Hello,

If you follow us on social media, you’ve probably seen that we’re raising money for an ambitious reporting project that our land and climate reporter Vaishnavi Rathore is undertaking. 

Pay for The Great Nicobar Project by Scroll.in

Special project: Help us report from the ground on the Great Nicobar Project . . Nearly a million rainforest trees. A tribe with just 400 members. A nesting site of the endangered giant leatherback turtles. All this and more is threatened by the Modi government’s plan to build an alternative “Hong Kong” on the Great Nicobar Island. . . Much has been written about the government’s Rs 72,000-crore proposal to construct an international airport, a transshipment terminal, a power plant and a township on the pristine island, 1,300 km from the mainland. But there has been no ground reporting from the island.. . How will the project impact the island’s indigenous communities, the Shompens and the Nicobarese? Have they even been consulted? What will be the ecological impact of the project, which will cover nearly one-fifth of the island?. . Help Scroll’s climate and land reporter Vaishnavi Rathore get to the Great Nicobar Island to report these stories..

pages.razorpay.com

In brief, she plans to travel to the island of Great Nicobar, 1,300 km away from the Indian mainland, to report on a colossal development project of the Indian government. The project includes the construction of an international airport, a transshipment terminal, a power plant and a township, and will cost Rs 72,000 crore. 

It will also wreck the island’s fragile habitat, and cause untold destruction to forests and wildlife. Further, it will put at immense risk the island’s indigenous Shompen and Nicobarese people, who have had no say in whether the project should go forward, and in what form.

Our readers have generously chipped in already, and we’ve crossed half our funding goal. With a little more help, we can hit our target soon. 

Some of Vaishnavi’s recent reports include this investigation into how hydropower projects in Himachal sold dubious carbon credits, and this investigation into how an Adani subsidiary’s power plant in Mirzapur would destroy more forest land than claimed. She has also reported on the Nicobar project here – specifically, on a bizarre plan to compensate for the loss of a lush rainforest in Nicobar by setting up a safari park in Haryana. 

If you’d like to contribute to her ground reporting from the island, you can do so here.

Pay for The Great Nicobar Project by Scroll.in

Special project: Help us report from the ground on the Great Nicobar Project . . Nearly a million rainforest trees. A tribe with just 400 members. A nesting site of the endangered giant leatherback turtles. All this and more is threatened by the Modi government’s plan to build an alternative “Hong Kong” on the Great Nicobar Island. . . Much has been written about the government’s Rs 72,000-crore proposal to construct an international airport, a transshipment terminal, a power plant and a township on the pristine island, 1,300 km from the mainland. But there has been no ground reporting from the island.. . How will the project impact the island’s indigenous communities, the Shompens and the Nicobarese? Have they even been consulted? What will be the ecological impact of the project, which will cover nearly one-fifth of the island?. . Help Scroll’s climate and land reporter Vaishnavi Rathore get to the Great Nicobar Island to report these stories..

pages.razorpay.com