Great Nicobar Mega Project Threatens Nicobar Long-Tailed Macaque, Say Experts
The mega infrastructure project, worth Rs.81,000 crore, proposed for the fragile Great Nicobar Island, has India’s leading primatologists concerned: the fate of the endemic Nicobar long-tailed macaque, found nowhere else in the world but in the three Nicobar islands, hangs in the balance.
A press release from the Association of Indian Primatologists (AIP), says that no wildlife conservation plan (WCP)—not even the one described in the compliance report submitted to the environment ministry by the project proponent ANIIDCO (the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation Limited)—“is capable of mitigating the large-scale deforestation and land use alterations purported by the project.”
The infrastructure project proposed for the Great Nicobar Island, which includes a transshipment terminal, a greenfield township, and an airport, among several other projects, entails the felling of over a million trees. This could irreversibly impact the habitat of the Nicobar long-tailed macaque, the primatologists fear.
The AIP has raised several concerns about the future of this unique macaque: a skilled forager that subsists on a diet of insects, fruits, and flowers. “The proposed project will directly impact about 27 groups and expose the rest to severe vulnerabilities”, says the press statement.
Also Read | Great Nicobar: Disaster in the making
The compliance report submitted in November 2022 to the environment ministry by ANIIDCO, states that a conservation and management plan has been prepared for the Nicobar long-tailed macaque, the robber crab and other endemic species, by the research institute SACON (Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore) for a period of 30 years.The report adds that a cumulative allocation of Rs.230.77 crore has been granted to SACON..
Ravaged by the tsunami, sickened by disease
On November 21, 2024, a meeting of the project’s monitoring committees was held; here it was declared that SACON will receive Rs.59.49 crore over 30 yearsexclusively for the conservation of macaques; Rs.12.66 crore has been sanctioned for the first five years, and SACON has sought two years to prepare a WCP.
The already beleaguered macaque battles a slew of threats and the NITI Aayog–piloted infrastructure project is only about to compound several existing vulnerabilities by “alarming folds”, warns the AIP statement: The macaque has struggled with habitat loss since the 1970s with the influx of mainland settlers; were ravaged by the 2004 tsunami; their range has been severely restricted; have suffered through heat waves and dry spells, and are vulnerable to disease risks from exposure to domestic and farm animals.
“A unique aspect of the macaque is its incapability to tolerate temperatures of up to 35 °C… With the large trees to be felled as per the proposed plan… the breach of this physiological thermal limit of these macaques is impossible to mitigate by a conservation and management plan,” AIP told Frontline.
Moreover, the massive deforestation entailed in the project will amplify the ongoing climate change-induced decline in precipitation in the island, which will diminish natural food resources for the macaques. “This will prompt a greater dependence on cultivars and anthropogenic sources”, and this, says the press release, could “exacerbat[e] existing hostilities with people such as poisoning, injuring, [and] shooting.”
“A project of such a massive scale would have been scrapped at the ideation/consultation phase if biodiversity and the functionality of the island ecosystem were valued”
The Nicobar long-tailed macaque also happens to be “a remarkably understudied species”, and “it is impossible to gather critical data to inform its conservation and management in a short span of two years, the time sought by SACON to prepare a WCP”, states the press note.
For instance, we still do not fully know: Their likely population decline in coastal areas; their genetic structure and vulnerability to diseases; the ecological, behavioural, and sociocultural heterogeneities among macaque groups; the immunology and parasitic load of macaques and their susceptibility to agents alien to the island.
“Without comprehensive long-term research on the unique features of the Nicobar long-tailed macaque on an island that is equally unique, and in absence of a ‘proof of concept’, a WCP risks straying from objectivity and practicality, reducing it to a hollow procedural exercise”, the press note cautions.
A land use change of such a massive scale “will not only push the species towards functional extinction (i.e., where the macaque’s contributions to the ecosystem are lost) but also threaten floral and faunal species that are ecologically linked with it”.
