THE Government of India has rejected the Karnataka government's request to divert 57.51 hectares (ha) of moist deciduous forest land in favour of the Murudeshwar Power Corporation Limited (MPCL) to set up an 18 megawatt (MW) run-of-the-river mini-hydel power project on the river Kali near Dandeli town in Uttar Kannada district (Frontline, May 19).
The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests' (MoEF) decision, which is based on the recommendations of the Forest Advisory Committee, was conveyed to the State government in a letter dated June 21. The letter states that the project will have a deleterious effect on the eco-tourism industry. Many stakeholders, both public and private, have objected to the project proposal. The MoEF has also pointed out that the Karnataka's request is not in consonance with the Ministry's and the State government's own stand - taken in 1987, when 1,360 ha of virgin forests were diverted for the Kodisalli Hydroelectric project - that "no further projects involving diversion of forest land will be undertaken on Kali nadi [river] or its tributaries".
The Rs.180-crore Murudeshwar project was initially cleared "in principle" as part of a bunch of proposals that had been put on the fast track during the June 2000 Global Investors Meet (GIM) organised by the Karnataka government in Bangalore to attract foreign investors.
The government had also specified that the state-owned electricity supply and distribution company, Karnataka Power Transmission Company Limited, would enter into an agreement with the MPCL to purchase power, subject to the condition that the MPCL obtained environmental clearance from the MoEF and the State authorities.
The promoter's proposal, first made in 2001, was rejected in January 2002. In February 2004, its modified proposal, reducing the area of forest land that would be submerged, was rejected by the State authorities from the "forestry point of view".
The company's plan was to build a dam at Maulingi. The MPCL proposed to construct a three-metre-high weir (five kilometres upstream of Maulingi) to impound and direct water through a two kilometres horse-shoe tunnel cut through the rock face to penstocks and turbines that will generate power. But, according to forest officials, the diversion of the river (because of the dam and tunnel) will cause the main river course to dry up, affecting the river ecosystems.
The MoEF has clearly taken the stand that too much of ecologically sensitive virgin forest land in the Western Ghats - 20,513 ha for the generation of 1,225 MWs of power - has already been submerged. The site of the proposed project is close to the Anashi National Park and the Dandeli Wildlife Sanctuary and is a natural corridor for animals such as the black panther, elephant, tiger, sloth bear, bison and scaly anteater. Also the site is just two kilometres from the Supa dam and powerhouse, which is situated in an area prohibited under a 1977 Government Order.
The question of permitting mini hydel projects in the Western Ghats had been raised in a February 2004 letter, written by the State's then Chief Wildlife Warden R.M. Ray. In response to a specific question from the Government he had recommended that since mini hydel accentuated the fragmentation and shrinkage of the wilderness leading to the obstruction of the migratory routes and pathways of animal and bird populations, such projects "as a matter of policy should not be permitted in the Western Ghats".
Again in February 2004, the then Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Dr. S.N .Rai had questioned the proposal from the seismic point of view since the area in question already has several major reservoirs and an atomic thermal power plant. Hence, he said, it would not be prudent for the State government "to grant access and hold of land and a prime water body (on which key hydel projects and an atomic power plant are dependent) to a private company".
Ravi SharmaCOMMents
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