Context: The NITI Aayog’s ‘Sustainable Development of Little Andaman Island – Vision Document’, proposing to set up a megacity in the Little Andaman Island.

Key Points

• The plan envisages sustainable and holistic development of the 680 sq km, Little Andaman Island in the Andaman and Nicobar group.
• The plan proposes the building of a new greenfield coastal city in the island, that will be developed as a free trade zone.

The plan proposes three development zones

• Zone 1, planned along the east coast of Little Andaman, will be the financial district and medi city and will include an aerocity, and a tourism and hospital district.
• Zone 2, spread over pristine forest, will house the leisure zone, will have a film city, a residential district and a tourism SEZ.
• Zone 3, again spread over pristine forest zone will be a nature zone, further categorised into three districts: an exclusive forest resort, a nature healing district and a nature retreat, all on the western coast. The nature resort complex is to have theme resorts, floating/underwater resorts, beach hotels, and high-end residential villas.
• Necessary infrastructure like an international airport, Greenfield ring road, mass rapid transit network, jetty has also been proposed.

Significance of the proposal

• The proposal aims to leverage the strategic location and natural features of the island to ensure development in the islands.
• The location of the island and its development would augur well for India’s stand in the Indian Ocean region, which it considers as its zone of influence. The document envisages developing the islands into “veritable jewels for the country”.
• The Greenfield city could compete with the likes of Singapore and Hong Kong and emerge as an alternative for business establishments. This augurs well for the Indian economy.
• The infrastructural development could aid employment generation in the region. This could stimulate the development process in the entire Andaman and Nicobar chain of islands.

‘Blocks’ to development

• There are certain factors that could act as impediments in the proposal to develop Little Andaman.

Lack of connectivity

• Lack of good connectivity with the Indian mainland and global cities.

Fragile biodiversity of the region

• Fragile biodiversity and natural ecosystems in the islands.
• 95% of Little Andaman is covered in forest, a large part of it the pristine evergreen type. Some 640 sq km of the island is Reserve Forest under the Indian Forest Act.

Supreme Court notifications

• Supreme Court notifications pose an impediment to development in environmentally-vulnerable areas.

Concerns

Impact on the indigenous tribes of the island

• There is a notable presence of indigenous tribes on the island. Nearly 450 sq km of the island area is protected as the Onge Tribal Reserve.
• The vision suggests the relocation of the tribals to other parts of the island if the need arises. The development process could therefore lead to their displacement and have an impact on their welfare.

Environmental impact

• The plan has raised an alarm among conservationists. The regional forest department too has raised serious concerns over the ecological impact of the project considering the ecological fragility of the region.
• The vision needs around 35% of the island land area and the plan suggests de-reserving 32% of the reserved forest and de-notifying 138 sq km or 31% of the tribal reserve.
• The large diversion of forest land would lead to large scale deforestation and would hence have an adverse impact on the various wild animals that inhabit the area.
• More than 2 million trees stand in the forest land sought for these projects.
• The western coast is one of the most important nesting sites of the globally endangered Giant Leatherback sea turtle.

Lack of environmental impact assessment

• The plan has no inventorisation of forests and ecological wealth and no details of any environment impact assessment. This would handicap the ability to correctly assess the impact of the plan.

Geological vulnerability

• The vision document fails to consider the geological vulnerability of the place, which was amongst the worst-affected in the earthquake-tsunami combination in 2004.

Road Ahead

• The island serves as a unique and rare socio-ecological-historical complex of high importance and this needs to be factored in while planning the development of the island.