The Government has granted an extension of 3 years to the Environment Clearance of the Singoli-Bhatwari on Mandakini River without considering the impact of the disaster of 2013. There is a need to scrap the project.
The Singoli Bhatwari hydroelectric project was granted Environment Clearance in 2007 with a condition that the project will be completed in 10 years on the basis of a report (report is present here) This condition is imposed because situations change in 10 years hence if there is delay then there is a need to reconsider the project afresh. However, the MOEFCC has issued a notification in 2016 allowing MOEFCC to grant extension of 3 years. We feel this notification is bad because it enabled the MOEF to grant extension without considering the change in circumstances.
Meeting of Expert Appraisal Committee for River Valley and Hydro Power Projects held on May 31, 2017 has recommended that the EC may be extended for 3 years ignoring all the damages the local people have faced due to the project having led to large areas having washed away.
In the report of May 31, 2017, the officials have only given lip service to the loss incurred by the project in the disaster of 2013 (Report of May 31, 2017 is available here, Page 3, Item No 5.3). It has not recognized that the project had added to the Kedarnath disaster of 2013 as detailed in the Ravi Chopra Report (Report is avilable here). According to this report:
“under a hyper concentrated flow regime, when a river is overwhelmed by its sediment supply, it tends to aggrade in stretches where the velocity drops (wide valley expanses/meanders) and migrate laterally in order to follow a minimum resistance path. Both these processes occur because of bank erosion and flooding. Geomorphic expression of this process is visible in the relatively wiser segment of Mandakini valley below the Singoli-Bhatwari Hydro-electric power project and between Chandrapuri upto Tilwara.”
We have filed penitation regarding this issue in Rajya Sabha (report is attached here Page 8, Point 8) in which it is suggested that For generation of Hydro Power, water may be diverted by making a partial obstruction like a “Gharat” instead of making a barrage so that the main flow of the river is not interrupted and the damages happened in 2013 do not recur again.
Therefore it is our request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to ban all Hydro-Electric Power projects that make a barrage across the river.
