Google data centre cleared to proceed in India as Finnish sites face halt

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has refused to halt construction of a Google data centre development in Visakhapatnam, allowing work on the site to continue even as legal challenges over environmental clearances proceed.

Under an order issued on Tuesday, the court permitted Vizag Hyperscale Data Centre Park Limited to push ahead with development at its own risk and expense. A division bench of Chief Justice Lisa Gill and Justice Challa Gunaranjan ruled that any construction undertaken will not create legal rights or protections for the developer should the court ultimately rule against the project.

The Indian ruling arrived on the same day European regulators took the opposite tack. In Finland, the Supervisory Agency ordered an immediate suspension of ground preparation across two planned Google data centre campuses in Muhos and Kajaani, citing the company's failure to complete mandatory environmental impact assessments before clearing woodland.

What happened in the Andhra Pradesh High Court?

The petition in Andhra Pradesh, brought by environmental activist Bolisetty Satyanarayana, sought an immediate freeze on construction. His counsel, Virag Gupta, argued that the Visakhapatnam project sits within one kilometre of the Kambalakonda Wildlife Sanctuary, where construction is strictly banned. Because of that proximity, the petitioner argued the project falls under Category-A status, meaning approval belongs exclusively to the central government in New Delhi rather than the state environmental authority.

The court declined to grant an interim status quo. It noted that the state government gave assurances in August that environmental rules were being followed, and held that an ongoing case before the National Green Tribunal does not prevent the High Court from hearing the matter.

Advocate-General Dammalapati Srinivas argued that the development is classified under Category-B and remains within the state's jurisdiction. The land allocation itself, which involves property belonging to the Simhachalam Sri Varaha Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple, remains under judicial review.

Why did Finland halt Google's data centre work?

In northern Finland, environmental regulators stepped in after Google's project company, Tuike Finland, logged extensive areas of forest before concluding its environmental impact study. The Finnish Supervisory Agency said work had altered the ground significantly, including stripping topsoil, felling trees, altering drainage ditches and building access roads.

Around 330 hectares of forest were cleared at Muhos, with logging across nearly 200 hectares reported at Kajaani. The agency gave the company until 14 October to explain how it plans to proceed and ordered all work that alters the landscape halted by 23 October at the latest, warning of fines and formal enforcement proceedings if it fails to comply.

Google acknowledged the regulatory intervention, saying in a statement that it had "fallen short of our own high standards in this instance" and would follow official instructions. The company maintained it had carried out nature surveys and acted in good faith under the Forestry Act, pledging to plant trees across 130 hectares in Muhos as part of remediation work.

What is at stake for Google's infrastructure push?

The Finnish campuses form part of a €13bn expansion announced last month, which Google described as its largest single European investment to date. The tech firm is racing to secure computer server capacity to run cloud infrastructure and AI products, including its Gemini assistant. Alongside the northern sites, the company agreed a 22-year power deal with Finnish utility Fortum for nuclear output from the Loviisa plant.

Together, the cases highlight how the global scramble for artificial intelligence infrastructure is running directly into local planning and environmental limits, from municipal forests in the Nordics to protected wildlife zones on India's eastern coast.