The security fiction behind the Great Nicobar Project

The Great Nicobar Project rests on a familiar but weak construct. It begins with the claim that development can be made harmless through compensatory afforestation, then moves to the claim that strategic value can outweigh ecological loss, and finally ends by asking the public to trust that a tropical island ecosystem, an indigenous community, and a sensitive maritime frontier can all be transformed at once without permanent damage. That argument does not hold.

Compensatory afforestation is the clearest sign of the project’s ecological disconnect. Great Nicobar is a land-constrained island already covered by forest over more than 75% of its …