A six-member special bench of the National Green Tribunal has cleared the controversial Great Nicobar mega infrastructure project, saying it found “no good ground to interfere” as adequate safeguards had been built into the project’s environmental clearance.

The ₹80,000-crore project , formally called the Holistic Development of Great Nicobar Island , is being projected by the government as a strategic, economic and defence imperative. It includes a transshipment port, an international airport, a township and a power plant on Great Nicobar Island, one of India’s most biodiverse and ecologically sensitive regions.

Environmentalists and rights groups, however, warn that the project could irreversibly damage tropical rainforests, coral reefs and key turtle nesting sites, while also threatening the survival of the Shompen tribe, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). Critics also point to the island’s high seismic risk and its history of devastation during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.