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Gravest crime against nature, tribal heritage: Rahul Gandhi on Great Nicobar project
Rahul Gandhi alleges massive ecological damage in Great Nicobar project, vows to raise tribal concerns and deforestation issue in Parliament.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday attacked the Centre over the Great Nicobar Holistic Development Project, calling it “one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against the natural and tribal heritage of the country” and pledging to raise the concerns of local residents in Parliament.
“The government calls what it is doing here a ‘Project.’ What I have seen is not a project. It is millions of trees marked for the axe. It is 160 square kilometres of rainforest condemned to die. It is communities that have been ignored while their homes have been snatched away,” said Gandhi in a post on X, where he also shared a video of himself travelling through the forest.
The project involves an international container transshipment terminal, an international airport, a power plant, and a township over an area of 166.10 sq km, of which 130.75 sq km is forest and 84.10 sq km is tribal land.
Gandhi said that the island is inhabited by a number of communities, including tribals and settlers from the defence forces, all of whom wish to ensure the safety of the land. “They have asked me to raise this issue in Parliament, and I will gladly do that,” he added.
The Congress leader further said that “every single person” on the island is against the project, has not been consulted, and does not know what compensation they will receive for their land. “The people on this island are equally beautiful — both the adivasi communities and the settlers — but they are being robbed of what is rightfully theirs,” he added.
Calling the project “destruction dressed in development’s language”, he said, “So I will say it plainly, and I will keep saying it: what is being done in Great Nicobar is one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against this country’s natural and tribal heritage in our lifetime. It must be stopped. And it can be stopped — if Indians choose to see what I have seen.”
Gandhi urged young people to pay special attention to the matter as it concerns their future.
Meanwhile, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) ruled in February that adequate safeguards have been provided in the conditions for environmental clearance (EC) to the Great Nicobar Holistic Development Project, underlining that there are no valid grounds for it to interfere.
