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Take a look at the essential concepts, terms, quotes, or phenomena every day and brush up your knowledge. Here’s your upsc current affairs knowledge nugget on the Great Nicobar infrastructure project.
A six-member bench of the NGT, headed by Justice Prakash Shrivastava, commenced fresh hearings on two key pending petitions against the project, alleging violation of the Island Coastal Regulation Zone (ICRZ) 2019 notification, and another seeking directions to revisit the environmental clearance for the project.
While hearings on these petitions had begun in 2024, fresh hearings commenced Wednesday as the six-member bench had to be reconstituted due to the completion of the tenure of two judicial members.
1. The Great Nicobar Island (GNI) infrastructure project was conceived by NITI Aayog and launched in 2021. The project involves construction of an international container transshipment terminal, a township and area development, a 450 MVA gas and solar-based power plant, and a dual use civilian and military airport. The project will be spread over 166 sq km.
2. The project is being implemented by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO). It aligns with India’s Maritime Vision 2030 and is one of the key projects under the Amrit Kaal Vision 2047.
3. Several issues have been raised with respect to the project, which include violation of the ICRZ and displacement of two particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs)- Nicobarese and Shompen.
4. Violation of ICRZ: As per the project proposal, a total of 7.07 sq km of the project fell under ICRZ-1A. The port component covers 0.57 sq km, the reclamation area of the port contains 0.06 sq km, the airport contains 0.60 sq km, the township for defence is spread over 0.81 sq km and the township is over 5.03 sq km of ICRZ-1A areas.
5. The ICRZ-IA areas comprise ecologically sensitive areas such as mangroves, corals and coral reefs, sand dunes, mudflats, marine parks, wildlife habitats, salt marshes, turtle nesting grounds and bird nesting grounds among others.
6. Displacement of two tribes: Spanning approximately 910 sq km — 850 sq km of which is a tribal reserve — the Great Nicobar island is home to two historically isolated Indigenous communities: the Shompen, a hunter-gatherer people classified as a PVTG, and the Nicobarese, who sustain themselves through horticulture, pig-rearing, hunting, and foraging. The government has maintained that while a couple of villages will be relocated, not a single habitation of the tribes will be touched.
6. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a cluster of 836 islands, split into two groups — the Andaman Islands to the north and the Nicobar Islands to the south — by the 150-km wide Ten Degree Channel.
7. Great Nicobar is the southernmost and largest of the Nicobar Islands, a sparsely inhabited 910-sq-km patch of mainly tropical rainforest in the southeastern Bay of Bengal. Indira Point on the island, India’s southernmost point, is only 90 nautical miles (less than 170 km) from Sabang at the northern tip of Sumatra, the largest island of the Indonesian archipelago.
8. Great Nicobar has two national parks, a biosphere reserve, small populations of the Shompen and Nicobarese tribal peoples, and a few thousand non-tribal settlers. Notably, the Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve was included in the list of Man and Biosphere (MAB) Program of UNESCO in 2013.
1. CRZ Rules govern human and industrial activity close to the coastline, in order to protect the fragile ecosystems near the sea. The Rules, mandated under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, were first framed in 1991. In 2019, the government notified new CRZ Rules with the stated objectives of promoting sustainable development and conserving coastal environments.
2. The basic idea is: because areas immediately next to the sea are extremely delicate, home to many marine and aquatic life forms, both animals and plants, and are also threatened by climate change, they need to be protected against unregulated development.
3. Only such projects/activities, which are located in the CRZ-I (Ecologically Sensitive Areas) and CRZ IV (area covered between Low Tide Line and 12 Nautical Miles seaward) shall be dealt with for CRZ clearance by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The powers for clearances with respect to CRZ-II and III have been delegated at the State level with necessary guidance.
4. According to the National Centre For Sustainable Coastal Management, “the Island Protection Zone (IPZ) Notification, 2011, declares the coastal stretches (areas within 500 meters from High Tide Line along seafront or up to hazard line if delineated on landward side) of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and their water area upto territorial water, as the IPZ for regulation of developmental activities.”
(i) ICRZ – IA: Ecologically Sensitive Areas and Geomorphological features such as Mangroves, Sand dunes, Corals, Mud flats, Turtle Nesting Grounds, Salt marshes, Sea grass, Reserve Forest etc.
(ii) ICRZ – IB: Intertidal Zone (Between High Tide Line and Low Tide Line)
(iii) ICRZ – II: Developed Areas (Municipal limit or existing legally designated urban areas)
(iv) ICRZ – III: Rural area (developed and undeveloped)
(v) ICRZ – IV (i): Water Area (LTL to 12 Nautical Miles towards Sea)
(vi) ICRZ – IV (ii): Water Area of tidal influenced water bodies (Creek/River/Canal)
Consider the following statements regarding the Coastal Zones Regulation (CRZ) in India.
1. CRZ are defined under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.
2. All the projects falling under the CRZ are cleared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Which of the following statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 and 2
| Answer key |
| (a) |
(Sources: Nicobar port plan: Flagged in no-go zone earlier, now in permitted area, Centre submits report on Great Nicobar project to NGT in sealed envelope, Coastal Regulation Zone: How rules for building along coast have evolved, https://ncscm.res.in, Why is Great Nicobar Island Project important for UPSC exam?
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