Gone Missing

Old growth trees felled for 'green energy' projects

I recently read about the film Well Done, Abba! made by one of India’s most respected directors, Shyam Benegal. The film is about a stolen well from a village. It highlights how corruption led to non-existent wells in a village and these ‘ghost wells’ were challenged by a father daughter duo.

Reading about this in the book Non-Stop India by Mark Tully, former Chief of Bureau, BBC New Delhi, I could not resist drawing parallels about a recent problem we worked on in the Western Ghats; the ‘green energy’ projects. The state of Karnataka is grappled with severe shortage of electricity leading to several measures from the state including encouraging power generation from renewable sources.

A case in point is a run-of-the-river power project (popularly called as mini-hydel) being built in the Kenchanakumari and Yedakumari Reserved Forests in Hassan district. The location of the project would impress anyone interested in forest and wildlife conservation. Multi layered forests, lofty trees, epiphytes, climbers, gushing streams; a perfect rainforest habitat. The landscape is home to tiger, elephant, hornbill, Travancore flying squirrel, Nilgiri marten and many other wildlife species all protected under India’s premier conservation legislation, The Wildlife Protection Act 1972. The area even hosts two frog species, Gundia Indian frog and Kottigehara bush from, that are found nowhere else in the world.

The project proponents, Maruthi Power Gen (India) Limited, have permission for two projects to be built in the same location including the same survey numbers, and of course they claim to be constructing two projects. However at the project location one would find that one of the power projects is ‘missing’. Inspired by Well Done, Abba! I am tempted to file a police complaint as it would deceive a power starved state from producing nearly 20 MW of electricity. The state has sacrificed forestland; huge subsidies have been given using tax payer’s money and even by international agencies such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC). So how can we afford to have a ‘missing’ project?

So where has this power project gone? The records in the Forest Department which is the competent authority to give permissions is straight. It clearly states Maruthi Power Gen (India) Limited is allowed to construct two power generation projects of 18.9 and 19.0 MW in survey numbers 1 and 16 of Yedakumari Village in the Kenchankumari and Kagneri Reserved Forests. The forestlands diverted to the projects are 4.18 and 4.20 hectares which has been fully utilized. However one of the projects is missing. There is only one weir, one power house (in construction phase) and all other components required for a power generation unit stands as one project.

 

Siting of some of these projects are a cause of concern as they would completely break the corridors of wildlife between south and central Western Ghats in Karnataka.

Misleading the Forest Conservation Act

On detailed scrutiny the story unfolds. If forestland to be diverted is above 5 hectares then the project proposal would be referred to the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), a legal body setup by the Ministry of Forests and Environment under the Forest Conservation Act 1980, which scrutinizes forestland diversions. However this mini-hydel project required about nine hectares of forestland. So, conveniently the project was split into ‘two projects’ and sanctioned to bye-pass the FAC inspection.

Similarly any power generation unit that produces above 25 MW will be considered as a normal hydel project and becomes mandatory to carryout Environmental Impact Assessment and public hearing. So, the project investors again divided the project into two projects of 18.9 and 19.0 MW to avoid following the mandatory norms. Going further if the project was above 25 MW it would be ineligible for the all the financial incentives the Government provided. Even UNFCC provides cash incentives as these are power generation initiatives purportedly having no impacts on the environment unlike large hydel projects which involves submergence of vast forest areas and at times involves relocation of people.

However the truth on-ground is that these ‘green-energy’ projects have been located in some of the most critical wildlife corridors that are extremely fragile and rich in biodiversity. Throwing all natural justice norms to wind the local authorities have given a clean chit saying that no wildlife exists in this area nor it is an ecologically sensitive area. Ironically the same local forest administration authorities are now claiming that land from farmers should be acquired as they face severe conflict with elephants in this same area!

Paradoxically our stringent wildlife and forest conservation laws are violated with little understanding or respect for our natural world. In a bizarre step the Karnataka Renewable Energy Department, the Government arm to promote renewable energy sources has permitted 44 mini-hydel projects against the River Nethravathi in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. It would become impossible to call this as a river if the water is dammed and stored at 44 locations. A total of 72 such run-of-the-river power generation projects have been sanctioned in the Western Ghats of Karnataka.

Everyone encourages renewable energy generation. However in this case the siting of these projects is the cause of concern. If our central ministry be interested to open these cupboards to delve into the violations, certainly more skeletons will roll out.  Economic growth is slowly chipping away our wildlife habitats, systematically destroying our precious natural heritage using the magic word ‘development’. However this development should not be at the cost of the few swathes of natural forests left in the country. 

An edited version of the article was published in Hindustan Times on 21-12-2011

http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/ColumnsOthers/Greedy-for-growth/Article1-785081.aspx