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The Galathea Bay Wildlife Sanctuary notified in 1997 for monitoring marine turtles is home to tropical evergreen rainforests, coralline coast shelters, unique flora and fauna including the giant leatherback turtle, water monitor lizard, reticulated python, Nicobar tree shrew, Nicobar megapode, Nicobar pigeon Malayan palm civet, among several others. It is one of the northern Indian Ocean’s largest nesting sites for leatherback turtles who are known to migrate an astonishing 10,000 km between their foraging and nesting grounds, southeast towards the western coast of Australia and southwest towards the eastern coast of Africa.
In January 2021, after the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife denotified the Galathea Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, scientists and researchers were in despair over its disastrous implications for the animals and birds. The proposed Nicobar project makes a mockery of the National Marine Turtle Action Plan (2021-2026) prepared by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change for the protection of turtles along India’s coast, including the leatherback turtle in the Andaman and Nicobar islands. The leatherback is a Schedule 1 species, having the highest protection under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972.
As part of the United Nations, India has an obligation to abide by the UN General Assembly declaration passed in 2009, where Member states adopted its first resolution recognising the rights of nature.
A step in this direction was further reaffirmed in the outcome document of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (2012), entitled "The future we want":
"We recognize that planet Earth and its ecosystems are our home and that "Mother Earth" is a common expression in a number of countries and regions, and we note that some countries recognize the rights of nature in the context of the promotion of sustainable development."