Guest Post by Dr.A.Latha, River Research Centre

The Athirappilly Dam Issue in Kerala, India has reached a very critical stage. You must be aware that the MoEF had issued a show cause notice to Kerala State Electricity Board asking reasons for not revoking the environmental clearance granted in 2007 (Ltr No. J - 12011 / 6/ 97 - IA 1 dated 4th January 2010 attached) giving 15 days for responding. The KSEB has submitted its reply few days back. The KSEB has again tried to dilute and distort the real facts regarding this project as a desperate last minute attempt. The Honorable Minister for Environment and Forests has already made his stance clear that the MoEF will revoke the environmental clearance granted in 2007. However there is a need to expose the falsity and distortion of facts by the concerned officials and the continuous efforts to thwart the consistent public opposition to this project. The just decision taken by Sri.Jairam Ramesh also needs to be appreciated. 

Hence we would request you to please email / Fax to Sri.Jairam Ramesh immediately seeking revoking of the clearance once and for all.

The format of the letter is given below. You are free to change the format.

Please send us a copy of the letter sent to the Minister.

Contact us at - rrckerala@gmail.com  or 09847283120

Athirappilly waterfalls (Picture Courtesy: K.K.Najeeb)

To

Sri Jairam Ramesh

Honorable Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests

(Independent Charge)

Paryavaran Bhavan, Lodhi Road

New Delhi - 110013

mosef@nic.in 

Fax – 011 24362222

SUB: The show cause notice issued to KSEB to revoke the environmental clearance to 163 MW Athirappilly HEP in Kerala reg

Dear Shri Jairam Ramesh,

As a person who has been closely following the issue, the recent decision taken to send a show cause notice to the KSEB in order to revoke the Environmental Clearance granted to the proposed Athirappilly Hydro Electric Project in Kerala is one of the most laudable steps taken by the Ministry under your able leadership. I wish to congratulate you on this just decision to stand with the people in saving the remaining islands of biodiversity in the Western Ghats from further destruction and fragmentation.

It is understood that the KSEB has submitted its reply to the show cause notice requesting MoEF to withdraw from the decision to revoke the Environmental Clearance granted in 2007. In its response, KSEB has claimed that there has been no local opposition to this project and it is not going to impact the biodiversity or the Athirappilly Waterfalls or the Kadar tribes in the area. The forest loss is not going to be significant either. Further they allege that external forces are responsible for the opposition.

Now it is really unfortunate that the KSEB is still resorting to falsity and deception to prove their point. It is a well known fact that the opposition to this project is more than a decade old. Since its first clearance in 1998, the technical and economic feasibility of the project has been challenged at several forums including the two Public Hearings carried out in 2002 and 2006 as per the directions of the Honorable High Court of Kerala. The two Public Hearings were held in full packed halls ( about 500 and 1200 respectively) with tribals, Vana Samrakshana Samithis, experts, scientists, downstream farmers, local self government representatives, women self help groups and even students vociferously opposing the project from technical, environmental and socio - economic angles. Atleast ten local self governments have passed resolutions citing that the project if implemented would impair their drinking and irrigation water needs. Thousands from all over India including tourists from outside India have participated in the two Satyagrahas organised at Athirappilly led by river basin communities, during 2005-06 and 2008-09 periods opposing the implementation of the project. Hence the claim of the KSEB that there has been no local opposition to the project is absolutely baseless.

It may please be noted that but for the timely intervention of the Kadar tribes (who face the threat of displacement) in the Honorable High Court of Kerala in 2005, the KSEB would have again avoided the mandatory public hearing in 2006! The same tribal representative has filed a Writ Petition challenging the WAPCOS EIA and the Clearance granted in 2007. The Division Bench led by the Honorable Chief Justice had heard the entire case during 2008. However the judgment was not delivered due to the transfer of the Chief Justice. The WP was again heard by the new Chief Justice in 2009 and reserved for Judgment in November 2009. Unfortunately, the Chief Justice has retired on Friday the 22nd January 2010 without delivering the Judgment.

The claim of the KSEB that the forest loss is just 28.5 ha.of riparian stretch is unjustified. The 138.6 ha.of forest land diverted for the project in Vazhachal Forest Division and its surrounding forests is indeed rich in biodiversity and lies in proximity to the recently delineated Parambikulam Tiger Reserve. The high fish diversity value of the Chalakudy River and the High Conservation value of the forests in Vazhachal Division have been proved by scientific institutions like the National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources and the French Institute of Pondicherry respectively. The riparian forests in the submergence area and surroundings are the best known breeding habitats of the globally threatened Pied Hornbill in Kerala Western Ghats pointed out in several avian surveys and studies including that of the Nature Conservation Foundation. Moreover there is an ongoing hornbill conservation program funded by the MoEF in Vazhachal Division since the last four years involving Kadar tribes and the Forest Department. There is constant elephant movement from the proposed Parambikulam Tiger Reserve towards Pooyamkutty forests in Periyar basin through the submergence area which in turn falls within the Anamudi Elephent Reserve No.9 of the Project Elephant. Studies by Asian Nature Conservation Foundation point out high elephant density of 947 elephants in Vazhachal Division way back in 1993 itself.

The fate of the Athirappilly waterfalls will be the same as that of the Jog Falls in Saravati River in Karnataka. The famous Athirappilly waterfalls just downstream of the proposed dam site visited by 7-8 lakh tourists and travellers every year is a national heritage which needs to be preserved for posterity. The Athirappilly Project, the seventh dam in the river would surely reduce the waterfalls to a trickle due to the extreme daily flow fluctuations to be created by the peaking operations of the new project.

All these years, the people have been opposing this project due to the false and fabricated data base used for gaining clearance, the inadequate EIA studies by WAPCOS and TBGRI and the violations of the EIA Notification 1994 and its Amendments under which this project was granted clearance. Infact the 2002 Public Hearing Panel had recommended KSEB to carry out a comprehensive river basin EIA including water budgeting with the involvement of the river basin panchayaths. Consequently, the MoEF had also directed KSEB to carry out integrated study of the Chalakudy river basin (Ltr no. J- 12011/11/2001- IA-I of MoEF dated May 17th 2002) which has not been complied with so far. The need for such an assessment was raised by none other than the people living in the river basin, at the public hearing. Above all, the KSEB has been consistently hiding from the MoEF that there is not enough flow in the river to sustain a seventh large dam. The invoking of Section 4 in EIA Notification 1994 amended in 1997 under which this project has been cleared is itself sufficient ground for the MoEF to refuse permission to grant Environmental Clearance for a third time.

Large dams as a technology option for power generation is increasingly becoming unfeasible owing to the irreparable adverse impacts on rivers and biodiversity, our life lines. All over the world, focus is shifting towards dam decommissioning and revival of rivers to lessen the adverse downstream impacts of salinity intrusion, water scarcity and reduced flows to the oceans. It is time to make hard choices to save our rivers and shift to renewables like solar mission to reduce our carbon footprints. 

Hence the myopic vision based response of the KSEB to seek permission to go ahead with the earlier clearance granted by the Abraham Committee in 2007 through the recourse of deception is highly deplorable and questionable and has to be prevented at any cost.The KSEB has also not complied with the High Court order that KSEB must show that the existing  power stations are operating optimally and that the transmission and distribution losses are minimised.

Against all the above, it is respectfully submitted that the correct decision would be to take immediate steps to revoke the faulty Environmental Clearance granted to the proposed Athirappilly project in 2007 once and for all.

Expecting a positive response at the earliest,

Yours sincerely