Also Read | An obit for Patai Takaru
The primatologists offer examples of the impact of large-scale deforestation on island-dwelling long-tailed macaques in Simeulue Island, Indonesia and Borneo. “In the former case, population size is estimated to have declined by 99.5% in 40 years (retaliatory killing is an additional reason)“.
The disbursement of funds to SACON, the Wildlife Institute of India and the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), to prepare a slew of conservation plans for various species and ecosystems, demonstrates that “The project proponents are indifferent toward the fragile ecosystems of the island, and have not prioritised its unique biodiversity in their decisions”, AIP told Frontline.
“They have, instead, treated biodiversity as a hindrance and as an afterthought to merely fulfil procedural and legal requirements. A project of such a massive scale would have been scrapped at the ideation/consultation phase if biodiversity and the functionality of the island ecosystem were valued”, the associated added. ZSI, for instance, has, confoundingly, prepared a plan to “translocate” 16,000 colonies of corals.
The leatherback turtle, with its distinctive leathery shell, the world’s largest sea turtle species, which migrates across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, nests here. Photo for representation
| Photo Credit:
Getty Images
The mangroves, rainforests, and coasts of the Nicobar are home to several unique, and threatened species, many of which are endemic. These include the Nicobar megapode, a flightless bird that builds its nests on the ground with mud and leaves, and the leatherback turtle, with its distinctive leathery shell, the world’s largest sea turtle species, which migrates across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, nests here.
Pankaj Sekhsaria, who has written extensively on the environment, development, and wildlife conservation, with a special focus on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, told Frontline: “This statement by the AIP is an important one from a collective of scientists and experts. This is as explicit a concern as there can be to the multi-dimensional disaster this project is going to entail. We will do well to heed their concerns before it is too late”.
AIP asks in its press release: “What good is a WCP when, instead of informing policies, it is obligated to clean up its mess?” As biodiversity conservation does not operate independent of other project decisions, “the bigger question is, what is the weightage given to biodiversity while planning and executing mega-scale projects”?
The mega infrastructure project, worth Rs.81,000 crore, proposed for the fragile Great Nicobar Island, has India’s leading primatologists concerned: the fate of the endemic Nicobar long-tailed macaque, found nowhere else in the world but in the three Nicobar islands, hangs in the balance.
A press release from the Association of Indian Primatologists (AIP), says that no wildlife conservation plan (WCP)—not even the one described in the compliance report submitted to the environment ministry by the project proponent ANIIDCO (the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Integrated Development Corporation Limited)—“is capable of mitigating the large-scale deforestation and land use alterations purported by the project.”
The infrastructure project proposed for the Great Nicobar Island, which includes a transshipment terminal, a greenfield township, and an airport, among several other projects, entails the felling of over a million trees. This could irreversibly impact the habitat of the Nicobar long-tailed macaque, the primatologists fear.
The AIP has raised several concerns about the future of this unique macaque: a skilled forager that subsists on a diet of insects, fruits, and flowers. “The proposed project will directly impact about 27 groups and expose the rest to severe vulnerabilities”, says the press statement.
Also Read | Great Nicobar: Disaster in the making
The compliance report submitted in November 2022 to the environment ministry by ANIIDCO, states that a conservation and management plan has been prepared for the Nicobar long-tailed macaque, the robber crab and other endemic species, by the research institute SACON (Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, Coimbatore) for a period of 30 years.The report adds that a cumulative allocation of Rs.230.77 crore has been granted to SACON..
Ravaged by the tsunami, sickened by disease
On November 21, 2024, a meeting of the project’s monitoring committees was held; here it was declared that SACON will receive Rs.59.49 crore over 30 yearsexclusively for the conservation of macaques; Rs.12.66 crore has been sanctioned for the first five years, and SACON has sought two years to prepare a WCP.
