Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday criticized a proposed $9 billion (€7.69 billion) port-and-city project on Great Nicobar Island that the government is pushing as of "strategic, defense and national importance."
"What is being done in Great Nicobar is one of the biggest scams and gravest crimes against this country's natural and tribal heritage in our lifetime," Gandhi said in a video message posted on X.
Gandhi called it "destruction dressed in development's language" in the video showing him walking through the island's forests.
The island lies near the entrance to the Strait of Malacca, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, and the project includes a container port, airport and township.
Critics say it would destroy large areas of rainforest and threaten Indigenous communities, including the Nicobarese and Shompen peoples.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has described the development, which India's environmental court approved in February, as strategically important,
But Gandhi said the plan "must be stopped."
About 9,000 people live on the island, including 1,200 Indigenous Nicobarese and Shompen people, the latter largely avoiding outside contact, according to Survival International.
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