PM Modi marching towards 'environmental disaster' in Great Nicobar: Cong

Upping the ante against the Great Nicobar Island Project, the former environment minister shared on X his extensive public engagement over the past few years on the venture and its devastating impacts on the unique biodiversity-rich ecosystem.

“There has been interest in accessing my extensive public engagement over the past few years on the Great Nicobar Island Project and its devastating impacts on that unique biodiversity-rich ecosystem.

Here is an anthology of (i) most of the social media posts; (ii) a couple of brief interventions in Parliament; and most importantly (iii) letters to various Union Ministers and their replies as well,” Ramesh said, sharing the public engagements.

There will undoubtedly be more such public engagements as the prime minister “continues the onward march to environmental disaster” in Great Nicobar, even as five different petitions filed by public-spirited and concerned citizens and civil society groups are in the Calcutta High Court, Ramesh said.

Ramesh also listed the challenge in the high court premised on violations of the Coastal Zone Regulation Notification, 2019 and the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, and the challenge on various grounds of the oder of the National Green Tribunal dated February 16, 2026.

“The nation’s ecological conscience is on trial,” Ramesh said.

Last week, Ramesh, who has been raising concerns over the Great Nicobar Island (GNI) project, wrote a letter to Union minister Sarbanand Sonowal, seeking clarifications on the development of a transhipment port under the project.

Ramesh has written multiple letters to Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, raising questions over the project and highlighting the “ecological havoc” it would result in.

The Congress leader, in his letters to Yadav, has highlighted the demonstrably “dubious nature” of the environmental impact assessment of the project in its totality.

The Congress has attacked the government over the project, saying the transhipment port on Galathea Bay is a recipe for ecological havoc and would lead to large-scale destruction of coral colonies.