Six mega projects ignore green commitments they made
✅There are six mega projects across key sectors, cleared between 2004 and 2020. In each, stringent conditions to compensate for the project's high environmental impact have been sidestepped, ignored or, in some cases, met only on paper.
✅One of them is in the strategic border state of Arunachal, the proposed largest hydel plant in India; the other is on the state’s border with Assam, currently the largest hydel project under construction. Then there’s the proposed new international airport in Goa; a mine in Odisha run by the world’s largest coal producer; the country’s first private mega thermal plant in Chhattisgarh — and, finally, the flagship river-linking project in Madhya Pradesh.
● Unconditional Clearance:
✅Ken-Betwa Link: Got Cabinet nod with the 8-yr deadline for implementation. SC has yet to decide on wildlife clearance; final forest clearance is pending as MP has yet to meet key pre-conditions, such as adding 60 sq km of revenue land to Panna Tiger Reserve.
✅Dibang hydel: Rejected twice, got Stage-1 forest clearance in 2015 on condition that the right bank of the proposed reservoir would be a national park. Final forest clearance was issued in 2020 despite non-compliance.
✅Subansiri hydel: Granted forest clearance in 2004 on condition that over 900 sq km in catchment would be declared a sanctuary. Requirement cut to 500 sq km, later to 168 sq km sanctuary and 332 sq km conservation reserve. Only 127 sq km notified so far.
✅Mopa airport: In 2020, Goa promised SC 10 trees will be planted for every tree cut although the state is nearly 50% short on overall compensatory afforestation. State meeting target by distributing lakhs of saplings.
✅Kulda coal mine, Tamnar thermal plant: Since 2014, three extensions to a coal mine and five temporary concessions to thermal plant on the promise of alternative transport arrangement. Coal trucks still make 400 daily trips through villages.
● Ken Betwa Link Project (KBLP):
✅The Ken-Betwa Link Project (KBLP) is the River interlinking project that aims to transfer surplus water from the Ken river in MP to Betwa in UP to irrigate the drought-prone Bundelkhand region.
✅In December 2021, the Union Cabinet set an eight-year deadline for completing the Rs 44,605-crore project to bring “surplus water” to Bundelkhand for irrigation, drinking water, flood control, and hydel power — earlier this week, the Budget earmarked Rs 1,400 crore.
● 3000-MW Dihang multipurpose project, Arunachal Pradesh:
✅The Project is located on river Dibang, in Lower Dibang Valley District of Arunachal Pradesh.
✅The project is one of the components of the Brahmaputra Flood Moderation Plan.
✅And yet, the Environment Ministry granted the final forest clearance to Dibang in March 2020.
● 2000-MW Subansiri hydel project, Arunachal- Assam border:
✅Subansiri Lower Hydroelectric Project (SLHEP), is an under-construction gravity dam on the Subansiri river along the border of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
✅Subansiri River (gold river), originates in the Tibet Plateau and enters India through Miri hills in Arunachal Pradesh.
✅It is the largest tributary of the Brahmaputra River.
✅Increased seismic threat level to the dam, assessed by the Indian Institute of Technology at Roorkee.
✅The Environment Ministry in 2007 quantified the area as “not less than 500 sq km”.
✅State said in 2008 that it could notify only 168 sq km as a sanctuary.
● Mopa International Airport, Goa:
✅The stay was lifted in January 2020 after Goa offered to plant 10 trees for every tree axed at the project site in Mopa.
✅The state, meanwhile, is already 46 percent short of its overall compensatory afforestation goals.
● Kulda coal mine, Odisha & Temnar thermal plant , Chhattisgarh:
✅The projects serve national interest “in view of the shortage of coal in the country and the resulting power crisis”.
✅The EC was extendable subject to compliance with conditions that barred transportation of coal on roads passing through villages.