Interview: Now ‘everyone is afraid’ of speaking about the Great Nicobar project, says ornithologist

It was going to be a busy day for Dr Asad Rahmani. As a member of the standing committee of the National Board of Wildlife, he was examining 16 development projects proposed inside or around wildlife sanctuaries, to be discussed during a scheduled meeting that day in October 2011. Three of these projects were proposed in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

One proposal, from the Indian Navy, would involve the temporary use of Tillanchang Sanctuary in Little Nicobar to test a dummy missile, another, from the Border Roads Organisation, suggested a survey before the construction of a road through Galathea Bay in Great Nicobar, and the third, from the Indian Coast Guard, would entail the installation of a coastal surveillance radar and power supply source in Narcondam island, in the Andaman group.

Rahmani, who had been on the board since 2007, saw all three projects as detrimental to the unique bird and wildlife population of the islands. He told the other members present in the meeting that the “test firing was likely to have an impact on the life cycle of the megapode”, the location of the proposed road “was the nesting site of the leatherback turtle”, and given that Narcondam was the only home...

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