Congress Leader Urges Reconsideration of Great Nicobar Airport, Proposes INS Baaz Expansion Alternative

Congress Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh wrote to Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday, June 12, 2026, calling on him to reverse the government's decision against expanding the runway at INS Baaz naval air station on Campbell Bay, which Ramesh first proposed as an alternative on May 16. His letter directly challenges the Defence Ministry's June 8 position — conveyed through anonymous sources — that lengthening the INS Baaz runway beyond 4,500 feet would itself cause ecological harm, a concern Ramesh called ironic given the scale of destruction he attributes to the proposed Galathea Bay airport. He listed seven environmental and social objections to the Galathea Bay site: it would require leveling two 115-metre forest-covered hills, clearing 225 acres of protected forest and 130 acres of deemed forest used by the Shompen tribal community, and developing 142 acres of ICRZ-1A land encompassing turtle nesting beaches, coral reefs, and habitat for the endangered Nicobar Megapode. The project would also involve filling a creek, relocating saltwater crocodiles, and displacing 234 ex-servicemen families for a third time. Ramesh further argued that no serious environmental impact assessment has been conducted for the site, despite Great Nicobar's designation as an Important Bird Area on two major international migratory flyways. The government, for its part, maintains that five sites including INS Baaz were assessed before Galathea Bay was selected, that over 81% of the island will remain forested, that a ₹2,220-crore conservation package is planned, that no physical displacement of tribal communities is intended, and that the project will generate over one lakh jobs.