Partly False: The Great Nicobar Airport Will Require Major Hill-Cutting — But the '115-Metre' Figure Isn't Verified
“The proposed Great Nicobar Airport would require leveling two 115-metre forest-covered hills”
The argument in brief
Claims circulating in environmental advocacy circles say the proposed Great Nicobar Airport would require leveling two 115-metre forested hills. The core concern is real — the project does involve significant hill-cutting and forest clearance — but the specific figure of '115 metres' does not appear consistently in official documents like the Environmental Impact Assessment or Expert Appraisal Committee minutes, and likely originates from secondary interpretations rather than primary sources.
Why it spread
A specific, dramatic number makes environmental harm feel tangible and urgent. '115-metre hills' is the kind of detail that sticks in the mind and travels easily through advocacy networks and social media, even when the underlying sourcing is murky. People who genuinely care about the project's ecological impact had every reason to share it — the core concern is real, even if the precise figure is unverified.
The claim is that construction of the Great Nicobar Airport, part of a large-scale development project on the island, would require leveling two forest-covered hills standing 115 metres tall. The verdict is partially false: the hill-cutting is real and well-documented, but the precise '115-metre' figure is not clearly established in official records.
The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) prepared by AECOM India in 2022, available through the government's Parivesh portal, does confirm that the airport site requires substantial terrain modification, including cutting through elevated forested land. The Ministry of Environment's Expert Appraisal Committee minutes also discuss the earthwork involved. So the environmental concern at the heart of this claim is legitimate and supported by official documents.
The problem is the number. Neither the EIA nor the Expert Appraisal Committee records consistently specify '115 metres' as the height of the hills in question. Mongabay India's detailed analysis of the EIA confirmed significant elevation changes in the project area but could not independently verify that specific figure. Reporting by The Wire Science and reviews by environmental groups like Sanctuary Nature Foundation reference hills 'of approximately 100–115 metres,' but these appear to draw on each other rather than on a single primary official source.
To be fair to those raising the alarm: the terrain data in the EIA is complex, and a rounded figure like '115 metres' could be a reasonable approximation of what the documents describe in more technical terms. The absence of the exact number in official records does not mean the scale of destruction is being exaggerated — it may simply mean the figure was simplified for public communication.
This kind of claim spreads because environmental debates often hinge on making abstract destruction feel concrete. A specific number — two hills, 115 metres — is far more vivid than 'significant earthwork.' That rhetorical power is exactly why it's worth being precise: if the number turns out to be wrong, it hands critics an easy way to dismiss the broader, well-founded concerns about this project's ecological cost.
Sources
- Environmental Impact Assessment Report, AECOM India (2022)
The EIA for the Great Nicobar holistic development project does mention terrain modification including hill cutting for the airport site, but the specific figure of '115-metre hills' is not consistently cited in official documents. The EIA references hill cutting but with varying elevation figures across different summaries.
- The Wire Science - Great Nicobar Project Coverage
Reporting on the Great Nicobar development project confirmed that the airport construction would require significant hill-cutting and forest clearance, with hills in the project area described in environmental documents, though the exact 115-metre specification has been cited in some advocacy reports rather than primary official documents.
- Sanctuary Nature Foundation / Raman Sukumar Expert Appraisal
Environmental experts and civil society groups reviewing the project noted that hill-cutting for the airport runway would involve removing forested elevated terrain, with some reports citing hills of approximately 100-115 metres, but primary EIA documents use different framing.
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) Expert Appraisal Committee Minutes
The Expert Appraisal Committee documents discuss terrain leveling requirements for the airport but do not uniformly specify '115 metres' as the hill height. The project does require substantial earthwork and hill modification, but the precise elevation figure cited in the claim appears to originate from secondary interpretations.
- Mongabay India - Great Nicobar Airport Analysis
Mongabay's analysis of the EIA confirmed that the airport requires cutting through forested hills, with the project area involving significant elevation changes. The reporting noted environmental concerns about forest loss but did not independently verify the specific 115-metre hill height figure.