The already beleaguered macaque battles a slew of threats and the NITI Aayog–piloted infrastructure project is only about to compound several existing vulnerabilities by “alarming folds”, warns the AIP statement: The macaque has struggled with habitat loss since the 1970s with the influx of mainland settlers; were ravaged by the 2004 tsunami; their range has been severely restricted; have suffered through heat waves and dry spells, and are vulnerable to disease risks from exposure to domestic and farm animals.
“A unique aspect of the macaque is its incapability to tolerate temperatures of up to 35 °C… With the large trees to be felled as per the proposed plan… the breach of this physiological thermal limit of these macaques is impossible to mitigate by a conservation and management plan,” AIP told Frontline.
Moreover, the massive deforestation entailed in the project will amplify the ongoing climate change-induced decline in precipitation in the island, which will diminish natural food resources for the macaques. “This will prompt a greater dependence on cultivars and anthropogenic sources”, and this, says the press release, could “exacerbat[e] existing hostilities with people such as poisoning, injuring, [and] shooting.”
“A project of such a massive scale would have been scrapped at the ideation/consultation phase if biodiversity and the functionality of the island ecosystem were valued”
The Nicobar long-tailed macaque also happens to be “a remarkably understudied species”, and “it is impossible to gather critical data to inform its conservation and management in a short span of two years, the time sought by SACON to prepare a WCP”, states the press note.
For instance, we still do not fully know: Their likely population decline in coastal areas; their genetic structure and vulnerability to diseases; the ecological, behavioural, and sociocultural heterogeneities among macaque groups; the immunology and parasitic load of macaques and their susceptibility to agents alien to the island.
“Without comprehensive long-term research on the unique features of the Nicobar long-tailed macaque on an island that is equally unique, and in absence of a ‘proof of concept’, a WCP risks straying from objectivity and practicality, reducing it to a hollow procedural exercise”, the press note cautions.
A land use change of such a massive scale “will not only push the species towards functional extinction (i.e., where the macaque’s contributions to the ecosystem are lost) but also threaten floral and faunal species that are ecologically linked with it”.
Also Read | An obit for Patai Takaru
The primatologists offer examples of the impact of large-scale deforestation on island-dwelling long-tailed macaques in Simeulue Island, Indonesia and Borneo. “In the former case, population size is estimated to have declined by 99.5% in 40 years (retaliatory killing is an additional reason)“.
The disbursement of funds to SACON, the Wildlife Institute of India and the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), to prepare a slew of conservation plans for various species and ecosystems, demonstrates that “The project proponents are indifferent toward the fragile ecosystems of the island, and have not prioritised its unique biodiversity in their decisions”, AIP told Frontline.
“They have, instead, treated biodiversity as a hindrance and as an afterthought to merely fulfil procedural and legal requirements. A project of such a massive scale would have been scrapped at the ideation/consultation phase if biodiversity and the functionality of the island ecosystem were valued”, the associated added. ZSI, for instance, has, confoundingly, prepared a plan to “translocate” 16,000 colonies of corals.
The leatherback turtle, with its distinctive leathery shell, the world’s largest sea turtle species, which migrates across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, nests here. Photo for representation
| Photo Credit:
Getty Images
The mangroves, rainforests, and coasts of the Nicobar are home to several unique, and threatened species, many of which are endemic. These include the Nicobar megapode, a flightless bird that builds its nests on the ground with mud and leaves, and the leatherback turtle, with its distinctive leathery shell, the world’s largest sea turtle species, which migrates across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, nests here.
Pankaj Sekhsaria, who has written extensively on the environment, development, and wildlife conservation, with a special focus on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, told Frontline: “This statement by the AIP is an important one from a collective of scientists and experts. This is as explicit a concern as there can be to the multi-dimensional disaster this project is going to entail. We will do well to heed their concerns before it is too late”.
AIP asks in its press release: “What good is a WCP when, instead of informing policies, it is obligated to clean up its mess?” As biodiversity conservation does not operate independent of other project decisions, “the bigger question is, what is the weightage given to biodiversity while planning and executing mega-scale projects”?
