The Congress leader has made it clear he wants Singh to reverse course on the full-length extension of the INS Baaz runway. He’s warning that the other option being put forward will do more damage, both to the environment and to the people. It is an appeal that gets to the core of the Great Nicobar project, where you have strategy and conservation at odds with one another.
What triggered the fresh appeal
In a letter to the Defence Minister on May 16, 2026, Ramesh put forth the case for an expansion at the existing INS Baaz in Campbell Bay as the way to limit harm, as opposed to a greenfield operation at Gandhi Nagar-Shastri Nagar.
He was also reacting to some media briefings from June 8, 2026, where nameless sources in the defence ministry were saying the runway shouldn’t be pushed past 4500 feet for environmental reasons. Ramesh said he was making a point of those assertions and had already put his side of the story out there.
The contested site and its footprint
Ramesh makes the case that the greenfield plan is the more hazardous of the two. For one, it means having to level two 115-metre hills that are covered in forest. Then there is the matter of 225 acres of protected and 130 of deemed forest, land he says is home to the Shompen tribe and is very much in use.
On top of that, the spot is right in the middle of 142 acres of ICRZ-1A – the most stringently protected zone under the 2019 Coastal Regulation Zone rules. You have turtle rookeries, coral, and the nesting grounds of the rare Nicobar Megapode in this vicinity, he points out.
There is also the reclamation of a creek and the moving of saltwater crocodiles to consider. And 234 ex-servicemen settler families in two villages would be uprooted for the third time in as many years. Ramesh doesn’t see how you can justify that kind of social cost.
Why the runway expansion debate matters
You’ll hear from the defence ministry that the Great Nicobar project is about furthering India’s maritime and economic clout. They’ve also been at pains to say they won’t be going ahead with the 10,000 ft plan for INS Baaz because of the land and the impact on the local flora, fauna and the tribal area.
But Ramesh has a different take. He says if you do your planning, an expansion at the current location is still preferable to hewing a new airport out of a virgin forest next to a sensitive coast. He contends the proposed airport hasn’t had a proper, no-nonsense environmental impact assessment run on it.
Then again, Great Nicobar is an Important and Endemic Bird Area. It is on the Central Asian and East Asian-Australasian flyways, and every year a number of migratory birds make the island their seasonal stopover.
Key points he wants addressed
Ramesh sees his request as a way to get back on track: hit the security targets without the collateral damage. Here is what he is after:
– Go for a full expansion of INS Baaz rather than a new build
– Do a hard-headed, open-ended review of the ecological side of things
– Put a stop to any plans to move 234 ex-servicemen families
– Have some respect for what is under ICRZ-1A and CRZ 2019 protection
Timeline and accountability questions
As for the Galathea Bay site, the Union Home Ministry put the word out on March 30, 2022, that it was to be a dual-purpose airport. Ramesh has no patience for the fact that it has taken the Defence Ministry ‘over six years’ to come out with anything on the subject, and even then only in so many words and without a name attached.
He puts it down to the fact that the wider project’s ‘disastrous’ side effects have become hard to ignore, and with good reason. To him, the alarm bells should be enough to prompt a review of the whole thing now.
What comes next
Ramesh, who is the general secretary in-charge of communications for the party, has told Singh to think again about nixing the runway expansion, noting some in the navy are in favour of it. The Environment Minister, Bhupender Yadav, has been put in the loop on the letter as well.
He has been at this for a while, with at least four letters in the last couple of years to make a case for what he calls the ‘dubious nature’ of the EIA for the Great Nicobar project. His message is to get a science-based re-evaluation in place before you go too far down the road.
