New Delhi, April 25 -- The remote, stunningly beautiful and little understood Great Nicobar Island has been the focus of news reports in recent months, two decades after it made headlines when the 2004 tsunami devastated lives and altered its coastline. This time, it's a man-made wave of development that is drawing attention: specifically, plans under the Great Nicobar Island Development Project, which has an outlay of Rs.81,000 crore and was launched in 2021.

Infra work is proceeding apace on a trans-shipment port, an international airport, power plants, tourism facilities and a township where hundreds of thousands of people are expected to settle. The project's blueprint covers 160-sq-km, including 130-sq-km of tropical rain- forest la...