India Aims to Rival China – With a Giant Port on a Paradise Island
The plans are ambitious: a mega-port and associated urban development project on the largely untouched Nicobar Islands. In light of the threats to global shipping, India aims to create its own hub for trade and defense. Critics are outraged, calling it destruction disguised as development.
Great Nicobar Island lies at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. About one-third of global maritime trade, including the majority of China’s energy imports, passes through here.
But the island itself—part of the Indian Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands—is sparsely populated, mostly covered by dense rainforest, and known for its rich biodiversity. It is also home to endangered and isolated indigenous peoples.
Rainforest being cut down
Here, the Indian government is planning a massive port with a price tag of $9 billion. The project is of great strategic and defense importance, claims Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The plan is to counter China, safeguard Indian interests, and strengthen control over critical sea lanes.
But the project is facing criticism. The construction of the port, along with its associated airport, power plant, and city, means that at least 160 square kilometers of pristine rainforest will be cut down, according to opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.
This could be one of the biggest frauds and the greatest theft of Indian ecological property ever, he rages in a video on X.
Threatens isolated peoples
Around 9,000 people live on the island. Of these, 1,200 belong to various indigenous groups, including the Shompen people, who live in isolation as hunters and gatherers.
Last year, claimed Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav that the project poses no threat to either ecologically sensitive areas or the island’s indigenous peoples. The human rights organization Survival International disagrees.
In addition to destroying the local environment and the Nicobarese indigenous peoples, the Great Nicobar project would completely wipe out the Shompen, a largely uncontacted people living in the rainforest, the organization’s Sophie Grig told the AFP news agency.
The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are two archipelagos in the Bay of Bengal. Together, they form a union territory of India.
There are just over 800 islands, but only about 30 of them are inhabited.
The capital is Port Blair on the island of South Andaman.
The British arrived in the Andamans in the 18th century, and in the mid-19th century they established a penal colony on South Andaman.
The Nicobar Islands were periodically under Danish rule in the mid-18th century and were then called the Frederik Islands. In 1869, the Nicobar Islands became British and were annexed to the Andaman Islands.
Between 1942 and 1945, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were occupied by Japan. With India’s independence in 1947, both archipelagos became part of India.
Small remnants of various indigenous peoples live on some of the islands. To protect them and their environment, outsiders are prohibited from visiting these islands.
Sources: National Encyclopedia
