Nicobar project largest theft of Indian property to fulfil fantasies of one businessman: Rahul Gandhi

The Great Nicobar Island (GNI) project is “one of the biggest scams… the largest theft of Indian property” that is being undertaken to fulfil the “fantasies of one businessman” despite the damage it will do to India’s ecology, said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday (April 29, 2026).

Mr. Gandhi, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, who was in the island on Tuesday, said in a video statement, “What is happening here is that all these trees are going to be cut with total disregard for people who live here, with total disregard for the damage this will do to India’s ecology. So that one businessman, Mr. Adani, can fulfil his fantasies.”

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He said that “millions of trees marked for the axe” in the “160 sqkm of rainforest” are “condemned to die” as part of the ₹92,000-crore project to build an international transhipment port, an airport, and a tourism-centric township.

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“This is not development. This is destruction dressed in development’s language,” he said, adding that the project is “one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against this country’s natural and tribal heritage in our lifetime”. “It must be stopped. And it can be stopped – if Indians choose to see what I have seen,” he said.

Mr. Gandhi spent a day in Great Nicobar, meeting local Nicobarese tribal communities, settlers and ex-servicemen families. His visit came amid protests by the Nicobarese communities against clearances granted to the project. They have alleged that their forest rights had not been settled and have expressed apprehensions about losing access to their ancestral villages, and the forests.

“Every single person who lives here is against this project, none of them has been asked about it, and they do not know about the compensation they are supposed to receive. This is being done in a hidden manner, surreptitiously. Now, I know why the government did not want me to come here. This is the largest theft of Indian property that has ever taken place,” he said.

While the National Green Tribunal, earlier this year, cleared the project, noting that the Union government had considered all possible damage to the ecology and had taken efforts to compensate for it, a challenge to the clearance is pending in the Calcutta High Court. The court is hearing allegations that consent procedures for the project had been violated and that forest rights had not been settled. It is expected to hear the matter next in May.

Mr. Gandhi’s visit came weeks after a delegation of leaders from the Tribal Council of Little and Great Nicobar met with him in New Delhi to raise concerns about the project. The leaders had earlier written to him about their representations to the government going unheeded following which Mr. Gandhi wrote a letter to the Union Minister of Tribal Affairs.

Speaking on his visit, Mr. Gandhi said, “These are the most extraordinary forests I have ever seen in my life. Trees older than memory. Forests that took generations to grow. The people on this island are equally beautiful – both the adivasi communities and the settlers – but they are being robbed of what is rightfully theirs.”

The Congress has been amplifying concerns raised by local communities about the project, with party leader and former Minister Jairam Ramesh discussing those with Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav. Senior Congress leader Sonia Gandhi had called the project an “ecological disaster”.

The local administration has issued a draft master plan for the project and another draft plan outlining the proposed relocation of Nicobarese families. Both plans have created confusion among the locals and heightened anxieties.

Soon after the project received Stage-I clearance in 2022, the Tribal Council withdrew its consent and has since been alleging that they were being pressured to “sign surrender certificates” for their land.