Mr. Ramesh, a former Environment Minister, stated the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation goes forward with inviting expressions of curiosity for enumeration, felling, logging and transportation of timber and marking on the bottom areas below the venture.
Union authorities seeks ‘factual report’ on forest rights grievance regarding Nicobar venture
“In August 18, 2022, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration, managed by the Union Home Ministry, licensed that each one particular person and group rights below the Forest Rights Act, 2006, had been recognized, settled, and consent obtained for diversion to the Great Nicobar mega infrastructure venture.
“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 stated in a publish on X.
Mr. Ramesh stated her petition contended that the certification of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands administration didn’t comply with the Forest Rights Act, 2006, in letter and spirit and, the truth is, constituted a really critical breach of the regulation handed by Parliament in December 2006.
“Thereafter, on February 19, 2025, the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, quite strangely, filed an affidavit in the Calcutta High Court submitting that it should be removed from the list of respondents,” the Congress chief stated.
However, on September 8, 2025, he claimed, the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs sought a factual report from the Chief Secretary of the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands on a number of factors raised by the Tribal Council of Little and Great Nicobar Islands concerning the non-compliance by the native administration with the provisions of the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
“The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs seems to be curiously ambivalent even as the challenge in the Calcutta High Court awaits a detailed hearing,” Mr. Ramesh stated.
Editorial | Nicobar triangle: on the ₹72,000-crore venture on Great Nicobar Island
Separately, he claimed, the environmental clearance to the Great Nicobar mega infrastructure venture can be below problem within the National Green Tribunal.
“But all this has not stopped the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation from inviting expression of interest from ” events for enumeration, felling, logging and transportation of timber and from marking on the bottom areas below the venture.
“Galathea Bay has also already been declared as a major port. The blatant violations of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, notwithstanding, the Union Minister of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, notwithstanding, the Modi government is bulldozing this ecological disaster of a project through,” he stated.
Mr. Ramesh stated he has raised this problem beforehand in a collection of letters to the Minister for Environment, Forests, and Climate Change.
Confusion over clearances for Great Nicobar venture persists
Earlier, Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi slammed the venture and alleged that the federal government has made a mockery of authorized, deliberative processes below the venture.
Terming the Great Nicobar infrastructure venture a “planned misadventure,” Ms. Gandhi had stated it poses an existential hazard to the island’s indigenous tribal communities and is being insensitively pushed via, making a “mockery of all legal and deliberative processes.”
This was countered by Environment Minister Bhupendra Yadav, who claimed that each one clearances have been obtained, and defended the venture as obligatory for the nation’s growth.
