As Beijing lectures India on ecology in Great Nicobar, its own record in Tibet and the South China Sea tells a rather different story. There is something theatrical in China’s sudden environmental concern for India’s proposed infrastructure project in Great Nicobar. Beijing and its sympathisers in India have warned darkly of ecological destruction, seismic fragility, threats to indigenous communities and irreversible environmental degradation. One would imagine, listening to

China’s discomfort with India’s island ambitions may be the clearest indication yet of Great Nicobar’s strategic value. As India pushes ahead with its ambitious Rs. 80,000-crore Great Nicobar infrastructure project, an unlikely convergence has emerged. Chinese commentators have intensified criticism of the island’s development, warning of ecological destruction and strategic destabilisation. At home, opposition politicians and environmental activists have mounted similar atta