The proposed “Holistic Development of Great Nicobar Island” — led by NITI Aayog and cleared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change — aims to build an international container-transhipment port at Galathea Bay, an airport, a power plant and a 160 sq km township. The plan seeks to turn the island into a trade and transit hub rivaling Singapore or Hong Kong, handling up to 16 million TEUs annually, and housing about 350,000 residents.

But such ambition comes with a colossal cost. Clearing roughly one million trees from a UNESCO-recognised biosphere reserve would destroy rainforest habitat that hosts hundreds of endemic plant and animal species — including endangered turtles, unique birds, reptiles and mammals. Coral reefs and marine ecosystems in Galathea Bay would also be destroyed or relocated, a method experts find scientifically dubious.

The island’s indigenous Nicobarese and Shompen communities — among India’s most vulnerable tribal groups — risk losing their ancestral lands and cultural identity, with scant evidence of informed consent or proper social safeguards. Adding further gravity, Great Nicobar lies in a zone of permanent tectonic strain and seismic instability — previously hit by the catastrophic 2004 earthquake. Building a deep-draft port, airport and expansive township in such a fragile geological setting is risky, even reckless.