Status of Pancheshwar
Pancheshwar project will be constructed over Mahakali River in the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand on the Indo-Nepal border. It will be three times bigger than the Tehri Dam. Pancheshwar will be the second largest Hydropower project in the world. This dam will generate electricity, but there will be many negative impacts on the environment and the rivers. The environmentalists believe Pancheshwar project will be a net loss for the environment like the Tehri Dam. (You can read our previous post in which we had assessed the advantages and disadvantages of the dams).
Shri Arvind Darmodra, Nodal Officer of the Mountain Development Research Center (HNBGU Central University), explains that, 200 villages of Uttarakhand will submerged in this dam with their cultural heritage. People of all these villages will be displaced somewhere else. But since Tehri Dam has been built, there has not yet been complete rehabilitation of the people there. So how can we assume that there will be rehabilitation in Pancheshwar?
The purpose of constructing big dam of Government is to generate more electricity, but due to global warming the water is decreasing in rivers. Due to low water in Bhagirathi, Tehri Dam is unable to generate electricity even half of its capacity. But the Government is giving figures of power generation on the basis of current water availability at Pancheshwar and not providing details of future availability of water. (See Arvind Daramoda’s interview here).
Similarly, Bina Chaudhary, associated with NGO “Nature Environment Institute”, says that the objective of the construction of Pancheshwar dam is to provide water for irrigation. When there is not much water available in rivers, then how irrigation will be possible by Pancheshwar project? Even earlier the fields were irrigated by ponds. Such traditional irrigation methods should be developed for irrigation (we can see beena chaudhary intview here)
Compared to the Tehri project (2.6bpm), Uttar Pradesh (77.19bcm) can be irrigated many times more by the ground water recharge system. (Report is available here page 91, para 2). Then the Pancheshwar Dam will not be required. Further, Bina Chaudhary says that before the construction of the dam, fake survey is undertaken in the name of the local people. The actual negative impacts of the dam are not told to them. People’s representatives are lured by companies and bribed in favour of the dam. If local public has the true information about these effects of dams, then they will not support Pancheshwar.
Why Pancheshwar?
Famous geologist and former Vice Chancellor, Kumaun University, Kharag Singh Valdiya has warned that the big Dams are becoming a major problem in the Himalayan states. (You can refer to this here) Then why this three times bigger to theTehri Dam is being constructed at Pancheshwar?
Instead of Pancheshwar, for electricity – solar energy; and for irrigation – ground water recharge methods can be developed easily without any losses. If we are having better options of power generation and irrigation, then why are these big projects being built to?
