The Great Nicobar Scandal — India’s Rainforest Is Being Sold for Concrete

The Modi government plans to bulldoze 130 sq km of pristine rainforest on Great Nicobar Island — one of the most biodiverse places on Earth — for a port, airport, township, and power plant. Up to 10 million trees. Gone.

Home to species found nowhere else on the planet. The Nicobar Pigeon (closest living relative of the Dodo). Ancient Saltwater Crocodiles. The world’s largest land crab. Rainbow coral reefs. All sacrificed for a “Hong Kong of India” vanity project.

The Shompen — a tribe that has lived in near-complete isolation for thousands of years — were never consulted. Their forest reserve is being denotified. Their land, handed over. International law, ignored.

Environmental clearances were fast-tracked. The marine turtle reserve was scrapped. UNESCO biosphere boundaries were redrawn. Coastal protection laws were quietly made inapplicable to the project site.

And this is the same government that defangs environmental watchdogs while talking about climate change on world stages.

And while we’re at it —

Remember the Vantara “wildlife rescue center” in Jamnagar? The one owned by Anant Ambani, celebrated in media as a sanctuary for animals?

Elephants kept in concrete enclosures. Exotic wildlife — including animals taken from their natural habitats — held privately. 

What’s marketed as “conservation” is essentially a private zoo for the ultra-wealthy, dressed up in PR language.

In India, destroying a rainforest is “development.” Caging wild animals is “rescue.” The vocabulary of protection is being weaponized to justify the opposite

Destroying Forests, Caging Wild Animals, Modi and Ambani Call It Conservation