Pancheshwar dam
Mahakali river
Anuradha Dutt
The Himalayas, those
majestic citadels on
India's northern
borders, are today
riddled with man-made
tunnels; arid beds of
rivers that have been diverted from
their natural course or dried up in
long stretches; and deforested terrain.
This alarming spectacle owes to the
numerous hydroelectricity projects,
commissioned by policymakers in
tandem with private players, to meet
the burgeoning urban and industrial
need for power, and for irrigation
purposes. In the process, cultural
heritage and eco systems of
inestimable value have been
destroyed, and thousands of families
displaced and traumatised.
Now, mounting demonstrationsagainst the proposed Pancheshwar
dam on the Mahakali in Uttarakhand's
Pithoragarh district, the river serving
as a boundary between India and
Nepal, evokes a sense of déjà vu.
Since
the end of 1986, after then Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi signed an
agreement with USSR President
Mikhail Gorbochev for part Soviet
funding and technical assistance for
the mammoth 290.5 metre-high Tehri
dam, straddling the Bhagirathi Ganga
and Bhilangana, angry inhabitants
who were threatened with
displacement, conservationists and
seismologists in unison campaigned
against the hydroelectricity scheme
on humanitarian, environmental and
scientific grounds. Soviet involvement
was ended by dramatic political
shifts..
The reservoir area is about 43 sq
km, while the dam is located in a
seismically active zone.
Protests still
continue to occur. Decision-makers
went ahead with the scheme in the
face of increasing opposition, to
submerge Old Tehri town, with residents being relocated against their
will to New Tehri, and displaced
people from many villages in the
submergence areas trying to rebuild
lives in Pathari in Haridwar and
contiguous regions. Inefficient
rehabilitation procedures added to
their grievances.
It is said that history repeats itself.
Policymakers have reportedly greensignalled
the Pancheshwar dam,
proposed two decades ago. WAPCOS
Ltd, an Indian PSU under Union
Ministry of Water Resources, River
Development and Ganga
Rejuvenation, is reported to have
submitted the final draft of the
detailed project report.
The dam will presumably be built
as per the public-private partnership
module like Sardar Sarovar dam over
Narmada river and Tehri dam, both
constructed via Jaiprakash Associates
Ltd's involvement as a private player.
However, this company's parent body
Jaypee Group is at present mired in
huge debts, and is under great
pressure to repay bank loan.
Interview with Manoj Mishra, Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan
Convenor and New Delhi-based environmentalist
Q: Pancheshwar dam is much larger than Tehri dam. Nepal is projecting
it as the world's largest dam. What are the hidden costs apart from the
obvious destruction of ecology, wildlife and cultural heritage, and
displacement of people?
River Mahakali (over which this dam is proposed) is amongst few
undammed rivers in the Ganga system. Which means it is one of the few
rivers that even today carry monsoonal flows to the river Ganga and
finally to the Ganga Delta. The climate change impacts of this human intervention needs to be fully
understood prior to any such further intervention.
Q: Congress built Tehri dam. BJP wants to build Pancheshwar dam. Why?
Well, this only the people hell bent on building it can respond.
Q: List the viable and environmentally sustainable options for power generation to this huge
hydroelectricity project.
In today's age when solar and wind power has become not only easily produced and at a much faster
pace but is economically cheaper, there is no case whatsoever to go for any new hydroelectric
projects. This is also true in the light of several existing hydroelectric projects going 'sick', requiring
bail out by the state.
Civil rights groups are engaged in
frenetic lobbying against the dam,
which, as a 5040 megawatt multipurpose
project, is touted as being
much bigger – and by inference, more
ruinous in terms of the human and
environmental costs – than the 2,400
megawatt Tehri dam. Three 'Jan
Sunwai' or public hearings, conducted
between August 9 and August 17,
2017 have been dismissed as a farce
by local people as these were held in
the peak monsoon period, with
landslides and heavy rains cutting off
access to the venues.
Banners displayed by protestors
outside Vikas Bhawan in the
Pithoragarh district headquarters of
Uttarakhand on August 11 declared:
"Baandh nahi vikas chahiye" (We need
development, not a dam).
Especially pertinent at this juncture
is this excerpt from Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's address to the British
Parliament in November 2015 –
"And, the motto of Sab Ka Saath,
Sab Ka Vikas, is our vision of a nation,
in which every citizen belongs,
participates and prospers. It is not just
a call for economic inclusion. It is also a celebration of our diversity; the
creed for social harmony; and, a
commitment to individual liberties
and rights".
Public hearings, in light of the true
spirit of the prime minister's assertion,
on a project with such enormous
ramifications as the Pancheshwar
dam, which threatens to displace
thousands of people; submerge vast
areas in Pithoragarh, Champawat and
Almora districts; and possibly
submerge Jhulaghat town in
Pithoragarh, need to be a genuine
expression of the people's will.
The genesis of the project - a 293
metre-high rock fill dam, largest such
dam in the world, downstream of the
confluence of the Mahakali and Sarju
rivers - lies in the signing of the Treaty
on Integrated Development of
Mahakali river between Nepal, then a
Hindu monarchy, and India in
February 1996. Pancheshwar
Multipurpose Project on the Mahakali
was the highlight.
The ruling regime's alleged
propensity for appropriating old
schemes is ill-advised in the present
instance, given the factors that weigh against its feasibility. An additional
factor is that numerous
hydroelectricity projects, operating at
a loss for various reasons, are in need
of government bailout in order to
revive their optimum power
generation capacity. This fact was
revealed by K.M. Singh, CMD, National
Hydro Power Corporation in an
interview given to Economic Times,
June 13, 2017 ('Government bailout is
required to revive the hydropower
sector: KM Singh, CMD, NHPC').
As advanced countries veer
towards environmentally sustainable
energy options, it is a moot point why
India would want to revive an old,
potentially wasteful project that is
being slammed by human rights
bodies, conservationists and scientists
who stress the earthquake hazards
and sensitivity of fragile Himalayan
terrain. The June 2013 devastation of
Kedarnath and resultant deaths –
estimated to be over 5,000 - by flash
floods and landslides, blamed on
indiscriminate colonisation of
Mandakiniu river precincts and
mountainside, is a tragic testimony to
human folly.