New Delhi, March 22 (IANS) Congress leader and former Union Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh has expressed his support for a scientists’ body that has come out against the Great Nicobar mega infra project, warning how it could irreversibly disrupt the island’s unique ecosystem and impact its flora and fauna, especially the long-tailed macaque.
“The Association of Indian Primatologists is a community of dedicated scholars, researchers, and conservationists. Its courage in coming out so openly against the Great Nicobar mega infra project is to be applauded,” Ramesh said in a post on X, attaching the association’s statement.
He noted that the IAP has said that the “Wildlife Conservation Plan (WCP) and budget that the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation Limited (ANIIDCO) has claimed to have adopted from the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) is not available in the public domain and has been denied under Sec. 8.1 (a) of the RTI by the MoEF&CC. It has further clarified that no WCP is capable of mitigating the large-scale deforestation and land use alterations purported by the project”.
“The Nicobar long-tailed macaque is remarkably understudied and it is impossible that the SACON could have gathered the data required to prepare a WCP that is adequate,” the group said.
The association warned that deforestation will impact local atmospheric temperature and humidity, “which is intolerable for the Nicobar long-tailed macaque”, and “amplify the ongoing decline in precipitation due to climate change which will diminish food resources and their diversity for the macaques”.
“The massive scale of the land use change will push the species towards functional extinction and threaten floral and faunal species that are ecologically linked with it,” the primatologists’ body said.
The Association of Indian Primatologists said that it had raised objections during the public hearing in January 2022, offering a scientific projection of the threats posed to the macaques.
“We are bound by morality and ethics to state that we can no longer remain a mute spectator and be a party to the brutalities to be inflicted upon the island and the species thereof. We stand in absolute opposition to the Great Nicobar Project,” it added.
Ramesh said that the “threat to the long-tailed macque (sic) is only one reason why the Great Nicobar mega infra project is a recipe for ecological disaster”.
As per reports, the geostrategic Rs 75,000 crore Great Nicobar mega infra project, conceived by the NITI Aayog, is being developed by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDC).
With defence, logistics, commerce and industries, eco-tourism, and coastal tourism aims, it comprises the Galathea Bay International Container Transhipment Terminal with 14.2 million TEUs of cargo capacity eventually, the greenfield Great Nicobar International Airport (GNIA), with peak hour capacity of 4,000 passengers, the 450 MVA Great Nicobar Gas and Solar Power Plant, and two new greenfield coastal cities.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change’s Expert Appraisal Committee had granted the environmental clearance in November 2022 after considering the environmental risks and mitigation strategies.
–IANS
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