Why in news?

The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has granted an in-principle clearance for the diversion of 130.75 sq. km of forest on Great Nicobar Island for the mega project

The mega project:

• It includes transhipment port, an airport, a power plant and a greenfield township
• The project implementation agency is the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation (ANIIDCO)
• A key condition for the clearance is the submission of a detailed scheme for compensatory afforestation

Impact:

• The area is nearly 15% of the thickly forested Great Nicobar Island. This will be one of the largest single such forest diversions in recent time
• the island has among the best preserved tropical forests in the world, is home to nearly 650 species of flora and 330 species of fauna.
• It includes endemic species such as the Nicobar shrew, the Nicobar long-tailed macaque, the Great Nicobar crested serpent eagle, the Nicobar paradise flycatcher and the Nicobar megapode, among many others.

Significance:  

• these are primary evergreen tropical forests with high biological diversity and also high endemism

Nicobar Island

• It is an archipelagic island chain in the eastern Indian Ocean.
• They are located in Southeast Asia, northwest of Aceh on Sumatra, and separated from Thailand to the east by the Andaman Sea.
• UNESCO has declared the Great Nicobar Island as one of the World Network of Biosphere Reserves
• Indira Point is the southernmost point of Great Nicobar Island and also of India itself, north of Sumatra, Indonesia.

Geography:

• Part of a great island arc created by the collision of the Indo-Australian Plate with Eurasia.
• They are the islands off the west coast of Sumatra, including the Banyak Islands and Mentawai Islands.

Climate

• Warm and tropical, with temperatures, Rainfall is heavy due to annual monsoons

Ecology:

• Recognised as a distinct terrestrial ecoregion, the Nicobar Islands rain forests, with many endemic species.
• Typically divided into the coastal mangrove forests and the interior evergreen and deciduous tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests.
• Several islands contain extensive inland grasslands

Protected areas

• Campbell Bay National Park and Galathea National Park on Great Nicobar

Ethnic groups

• Nicobarese
• Shompen
• Mainland Indians

Nicobar shrew

• IUCN: Critically endangered
• Habitat: It is endemic to the Great Nicobar Island of India.

Nicobar long-tailed macaque

• IUCN status : Vulnerable
• Habitat: It is a subspecies of the crab-eating macaque. Endemic to the Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal. This primate is found on three of the Nicobar Islands—Great Nicobar, Little Nicobar and Katchal

Great Nicobar serpent eagle

• IUCN status : Near threatened
• Habitat: It is endemic to forest on the Indian island of Great Nicobar.

Nicobar megapode

• IUCN status: Vulnerable
• Habitat: Its a megapode found in some of the Nicobar Islands