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Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

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NGOs protest Teesta low dam project

By Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI, JUNE 8. Environmentalists have sought a `closer look' at the Teesta Low Dam Project (TLDP)-III, proposed along the Teesta river in Kalimpong sub-division of Darjeeling district in West Bengal.

Criticising the ``manner in which the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) cleared the project,'' several non-governmental organisations have raised serious concern over the environmental and socio-economic aspects of it.

The project is among those to be completed by the end of the Tenth Plan which includes Teesta-V in Sikkim and TLDP-IV in North Bengal.

Seven hydel projects, five in Sikkim and two in North Bengal along the Teesta basin, are in the pipeline.

Demanding that the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report, which is an important instrument for environmental clearance, and the clearance report of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) be kept in abeyance, the environmental groups have sought a review of the notification process or an enquiry by a Parliamentary Standing Committee to look into the process of granting environmental clearance to the project.

In a fact-finding report, prepared by the Environmental Justice Initiative, the Academy for Mountain Environs and the Delhi Forum, concern has been raised over the cumulative impact of the series of 10 dams on the Teesta river basin which is rich in forest cover and biodiversity.

Together with its tributaries the river forms an integral part of the Indo-Myanmar biodiversity hotspot, one of the 25 such hotspots in the world.

The Teesta River Valley System sustains a host of local tribal and indigenous communities, dependent on traditional natural resource based livelihood. It is earthquake prone and vulnerable to landslips, the report said.

The local groups, including the North-Eastern Society for the Preservation of Nature and Wildlife (NESPON), Darjeeling NGO Network and local villagers of Geil Khola and 29th Mile, have also criticised the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) for allegedly violating the provisions of the EIA Notification of 1994 under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 by denying access to information about the project and participation of the local community in the so-called consultative process adopted by the NHPC.

In April 2003, in a letter to the Secretary, MoEF, the NGOs had opposed the proposed project but it was accorded environmental clearance by the MoEF in July 2003, according to the report.

The fact-finding team was to figure out the possible socio-economic impact of the project on the people affected by it, details of rehabilitation scheme, document the complaints and find out the grounds on which environmental clearance was given.

The environmentalists alleged that the Government had chosen to ignore the fact that the proposed projects were in the seismic zone, and that the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC), under whose jurisdiction it falls, was not consulted when the NHPC and the West Bengal State Electricity Board signed the agreement.

While accusing the NHPC of shoddily preparing the EIA report for the TLDP-III, they say that the report is incoherent in places and the rehabilitation part is the weakest and most neglected component since the number of displaced people is small as compared to other dam projects.

The NHPC has identified only nine families, which would be fully affected and 19 others as partially affected.

The agreement signed estimated the cost of the project as Rs. 636 crores when it was signed in November 2000 whereas it escalated to Rs. 783 crores in December 2002.

``There is an immediate need for Teesta river basin study, including a survey of its carrying capacity. The rehabilitation scheme should be re-drafted by an independent agency,'' the fact-finding report said.

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