New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday wrote to Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav, calling the environment impact assessment (EIA) done ahead of the Great Nicobar project a “mockery of the EIA process” and an “insult to science”.Slamming the limited data collected as part of the EIA process, Ramesh questioned the quality of the data on the basis of which clearances have been granted for the mega development project.Ramesh wrote that the law mandates comprehensive EIA studies for port projects in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, especially in ecologically sensitive zones like Great Nicobar Island. He cited a 2009 Office Memorandum issued by the environment ministry, which requires port projects above five million tonnes per annum in the islands to undergo “comprehensive Environment Impact Assessment including physical and mathematical modelling and ground verification.”The Congress leader said that the sector-specific EIA manual for ports and harbours also requires the collection of physical, chemical and biological baseline data across at least two or three seasons to properly assess environmental impacts, particularly in coastal regions vulnerable to erosion and ecological disruption.Referring to the government’s “Great Nicobar Project: FAQs” issued on May 1, 2026, which claimed that the ecological impacts of the project had been “comprehensively identified, assessed, and effectively managed”, Ramesh said that he was unable to locate any such “comprehensive and robust EIA studies” in the documents available publicly.Rapid EIAInstead, he pointed to the final EIA report submitted in March 2022, which stated that environmental baseline studies were conducted only during a single winter season between December 2020 and February 2021. The Congress leader said this was at best a “Rapid EIA”, which former environment minister Prakash Javadekar had himself described in parliament as inadequate for assessing environmental concerns in ecologically sensitive coastal stretches.Ramesh highlighted that biodiversity and ecological surveys cited in the EIA were carried out over extremely short durations. The primary survey of ecology and biodiversity, he said, was conducted over nine days in December 2020, while the survey of leatherback turtles lasted just seven days in February 2021.Quoting directly from the EIA report, he noted that surveys inside the island’s dense forests were feasible “only to a limited extent” because of “thick impenetrable forests”, and that the report itself admitted that “what is uncovered so far is not complete and what is hidden may be even more valuable.”He also referred to reports prepared by the Zoological Survey of India and the Wildlife Institute of India, saying that these studies too were based on rapid assessments conducted over brief periods in early 2021.Calling the studies “grossly inadequate”, Ramesh wrote that the reports “are not even rapid EIAs and are based on baseline data collection over a few days and weeks at best.”Secrecy around the High-Powered Committee reportRamesh also questioned the secrecy surrounding the report of the High-Powered Committee constituted following a 2023 order of the National Green Tribunal. The tribunal had observed “unanswered deficiencies” in the project’s environmental clearance and directed a review by the committee.Ramesh said the Union environment ministry had claimed before the tribunal that the committee’s deliberations and report were confidential. “I am at a complete loss to understand the logic and legality behind the claim of the MoEF&CC that the HPC’s report is confidential. This goes against all basic principles of transparency and accountability to which you claim commitment,” Ramesh wrote, arguing that all other project documents were already in the public domain.“In the interests of good governance and informed public debate, please make the HPC report public,” he added.The Congress leader reiterated that Great Nicobar Island’s biodiversity was “globally unique” and warned that the mega project would irreversibly damage the island’s fragile ecosystem. “Finally, I wish to reiterate that the Great Nicobar Island’s biodiversity is globally unique, and new discoveries are being made from time to time. It is this unique ecosystem that will be destroyed by the Great Nicobar Island development project. The compensatory afforestation argument is completely bogus and you know it. Security experts have themselves written that the country’s essential security needs can be met without inflicting such ecological devastation. I once again urge you to pause, reflect, and revisit the project in its present design and detail,” Ramesh said.