Taking stock of the environmental degradation caused by mushrooming of hydro power projects on the Himalayan rivers which are mainly Bhagirathi and Alaknanda rivers, the Supreme Court has directed the Centre and the State Government to study whether the existing and upcoming hydro projects in the region contributed to the June 2013 flash floods.
Taking cognisance of the recently experienced natural catastrophe, the Supreme Court has strictly ordered to freeze the proposed hydro power projects in the Garhwal and Kumaon divisions of Uttarakhand, but the department sources revealed that this decision would have adverse affect on the department to meet with the growing demand of electricity in the State.
Well established sources revealed that 69 hydro power projects would be affected and the State will face the loss of nearly 9020 megawatt. Besides, 26 hydro power projects having capacity of 3261 megawatt is under construction across the State besides, 1653 megawatt hydro projects are proposed. It also ordered a comprehensive study of the impact of such projects in the state after underlining that 24 of the total 39 proposed projects had been found to be significantly impacting biodiversity in two sub-basins of the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers.
While speaking to The Pioneer Vimal Bhai, an environmentalist said lamented that the hydro power projects made adverse affect on the bio-diversity in the State. He also demanded from the MoEF as well as State Government not to grant any further environmental clearance or forest clearance for any hydroelectric power project in the State of Uttarakhand, until further orders.
One of the department sources from Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam limited that the every possible efforts have been taken by the nodal agencies to take care of environment aspects while constructing the hydro power projects across the State. He claimed that the community development activities have been also done once the projects commission.