Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh on Sunday (September 14, 2025) said the Great Nicobar mega infrastructure project was an "ecological disaster" being "bulldozed" through by the Modi government, even though environmental clearances have been challenged in courts.
Mr. Ramesh, a former Environment Minister, said the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation is going ahead with inviting expressions of interest for enumeration, felling, logging and transportation of trees and marking on the ground areas under the project.
Union government seeks ‘factual report’ on forest rights complaint concerning Nicobar project
"In August 18, 2022, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration, controlled by the Union Home Ministry, certified that all individual and community rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, had been identified, settled, and consent obtained for diversion to the Great Nicobar mega infrastructure project.
"On December 18, 2024, he said, this approval was challenged in the Calcutta High Court by Meena Gupta, a retired IAS officer who had been secretary in both the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and had also been a senior official in the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs," he said in a post on X.
