Damned! Finally!

When the Karnataka High Court disposed of a petition pertaining to the construction of mini-hydel projects in the Western Ghats areas of the state last week, the import of the court’s decision escaped the minds of many.

The writ petition, that was filed in 2010, had raised serious concerns about the environmental vulnerability of the region. The state forest department and the Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd (KREDL), the agency instrumental for looking at dams in the state, went on to cancel as many as ten of the projects that were challenged by the petitioners. The state government, for its part, submitted an affidavit saying that no new mini-hydel projects would be permitted in the Western Ghats.

So, when the high court finally disposed of the petition, it came as an emphatic and rare victory for environmental activists. What this essentially means is that now on no mini-hydel project will be constructed in the Ghats. The dams be damned.

Prashant Yavagale, who was the petitioner in the case, explains the significance of the high court’s decision, “The water situation in Karnataka is in a critical state. The Western Ghats play a crucial role in providing water to Karnataka (and other states too). If we tap all the tributaries (of the major east-flowing rivers), the decision will have an adverse impact on both wildlife and people of the state. To start with, the rivers will go dry and this will have a cascading effect on both the people of the state as well as wildlife and forests.”

But it is not that there were will be no more dams anywhere in Karnataka. Anu Chengappa, who represented the petitioner, has this to say, “This (the court order) does not mean that there will no mini-hydel projects outside the Western Ghats region of the state. Yet, this can be described as a one-time saving of the ecologically-fragile Western Ghats.”

The case itself does have a history. In April last year, the high court had directed the state government to abort two mini-hydel projects in the Ghats. The order was also a scathing indictment of the manner in which the government was throwing environmental laws to the winds. It had flagrantly violated the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 so as to divert forest land.

The division bench of the court, in fact, had then pulled up the government for granting lease to the two projects keeping only the interest of the private company in mind. The forest department too had not taken cognisance of the manner in which forest land was being diverted towards the construction of the projects. Power seemed to have corrupted.

Himanshu Thakkar of the South Asian Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) flays the “lax forest governance” for the situation that had arisen, and in the context of these two dams, he points out, “This was a scam since the proponents of the project—Maruthi Power Gen (India) Limited—had been permitted to build two projects at the same location with the same survey numbers. The officials of the renewable energy department who allowed this to happen need to be held accountable.” Chengappa too talks of a number of irregularities that went into the construction of many mini-hydel projects.

In fact, more than than 200 mini-hydel projects are in various stages of implementation in the ecologically-fragile Western Ghats area. Parineeta Dandekar, also of SANDRP, describes it as the tip of the iceberg. “There is an imperative need to look at all such projects that have been planned in the region. What is significant is that projects under 25MW capacity do not need environmental clearance.” This is what had been happening all along, and there are a number of projects whose capacity is between 24MW and 25MW. This practice, in effect, allows the government to violate environmental laws with impunity.

Dandekar continues, “So many mini-hydel power plants have been planned on rivers and streams of Karnataka, many of which are fraudulent schemes, only to escape environmental clearances and lap up the carbon credits through the lean Development Mechanism (CDM) process. Such projects are causing damage to the water and ecological security. Large hydro projects like Gundia and Athirapally are being pushed through despite local protests and flouting laws like the Forest Rights Act and the Forest (Conservation) Act.”

Many of the projects that were challenged by Yavagale had secured clearance from the forest department by splitting the projects into two. This they had done to bring down the forest area required for the particular project to under five hectares in area. Projects which require less than five hectares of land don’t need clearance either.

There were other loopholes that were exploited to the hilt — one of those being the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA). “This notification needs to change to ensure that all projects with capacity above 1 MW require an EIA clearance at some stage along with a management plan. Many of these projects are being called ‘climate-friendly’ and get CDM credits,” says Thakkar.

There were illegalities galore. There was even one dam that, if implemented, would have submerge the tail of another upstream project. The mini-hydel project in question was the 24MW Kukke Stage I project. Once commissioned, it would have submerged the tail of an already operational 4.8 MW Hosamatha MHS (mini-hydel scheme) on the Kumaradhara river in Dakshin Kannada district. The KREDL, the nodal agency of the Karnataka power ministry, issued a ‘stop work notice’ last year following complaints by the Kumardhara Urumbi Anekattu Virodhi Horata Samiti and the Hosamatha MHS.

This and many other mini-hydel projects in the Western Ghats were all about carbon credits from the CDM of the UNFCCC. All this would have indirectly meant money.
The Kumaradhara river alone has 12 approved small hydro projects, while the bigger Netravathi river basin (of which Kumardhara is a part) has 44 approved projects already. Dakshin Kannada district (where Kukke I is situated) has till date 108 companies with an equal number of approved projects, according to the KREDL website.

The Western Ghats landscape, particularly in Karnataka, is littered with mini-hydel projects in various stages of implementation (from conceptualisation to commissioning). This is where another catch lies—according to the EIA notification of September 2006, these projects are legally exempt from environment impact assessment, environmental clearance, public hearing and implementing an environment management plan and environmental monitoring. Environment was damned by the powerful and influential all along.

In another case, the contractor for a mini-hydel project started constructing the dam on one side of the river even though land on the other side had not yet been acquired. This project was the 12.5 MW Sahasralingeshwara (Nekkiladi) project on the Kumaradhara. The Nekkiladi project, on paper at least, was supposed to be all about clean energy. Needless to say, it had applied for precious CDM credits too.

The Ghats have been saved only as far as new projects are concerned. Dandekar throws in a word of caution here. She says, “The forest department and the water resources department together (with all other ministries and departments concerned) need to ensure that the existing projects maintain some kind of environmental sustainability downstream.”
Dandekar talks of the rich fish diversity of the area, with new species being constantly discovered, and stresses the need to have fish ladders. A fish ladder is a structure on or around artificial barriers (such as dams and locks) to facilitate fishes’ natural migration. But, only if the authorities take the steps on their own.

As of now, only one contributory factor to the ecological decline of the Western Ghats has been arrested. There are still other battles to be won.
The fight to save the Ghats will go on.

@write2kill / subir.ghosh@dnaindia.net