No light at the end of the tunnel

On occasion of the World Environment Day Himdhara, Environment Research and Action Collective and Him Lok Jagriti Manch, a Kinnaur based platform of communities fighting for their natural resources have written to the Chief Minister and the Union Minister of Environment and Forests drawing their attention to the urgent issues in relation tunnels being cosntructed as a part of the hydropower projects in the State. “The planning and monitoring mechanisms that exist currently for hydropower projects have completely failed to take into account the various issues that exist with tunnels built for hydropower projects”, states the letter” states the letter.

Tunneling for hydropower project using the blasting technique can be compared to mining or quarrying. It has a series of direct and indirect impacts which have already been documented. For instance data from the Irrigation and Public Health Department  indicates that  villages located directly above the tunnels of Karchham Wangtoo, Budhil, Chamera, Parbati II, Parbati III and Larji hydroelectricity projects have been impacted as a result of reduce in discharge or  complete drying up of water sources and springs.

While the government may claim that it will come up with alternative arrangements and schemes for water supply to these villages, it may not be in a position to relocate the villagers who encounter frequent landslides, erosion and cracks that have begun to appear in their houses as a result of the underground blasting activities. This is a common feature in areas where tunnelling work is being carried out. Yet the villages are excluded from the definition ‘project-affected’ in project reports, environment impact assessment studies and rehabilitation plans.

Even EIA studies do not look at tunnel impacts in the kind of detail required. The tunnel issue should also be studied as part of carrying capacity and river basin level impact assessment studies that should be an important part of planning hydropower development but are not being carried out.

“We have studied data of the Pollution Control Board for three separate projects – Parbati, Chamera, Karchham Wangtoo – and found that the violation for which maximum show cause notices are issued to projects is dumping of muck in unallocated sites along the river bed and absence of adequate mitigation measures like construction of retaining walls etc. More than 95% of the times there is no follow-up or punitive action by the Pollution Control Board beyong issue of the notice”, the letter states.

The groups also raise the issue of safety of the tunnels in the context of the recent case of the 1200 MW Karchham Wangtoo project where profuse leakages were found from the surge shaft possibly due to cracks and fissures. “What is shocking is that so many projects have been constructed and still there is no authority in the state for control and monitoring of safety and water flows as required by the Hydropower Policy 2006 of the state of Himachal Pradesh” add the appellants.

“For a river to be called a ‘river’ there needs to be free-flowing water in it.There are hardly any long stretches of the rivers Ravi, Sutlej, Beas and Chenab that will be free-flowing once all the projects that are being planned, come up.” the letter adds.

The groups have made the following demands:

  1. Carrying Capacity Studies on the river basin should be mandatory before allocation of Hydropower Projects.
  2. The TORs for River Valley Projects involving tunnel construction should include ‘Assessing the impacts of tunnels’.
  3. Tunnel Affected communities should be included in the list of Project Affected Families and should be eligible for compensation
  4. Until an Authority for Safety Control is established there should be a halt on further commissioning of projects
  5. Projects that are violating muck dumping related guidelines and conditions should be eligible for punitive action in a timely manner after issuance of show cause notices.Copy of memorandum with Annexures 

Post Author: Admin