<\/p>\n
Source<\/span><\/b>– The post is based on the article \u201c<\/span>A grave mistake in Great Nicobar\u201d <\/span><\/b>published in \u201c<\/span>The Hindu\u201d <\/span><\/b>on <\/span>22nd March 2023<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Syllabus: <\/span><\/b>GS3- Environment<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Relevance<\/span><\/b>– Environmental challenges related to development projects<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n News<\/span><\/b>– Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has given clearance to a mega project at the cost of about \u20b970,000 crore at the southern tip of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n NITI Aayog<\/span><\/b> is piloting the project and the <\/span>Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation<\/span><\/b> is the project proponent.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The project aims to develop an international transshipment port of 14.2 mTEU cargo capacity at Galathea Bay along the island\u2019s south\u00adeastern coast, an international airport to support 4,000 passengers during peak hours,<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A 450 MVA gas and solar based power plant, and an ecotourism and residential township of about 160 sq km is also proposed.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Hasty clearance<\/span><\/b>– The <\/span>environmental clearance process<\/span><\/b> seems very fast. The <\/span>MoEFCC\u2019s Expert Appraisal Committee <\/span><\/b>initiated the process of environmental clearance in April 2021.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Great Nicobar Island has a population of about 8,000. Once completed, the project is expected to attract more than 3 lakh people. It is equal to the current population of the entire island chain.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>ecological and environmental cost<\/span><\/b> of this urbanisation project in a <\/span>marine and terrestrial biodiverse area<\/span><\/b> appears to not have been considered seriously.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ecological challenges<\/span><\/b>– The island, which is spread over 900 sq km, was declared a <\/span>biosphere reserve <\/span><\/b>in 1989 and included in the <\/span>UNESCO\u2019s Man and Biosphere Programme<\/span><\/b> in 2013.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Afforestation<\/span><\/b> is recommended as compensation for the loss of forest in the Great Nicobar Island is farcical. The EIA report says <\/span>compensatory afforestation<\/span><\/b> will be carried out in Haryana and Madhya Pradesh.<\/span> Far\u00adfield afforestation<\/span><\/b> makes no sense.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n However, the project will end up <\/span>destroying vast stretches of coral reefs<\/span><\/b>. The report recommends <\/span>\u2018translocation\u2019<\/span><\/b> of these organisms. Transplanted corals do not have a <\/span>high survival rate<\/span><\/b> and are <\/span>susceptible to bleaching<\/span><\/b>.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Impact on indigenous people<\/span><\/b>– This project will impact the <\/span>rights of vulnerable tribal communities<\/span><\/b>, such as the Nicobarese and Shompen. They have been living in these areas for thousands of years and who depend on the forests for survival.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Tectonic instability<\/span><\/b>– The Great Nicobar Island is located close to the <\/span>epicentre of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The coastline of the Great Nicobar Island sank several metres during the earthquake. The island topography is slowly regaining its original height.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The <\/span>repeated up and down movement<\/span><\/b> makes the Great Nicobar Island <\/span>unsuitable to be developed<\/span><\/b> as an urban port city. But the EIA report hardly considers the <\/span>tectonic instability <\/span><\/b>around Great Nicobar.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Source– The post is based on the article \u201cA grave mistake in Great Nicobar\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 22nd March 2023.\u00a0 Syllabus: GS3- Environment\u00a0 Relevance– Environmental challenges related to development projects\u00a0 News– Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has given clearance to a mega project at the cost of about \u20b970,000… Continue reading A grave mistake in Great Nicobar<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[216,10498],"class_list":["post-233567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-3","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233567\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What are some facts about the mega project at Andaman and Nicobar Island?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n
What are issues related to this mega project?<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n