The following is a paper by Dr. Mohinder Slariya based on data collected during his Ph.D work. The work contains data sourced from the India Water Portal, and aims to illustrate local area climate changes with the development of hydroelectric projects. The abstract of the paper has been quoted below, with the full paper available as a download!

Abstract

Dams have had serious impacts on the lives, livelihoods, cultures and spiritual existence of indigenous, tribal and illiterate people, moreover on the physical environmental conditions and on the biodiversity of the area concerned. The dam related developmental activities in Ravi catchment area have been threatening the biodiversity in the whole catchment. There are more than 50 rivulets in the Ravi catchment and on which more than 70 power projects have been planned by the government by putting biodiversity at the stake. Developmental activities have unintentionally produce weather and climate modifications on a larger scale and threaten the existing biodiversity. Such developmental activities have been started day back in 1980s in Ravi basin with the installation of Baira Suil Power Project and today it has covered all most all Ravi basin starting from interstate broader of Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and engulfed the green cover of the area. Because of this extinction the catchments area is experiencing drastic climatic changes, because of 100 km reservoirs of Shahpur Kandi (125MW), Thein Dam (600MW), Chamera-I (540MW) and Chamera-II (300 MW) and tunnelization of Ravi in 19.38 kms with a dia of 7 to 9 meters and 102 meters high surge shafts with 15.5 meters dia and underground power houses of Chamera-I & II and dry Ravi in almost all its natural route (27 kilometers in Chamera I & II). In this dry region there is a tremendous increase in the temperature and there is no timely and usual rain in the basin after the installation of power projects.

The present paper is based on original micro field research conducted by the researcher, has been carried out in the in the lower Himalayan Region by using exploratory and descriptive method and 300 respondents have been chosen by applying simple convenient and cluster sampling methods. To analyse the impacts on climatic conditions data provided by metrological department of executing agency and viewpoint of respondents have been recorded, analyzed and interpreted.

Author:Dr. Mohinder Slariya, Department of Sociology, Government PG College, Chamba, Himachal Pradesh -176310, India E-mail: mkslariya@gmail.com The full paper can be downloaded as a .doc file here: the-role-of-hydroelectric-power-projects-in-the-climate-change-final Also access an interview with the author on the India Water Portal here:Ravi Dances to the Tune of NHPC: A Study of NHPC Owned Power Projects - Dr. Mohinder Slariya on the Portal