In Nicobar, ecology loses, but who gets a windfall?

Two years after the grant of environment and forest clearance, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation Limited (ANIIDCO), the proponent of the Great Nicobar Island mega infrastructure project, recently released minutes of a series of meetings held to discuss implementation of environmental conditions under which the project was cleared.

- Pankaj Sekhsaria

As reported by the Hindustan Times (tinyurl.com/bdecmnp5), the "environment management plan for wildlife, compensatory afforestation, tribal welfare and conservation and mitigation measures during construction and operation of the project will cost around ₹9162.22 crore". This is money to be spent over 30 years, the execution period for the mega-project.

Of this amount, ₹2,220 crore, or nearly 25%, is for conservation plans for different species and ecosystems by institutions that include the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON), Coimbatore, Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, the Zoological and Botanical Surveys of India (ZSI & BSI), and the Andaman and Nicobar Forest Department (ANFD).

On the surface, ₹2,220 crore would seem a very large amount, and perhaps welcome too.

The problem, however, lies in the fact that those getting this money are the very institutions — WII, ZSI and the ANFD — that facilitated the wildlife and environment clearances in the first place.

ZSI, which did an important part of the assessment report leading up to the environment clearance and was also part of the National Green Tribunal (NGT)-appointed high powered committee that dismissed a host of environmental concerns, stands to gain funding of more than ₹1,000 crore over 30 years for three projects it will execute.