sustainable ‘vision for Great Nicobar Island, the southernmost part of the Andaman-Nicobar Group. It occupies about 18% of 910 sq km. The island, and will cover about a quarter of its coast. The overall plan envisages use of about 244 sq km. – A large part is ancient forest and coastal system.

The projects to be executed in the first phase cover a 22 sq km. The airport complex, a transshipment port (TSP) in the South Bay at an estimated cost of Rs 12,000 crore, a parallel-to-coast mass rapid transport system and a free trade zone and warehousing complex on the southwest coast.

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As the nodal agency of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO), what has come to prominence in the entire process starting in mid-2020 is the speed and coordination with which it all came to light. The second NITI is the centrality of Aayog. First, on September 4, 2020, the Director, Tribal Welfare, A&N Islands formed an Empowered Committee to examine NITI Aayog’s proposals for various projects in Little Andaman and Great Nicobar Islands. A copy of the 2015 policy ‘Policy on the Shompane Tribe of Great Nicobar Island’ was part of a communication sent out indicating the objectives of the committee.

There have also been significant changes on legal changes for wildlife and forest conservation.

Ecological specificity

At its meeting on January 5, 2021, the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) Standing Committee designated the entire Galathia Bay Wildlife Sanctuary to be allowed to harbor.

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The NBWL committee was unaware that India’s National Sea Tortoise Action Plan was being prepared at the time (it was released on February 1, 2021) called Galathia Bay as’ important coastal and marine biodiversity areas’ and ‘important marine The turtle was listed as one of the ‘habitats’. in country. It is included in the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) -I, the area with maximum security.

Then, on 18 January, another Environment Ministry Expert Committee approved the “Zero Limit” Ecologically Sensitive Zone (ESZ) for Galithia NP, which lands in the southeastern and southeastern part of the island for the NITI scheme. Allows to use. . The October 2020 draft notification for this zero threshold was ironically listed by the ESZ as the park’s ecological distinctiveness – that it is part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with a wide variety of forests, one of the most. There is a well preserved tropical rainforest. The world is home to 648 species of flora and hosts 330 species of fauna including rare and endemic creatures like Nicobar wild boar, Nicobar tree peel, Great Nicobar, Serpent Eagle, Nicobar Paradise Flycatcher and Nicobar megapod. It also notes that the park is home to the indigenous Shomen community.

The notification states that an ESZ is required to protect the park from an ecological, environmental and biodiversity point of view, but to propose a zero limit ESZ for approximately 70% of the park’s perimeter, in the next next paragraph goes.

It is almost as if the unique diversity of life has suddenly vanished due to an arbitrary line drawn to allow high value projects.

This is illustrated in the case of the giant leatherback turtle and the Nicobar megapod, two charismatic species for which the Great Nicobar is very important. Like the mouth of the Galathia River in the South Bay, the beaches here are among the most prominent nesting sites around the world. It is for this reason that the bay was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1997, but has now been designated to allow for Transparent Port.

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In his 2007 study of the Nicobar megapod, unique to the endangered bird Nicobar, K. Sivakumar of the Wildlife Institute of India documented 90% of this ground’s nesting birds nest 30 meters from shore. He notes that the existing protected area network in Great Nicobar is not designed for the conservation of megapods and recommends that the entire west and southern coast of Great Nicobar – the area sought for by NITI’s new proposals – megapods and Be protected for others. Wildlife such as sea turtle nesting. This is also in contrast to the current move to create a zero boundary ESZ for Galathia National Park.

Showman threatened

Similar concerns are about the impact on the Shomen community. The proposed project areas are the key critical foundation for the nomadic community of this hunter-gatherer and the official showman policy of 2015, with particular attention given that the welfare and integrity of these people should be prioritized “future large-scale development proposals In relation to “Nicobar Islands (eg trans-shipment port / container terminal etc.)”. Now, the large forest areas here can be inaccessible and useless for showmen.

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The available evidence suggests that the geological instability issues of these islands are also not fact. December 26, 2019, ‘Tender Document by WAPCOS Limited for Traffic Study to Build Transhipment Port in South Bay’, Great Nicobar Island, upholds Port. Given here that “the island’s topography is most appropriate, which has not been damaged more than the tsunami on 26.11.2004 (sic).”

Nevertheless, the 2005 Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI) Special Earthquake Report by a multi-disciplinary team from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, witnessed witness accounts of 8-meter-high tsunami waves hitting the Great Abobar coast on 26 December. were recorded. , 2004. “The lighthouse at Indira Point, located on the southern tip of Great Nicobar Island, which was on high ground before the earthquake,” the report states, “is now under water, which is about 3-4 meters of land sub-section. Prompts. “

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The loss of life and property was then limited because the Great Nicobar coast is largely uninhabited. It questions the security of life, property and investment in the region and that too without accounting for its complex ecological, social and geological weaknesses. Little, if anything, the NITI Aayog visionary document itself is also aware – what is its rationale? What was its manufacturing process? Which agencies / individuals were involved? Have impact assessments, if any, been done at all?

Neither NITI Aayog nor the agencies facilitating it with enthusiasm and efficiency have made it available.

(Pankaj Sekhsaria has been researching issues in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands for over two decades. He is also the author of five books on the islands.)