CURRENT AFFAIRS | 17 JUNE 2026
The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) will soon seek approval from the Andaman and Nicobar administration to translocate 16,150 coral colonies affected by construction around Galathea Bay, the site of a proposed transshipment port under the Great Nicobar Island (GNI) project. The project — pegged at roughly Rs. 81,000 crore — is one of India’s most ambitious and most contested infrastructure undertakings, and coral translocation has become its latest environmental flashpoint. ZSI has pointed to its earlier success in the Gulf of Kutch, where over 90% of translocated corals survived in 2022 trials, and has cited a global coral-translocation success band of 68–85%. Before the National Green Tribunal (NGT), ZSI committed to translocating corals within 15 metres of water depth and in the project’s proximity, subject to a baseline sediment-load analysis.
Not everyone is convinced. Marine biologist Vardhan Patankar, who has researched the Nicobar reefs since 2005, called the task “near impossible,” noting that coral reefs off Nicobar have shown limited translocation success worldwide. The dispute captures a recurring tension in Indian environmental law — between development imperatives and the precautionary principle — and it is precisely this clash that makes the story rich for a CLAT aspirant. Galathea Bay is also a critical nesting site for leatherback turtles, and the wider region is home to the Shompen, a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG), raising parallel concerns about tribal-reserve de-notification.
The legal architecture is a checklist of environmental statutes worth committing to memory. Corals are protected under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972 — the highest tier of protection. Environmental clearance for such projects flows from the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006, while coastal activity is governed by the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) framework. The National Green Tribunal, constituted under the NGT Act, 2010, is the specialised forum hearing these challenges and is empowered to apply the precautionary principle, the polluter-pays principle and sustainable-development doctrine — principles the Supreme Court has read into Article 21’s right to a healthy environment. The Great Nicobar project thus sits at the intersection of biodiversity law, coastal regulation, tribal rights and the green-tribunal mechanism, a combination examiners find irresistible.
Corals are listed under Schedule I of the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. The EIA Notification, 2006 governs environmental clearance; the Coastal Regulation Zone framework regulates coastal activity. The National Green Tribunal (NGT Act, 2010) adjudicates such disputes, applying the precautionary and polluter-pays principles read into Article 21’s right to a healthy environment. Tribal-reserve de-notification engages protections for the Shompen, a PVTG.
Environmental law is a high-frequency CLAT area, and this story bundles the marquee statutes: Wildlife Protection Act, EIA Notification, CRZ and the NGT Act. Expect principle-application questions on the precautionary principle and sustainable development, plus GK on Great Nicobar, Galathea Bay, leatherback turtles and the Shompen. The development-versus-environment tension is a classic Legal Reasoning fact pattern.
| Agency | Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) |
| Corals to translocate | 16,150 colonies |
| Site | Galathea Bay, Great Nicobar (~Rs. 81,000 cr project) |
| Precedent cited | Gulf of Kutch (>90% success, 2022) |
| Forum | National Green Tribunal (NGT) |
| Other concerns | Leatherback turtles; Shompen (PVTG) |
“CORAL = Schedule I, NGT for the appeal.” Stack the green statutes as “W-E-C-N” — Wildlife Protection Act 1972, EIA 2006, CRZ, NGT Act 2010. Remember “Galathea = Leatherback + Shompen.”
Why This Matters for CLAT: Environmental disputes are perfect Legal Reasoning training because they force you to weigh competing rights — a development project’s economic value against biodiversity, coastal ecology and tribal protection. The Great Nicobar coral case lets you practise applying named principles (precautionary, polluter-pays, sustainable development) to a concrete fact pattern, and to identify the correct adjudicatory forum (the NGT). Layer in the cluster of environmental statutes and the Article 21 environmental jurisprudence, and you have a story that delivers both factual GK and reasoning practice for CLAT 2027.
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