The Uttarkashi Bachao Sanjukt Sangharsh Samiti (UBSSS) continues to express strong opposition to the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) notification declaring the 100-km stretch of the Bhagirathi river from Gaumukh to Uttarkashi as an eco-sensitive zone under the Environment Protection Act, 1986.
The UBSSS has been spearheading a protest movement in the state claiming that such a notification would adversely affect all infrastructure development projects in the state.
Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh’s assurance given in Dehra Dun on Saturday that this would not be the case but rather it would permit “development in a regulated manner” has not been found to be palatable to members of the UBSSS.
Mr Ramesh had stated that “a myth is being spread that all development work will come to a standstill in the 100-km stretch from Gomukh to Uttarkashi on either side of the Bhagirathi (river)….. People of the area will be taken into confidence before a list of permissible, regulated and prohibited activities in the area is prepared. So they have nothing to fear,” the minister said. This notification to declare this area as eco-sensitive was first drafted when Mr Ramesh was environment minister two years ago. Nevertheless, members of the UBSSS point out that the notification has imposed restrictions on quarrying, commissioning of hydro power projects on the Bhagirathi river. Avdhash Kaushal, chairperson of the Rural Litigatiion and Entitlement Kendra, has described the notification as a “black law which has sealed the fate of the entire state.” CM Vijay Bahuguna has adopted a more cautious approach. Though he recently led a delegation to meet the Prime Minister in order to express their opposition, he has assured his own party colleagues and members of the UBSSS that they should wait till such time as the MoEF prepares a “master plan in order to know exactly which activities will be permitted and what will be disallowed.”