‘Great Nicobar Swap’ under scanner as Haryana auctions forest land for mining
The Great Nicobar Project which aims at making Nicobar islands a tourism hub is under the scanner. Haryana has also got entangled in a controversy for auctioning land, which was notified as protected forest. The land has been e-auctioned by Haryana for setting up stone crushers in Mahendragarh and now locals are up against it.
What is “Great Nicobar Swap”?
The “Great Nicobar Swap” refers to the ambitious plan of the Ministry of Environment and Forests to divert 130 sq km of pristine tropical forest in Great Nicobar Island for a mega development project. The tropical forest will be axed for constructing an international airport, a shipping port, a power plant and a township over 160sq km of land in Great Nicobar Island. In Feb 2023, the ministry decided that a compensatory afforestation would be carried out 2,400 km away in the Aravallis of Haryana. This part of the Aravalli forest was declared protected.
What is Haryana’s role in “Great Nicobar swap”?
Haryana was chosen for compensatory afforestation due to it having one of the poorest forest covers in the country with just around 3.5 per cent of its land being under forest.The state has declared 24,353 hectares of the Aravalli forest spanning across districts of Gurugram, Nuh, Rewari, Mahendragarh and Charkhi Dadri as protected.
Haryana has already submitted a compensatory afforestation plan to the Union Ministry in 2024 and will get Rs 3,000 crore as the revival cost. The biggest chunk of forest was declared protected under the plan in Nuh district followed by Mahendragarh, Rewari, Gurugram, and Charkhi Dadri.
What is the controversy over the protected forest land in Mahendragarh?
While the Nicobar swap was seen as the Haryana’s golden chance to revive the dying Aravallis, the state’s intentions came under the scanner as 25 per cent of the ‘protected’ land was e-auctioned for mining. On June 20, 2023, the state issued a notification designating 506 acres of Aravallis in Rajawas village of Mahendergarh as ‘protected’ under the Forest (Conservation) Act. However, the very same day, the Mining Department auctioned one-quarter of the protected land to a company and awarded a contract to quarry stones and deployed three stone crushers there.
This led to a huge uproar even as the Mining Department claimed that it had no idea it was designated as a protected forest. The locals then moved the NGT highlighting how quarrying, if allowed, would not only destroy the fragile ecosystem but also deteriorate their quality of life.
What is the current status of the locals’ plea in the NGT?
The residents of Rajawas village filed an intervention application 61/2025 on January 27, 2025 in the original application number 1203/2024 that was registered suo-moto by the National Green Tribunal in early October 2024 to examine the issue of the Haryana Government auctioning one-fourth of the 506.33 acres of the Aravalli ‘protected forest’ land in the village for mining. In the order dated April 4, 2025, the NGT directed that since a serious issue of permitting mining on the ‘protected forest’ area without requisite permission was involved, the Haryana Government authorities had to ensure that no illegal mining took place in the area till the next date of hearing on August 27, 2025.
The respondents include Inspector-General of Forest, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, New Delhi; Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Haryana; District Magistrate; Member Secretary, State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA), Haryana; and the Project Proponent M/s Landsworthy Mining & Infra LLP have been directed to file their responses within four weeks.
Haryana Tribune