{"id":986,"date":"2014-10-03T15:59:24","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T10:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tibetnature.lhasocialwork.com\/en\/?p=986"},"modified":"2014-10-03T16:15:21","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T10:45:21","slug":"india-gives-green-light-build-countrys-largest-dam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/india-gives-green-light-build-countrys-largest-dam\/","title":{"rendered":"India gives green light to build country\u2019s largest dam"},"content":{"rendered":"
India\u2019s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the green light to construction of the 3,000 megawatt Dibang hydropower project in the ecologically fragile region of Arunachal Pradesh, north-east India.<\/section>\n

<\/p>\n

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The proposed dam on the Dibang River<\/a>, a major tributary of the Brahmaputra close to the border with China, will be India\u2019s largest and one of the world\u2019s tallest dams.<\/p>\n

The Forest Advisory Committee of India\u2019s Ministry of Environment and Forests cleared the dam last week, subject to a reduction in the dam height by 20 metres from the originally envisaged 288 metres.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

The dam is to be built in the remote Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh in northeast India, home to over 20 indigenous tribes (Image by International Rivers)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The committee has refused environmental clearances for the project twice before on the grounds it would destroy forests and impact the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park<\/a> downstream in Assam state.<\/p>\n

The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) \u2013the company behind the dam \u2013 submitted several revised proposals to the ministry, reducing the amount of forest cleared and the height of the dam structure. But on August 28 the Forest Advisory Committee rejected the latest proposal to submerge more than 45 square kilometres of forest land for the project.<\/p>\n

The committee concluded the \u201cecological and social costs of destroying a vast tract of forest land which is a major source of livelihood for the state\u2019s tribal population would far outweigh the benefit likely to accrue from the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, days later the Prime Minister\u2019s principal secretary sent a letter to the environment secretary on September 3 to \u201cclear the project expeditiously\u201d as per the decision of the Cabinet Committee on investment.<\/p>\n

In its pre-election campaign Modi\u2019s Bharatiya Janata Party promised not to go ahead with mega dams and people supported the party enthusiastically.<\/p>\n

The Krishak Mukti Sangram Samittee (KMSS) \u2013 a farmers\u2019 organisation spearheading the anti-dam movement in Assam \u2013 is now accusing the prime minister of being a traitor. Others organisations agitating against mega dams are also threatening to protest against the 16,000 crores (US$2.6 million) Dibang project. Most of the power produced will be exported to help ease power shortages elsewhere in India.<\/p>\n

Opening the floodgates
\n<\/strong>
\nThe central government has decided to build the project without any public consultation or study of the potential impacts in downstream Assam state. Anti-dam activists are now concerned Modi\u2019s government will now push ahead with a series of mega dams planned in the northeast region<\/a>, ignoring all expert and advisory committees in an attempt to harness \u201cgreen\u201d hydropower.<\/p>\n

The Dibang is just one of\u00a0168 massive dams<\/a> slated to produce\u00a057,000 megawatts of hydropower in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh states. This strategically important region, which borders Myanmar in the east, Bhutan in the west and China in the north, is described by politicians as\u00a0India\u2019s \u2018future powerhouse\u2019 and is a key focus point of the country\u2019s dam building programme.<\/p>\n

China is involved in a major dam building programme on its side of the border, also using the waters of the Brahmaputra \u2013 which it calls the Yarlung Tsangpo. China\u2019s plans to build a massive dam \u00a0three times<\/a> the size of the Three Gorges Dam on the Great Bend before the river swings round into India.<\/p>\n

The Brahmaputra is one of the world\u2019s major rivers, winding across the Tibetan Plateau through China, India and Bangladesh before joining with the Ganga and flowing out into the Bay of Bengal.<\/p>\n

The dam building programme in north-east India has been highly controversial<\/a>. Opponents say it not only ignores geological and ecological factors \u2013 it also fails to take into account the impact of\u00a0climate change\u00a0in the region.<\/p>\n

Experts also say no proper overall plan has been put in place: though India and China have signed a limited agreement<\/a> to data on river flow, there is no specific deal on managing the Brahmaputra\u2019s waters.<\/p>\n

Protests about the dams have been growing, with work on the 2,000 megawatt Lower Subansiri dam<\/a> on one of the Brahmaputra\u2019s tributaries \u2013 repeatedly held up.<\/p>\n

Broken promises
\n<\/strong>
\nIn the build up to this year\u2019s elections, Narendra Modi held a rally in Pasighat in the East Siang district of Arunachal Pradesh in February where he acknowledged peoples\u2019 concerns about large dams and committed to developing small hydropower instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know citizens of the region are against large power projects,\u201d he said. \u201cI respect your sentiment. But hydropower can also be harnessed using smaller projects, while protecting the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chandan Kumar Duarah is a science journalist based in North East India<\/p>\n

\n

Source: www.thethirdpole.net<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

India\u2019s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the green light to construction of the 3,000 megawatt Dibang hydropower project in the ecologically fragile region of Arunachal Pradesh, north-east India.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-third-pole"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=986"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":992,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions\/992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tibetnature.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}