Bengaluru: India’s apex green court, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) said on Monday (February 16) that there were ‘no good grounds to interfere’ with aspects including the environmental clearance given by the Union environment ministry for a series of proposed infrastructure projects on Great Nicobar Island in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.The Union government has proposed a slew of projects on the Island including an international transshipment terminal, a township, a power plant and a greenfield airport. The projects, costing more than Rs 80,000 crore, will also involve clearfelling trees in 130.75 square kilometers of the island. Experts including ecologists have said that around a million trees, including rainforest trees, will be cut for this.But all safeguards are in place to protect the island’s biodiversity and people, the NGT claimed in its order dated February 16, accessed by The Wire.‘National importance’A coram of justices Prakash Srivastava (Chairperson of the NGT), Dinesh Kumar Singh and Arun Kumar Tyagi, along with expert members A. Senthil Vel, Afroz Ahmad and Ishwar Singh made this pronouncement on Monday. They were hearing cases filed by Ashish Kothari, founder of environmental NGO Kalpavriksh, who had objected to several aspects including the Stage-I Environmental Clearance for the projects in 2022. In 2024, Kothari had also cited the Island Coastal Regulation Zone (ICRZ) Notification of 2019, and argued that these projects come under ICRZ-IA per the Notification, and that such activities are prohibited in such ecologically sensitive areas. In 2022 too, Kothari had filed a case in the NGT questioning the Stage-I clearance that the Union environment ministry had afforded to the projects in November 2022, which permitted clearing tropical rainforests across 130.75 square kilometers on the Island, for these projects.The Union government in its response to the NGT in 2024 had cited that the projects were of immense “national importance”:“The holistic development of [the] Great Nicobar Island project is a project of national importance in view of the security, socio economic benefit and strategic location. The prestigious project of holistic development of Great Nicobar Island will transform the archipelago. There is pressing urgency and this great project of national importance may not be held up on the basis of mere unsubstantiated and unfounded apprehension.”In another response, it had also refused to make public the details and report of the High Powered Committee (HPC) on the project – again citing that the report contained “strategic, defence and national importance and has confidential and privileged information”. The NGT had also concurred with this point: in November 2025, the NGT said that it will only place on record only those parts of the HPC report that have been made public. Excerpts which have been withheld and not been made available even to a petitioner on the issue – by citing “strategic and national importance” and submitted in a sealed cover to the NGT – will not be referred to in its proceedings, the Tribunal had said. In its order on Monday too, the NGT claimed that the project “is very important for India from the strategic point of view” as well as for defence. Adding that the Union environment ministry had already given Stage-I environmental clearance considering the situation as per the coastal zone regulations, the NGT also claimed that the Tribunal had – in the first round itself – found that tribal communities were “duly represented at the public hearing and they will not be displaced”. This is contradictory to what the tribal communities themselves have spoken out about. As recently as less than a month ago, tribal communities had alleged that the island administration had asked them to sign a “surrender certificate” which means that they will surrender all claims to their lands in the area for the project – and that they would not concede. In October last year, ecologists and researchers wrote to the Union environment ministry citing that comments by members of the Tribal Council were omitted from the proceedings of the public hearing for the Social Impact Assessment of the trunk road infrastructure project.However, the NGT does not appear to have taken any of this into account. It also claimed in its order that the project “does not fall within the boundary of any national park or wildlife sanctuary or their eco sensitive zone and diversion of forest for the Project was as per the provisions of National Forest Policy, 1988.”. It said that as per the Policy, the aim should be to maintain two-third of the area under forest cover in hilly and mountain regions and that the diversion of 130 sq km of forest would still permit this – and that more than two-third of the geographical area of the island would still be under forest cover despite the planned projects.The NGT’s ‘balanced approach’The NGT claimed in its order that a “balanced approach” was required. “It is a clear case where neither strategic importance of the project can be denied nor the conditions of ICRZ Notification can be ignored or marginalised. Hence, a balanced approach is required to be adopted while considering the issue of allowing development of the port on a strategic location, the importance of which has already been stated in the previous paragraphs of this order and taking adequate steps to carry out the activity strictly in terms of the ICRZ Notification, 2019 instead of prohibiting the activity if the objection is based on apprehension.”The NGT also said that the union government and the High Powered Committee had “found” that the area marked for the project in Galathea Bay – which is a nesting site for leatherback turtles – does not fall under the CRZ-I category. The NGT further added that all safeguards pertaining to these issues were in place for the project, and that the Union environment ministry had provided for these in environmental clearance – in terms of mangrove restoration, coral translocation and welfare of local tribal population of Shompen and Nicobaris, as well as protection of leatherback sea turtle, the Nicobar megapode, saltwater crocodiles, Nicobar Macaque, other endemic bird species of Great Nicobar Island, among others. These also included forming managing committees to ensure that these safeguards are met, the NGT noted. It also cited the Zoological Survey of India’s contradictory finding – that there are no corals in the proposed area, but that 16,150 colonies found within 15 meters depth in proximity of the project (which clearly shows that corals do exist in the area) can be translocated for their protection. This is not a violation of the coastal regulation zone notifications, the NGT’s order claimed.The NGT also concurred with the Union government that a three-season study was not required for the Environment Impact Assessment, and that its existing single-season study – which experts had raised concerns about, as The Wire previously reported in 2022 – was acceptable. “Thus, we find that adequate safeguards have been provided in the EC [Environmental Clearance] conditions and in the first round of litigation the Tribunal had refused to interfere in the EC and remaining issues noted by the Tribunal in the first round of litigation have been dealt with by the High-Powered Committee and considering the strategic important [sic] of the Project and taking into account the other relevant considerations, we do not find any good ground to interfere,” the NGT said in its order.