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Ecology & Environment
Mahesh

22/09/22 21:35 PM IST

Green nod for strategically-crucial Great Nicobar Island mega project

In News 
  • The Union environment ministry's Expert Appraisal Committee has given its nod to the development of a strategically crucial, multi-component mega project in the Great Nicobar Island.
  • The project will involve felling of around 8.5 lakh trees in pristine rainforests, loss of 12 to 20 hectares of mangrove cover and considerable coral translocation. 
About the project 
  • The project involves the development of a military-civil, dual-use airport; an international container trans-shipment terminal; a gas, diesel, and solar-based power plant, and a township.
  • The airport proposed at Gandhi Nagar-Shastri Nagar area would be a joint military-civil, dual-use airport, under the operational control of the Indian Navy.
  • This project is for defence, strategic, national security, and public purposes. In view of this, the portion of deliberation made for the airport component may not be made public.
  • The Great Nicobar Island (GNI), which is the southernmost part of the Indian territory, is one of the most strategically important areas.
  • The Andaman and Nicobar Islands provide India with a commanding geostrategic presence in the Bay of Bengal and access to South and Southeast Asia.
  • The project site is within a 10 km radius of the Galathea Bay National Park and the Campbell Bay National Park but is outside the ecologically-sensitive zone notified around the two national parks.
Concerns 
  • Three premier institutes -- Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) -- provided scientific inputs to the EAC on the impact of the project on the flora and fauna of the GNI.
  • SACON and WII have provided a 10-year mitigation plan in this regard.
  • The Department of Environment and Forests, Andaman and Nicobar (A&N) Administration has prepared a mangrove conservation and management plan.
  • The coral cover required to be translocated from the proposed site is around 10 hectares. Approximately 16,150 of the 20,668 coral colonies will be translocated.
  • The panel also asked the project proponent to not cut trees in one go.
  • These will be done in a phased manner and depending on the progress of the work on an annual basis.
  • Trees with nesting holes of endemic owls to be identified and geo-tagged with the help from SACON. Such trees shall be safeguarded, as far as possible.
Source- Indian Express 

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