A Giant Leatherback Turtle laying its eggs on a beach within a bay on the Great Nicobar Islands. In view is foliage along the bay, waves washing up on shore and a blue sky dotted with white clouds.

A Giant Leatherback Turtle lays its eggs on a beach on the Great Nicobar Islands. The turtles’ largest nesting site on this island is threatened by the construction of the port as part of India’s big infrastructure push for the region. Photo: IMAGO/Pond5 Images

State of Southasia #13: Pankaj Sekhsaria on India’s Great Nicobar misadventure

Environmental researcher Pankaj Sekhsaria says that large-scale disruptions to a geologically sensitive region like Great Nicobar puts ecology, infrastructure, indigenous people and migrants to the island at significant risk.

Published on:

18 Nov 2024, 4:05 am

In September, India’s home minister Amit Shah suddenly announced a name change for the capital of the union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands – from Port Blair to Sri Vijaya Puram. He said the move was meant to “free the nation from the colonial imprints”. But surprised residents of the islands were not entirely happy with the new name that did not resonate with the history of the islands and because of what it would mean for the brand of tourism that the name Port Blair had come to signify.

The government and much of India has often acted as though the islands are a remote outpost meant for tourism and, when opportunity arises, commercial exploitation. In a move far more disruptive than the name change, the government has cleared an infrastructure project on Great Nicobar Island that includes a port, an airport, a power plant and a new township that will increase the island's population from 8,000 to 350,000. The investment in the project will be around INR 72,000 crore or USD 9 billion. Critics have pointed out to the severe ecological damage to the island and the surrounding Andaman sea, disruptions to the local populace including the Nicobarese and Shompen tribes and possible loss of unique species endemic to the islands.

Pankaj Sekhsaria, associate professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (Bombay) and member of Kaplavriksh Environmental Action Group, says that it is important to centre the islands’ interests while considering any development there. Sekhsaria, who has researched and written about the islands for 30 years, discusses the project and its many impacts with associate editor Nayantara Narayanan on this episode of State of Southasia. Recalling the destruction caused by the 2004 tsunami, he said that such large-scale disruptions to a geologically sensitive region such as Great Nicobar puts ecology, infrastructure, indigenous people and migrants to the island at significant risk.

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Episode notes

Further reading from Himal’s archives:

Misguided mega-projects threaten to devastate the Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The damned road of Andamans

Languages of the islanders in Southasia: Part 1

Love in the time of development

Environmentalism is no longer just a fable in Southasian children’s literature

The Sentinelese of the Andamans

Development as disaster