The Central Government recently filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court admitting for the first time that hydropower projects in Uttarakhand had exerted a direct and indirect impact in the aggravation of floods that had wreaked destruction and killed thousands in Uttarakhand in 2013. As expected, this drew strong reaction from the State Government especially as successive State Governments have been harping on the necessity for constructing hundreds of hydro power projects in the State to facilitate ‘development’ in Utarakhand and meet the ever growing demand for power.
Chief Minister Harish Rawat objected to the stance of the Central Government stating that the Centre had “painted all hydro power projects in the mountain states black with a paint brush” as the entire Himalayan region would be considered an eco-sensitive zone as per the stance taken by the Centre. Rawat also wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking proper representation of the State in the Supreme Court so that the construction of hydro power projects could be resumed in a State where there is at present a blanket ban on all hydro power projects. Though further developments are expected to take place in this case in particular, it would only be proper to consider the real picture irrespective of what the proponents of the hydro power projects state.
The Centre’s affidavit in the Supreme Court had also stated that the projects had caused irreversible damage to the environment and enhanced landslides and other disasters while also acknowledging that the maximum damage sites in the disaster affected areas were located either upstream or immediately downstream from these projects. The construction of the projects had overburdened the local ecology, and that there was proof of irreversible damage to the environment in terms of loss of forests, degraded water quality and an enhanced impact of landslides and other disasters. Not surprisingly, many locals living in the areas affected by the hydro power projects, environmentalists, activists and scientists have been pointing this out for years now but their views continue to be rejected by the dam proponents as the talk of people against so called development.
According to studies, there is potential for generating about 27,000 megawatts electricity if hydro power projects are constructed on various rivers and their tributaries in the State. The State Government had proposed to construct more than 400 hydro power projects. While the existing projects are generating about 3624 MW of power about 35 projects are under construction and are expected to generate about 3200 MW power if constructed and brought into operation. Simply reading factoids and statistical projections painting a picture of developmental activities does not present the real picture. It is accepted that the power consumption is increasing in both the domestic and industrial sectors. However, the factors which are causing this increase are not limited to increasing population and related activities.
The sad fact is that a considerable proportion of electricity consumed is actually wasted. Electricity is wasted on lighting up the interiors of ill designed buildings during the day while the outdoors are drenched in bright sunlight; to air condition the indoors and to light up outdoors for commercial purposes or so called civic purposes like streetlights that are aimed at creating artificial days during the night. Bioengineering is apparently still not in common use in spite of the various benefits of using it. When it comes to our usage of all fuels, we justify our wasteful ways almost as if it is our right to waste these resources simply because we pay a paltry sum for it. The real cost being paid for generating power and then wasting it are known better to the people who have faced the consequences of hydro power projects. All the villages around the Tehri dam reservoir have developed cracks, residents of many villages and even towns in the district continue to face shortage of potable water and erratic power supply.
The Tehri project has not even been able to start generating the full projected quantity of power. Though many projects are said to be run of the river projects that entail ensuring flow of the river water after power generation, construction of these projects has killed many a river in the State. The rivers that used to be raging bodies of swirling waters have now been reduced to trickles depending on the intent of companies for their survival. On top of this the CM recently advocated the construction of dams on the Yamuna river to facilitate the ‘conservation’ of this river! Considering the level of public awareness and the lack of serious concern we tend to have for the environment, it appears as if the rivers and environment will undergo much more damage in the name of power generation and development before we realise our skewed priorities. The question is, will we comprehend this before it is too lateIJ