Introductory Memo
The Great Nicobar, a 910 sq km island, is the southernmost part of India. It is one of India’s most strategically located islands in the Nicobar Archipelago. To its east lies the Strait of Malacca from which approximately 90,000 ships transit every year. Nearly 30% of global trade and a majority of China’s energy imports pass through it. For decades after Independence, the tiny island sat largely undisturbed on India’s strategic calculus. Now, the strategically important Great Nicobar Project is changing that. But, the environmentalists are opposing the project.