While Uttarakhand was battling flood disaster, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on June 25 laid the foundation stone of the 850-MW Ratle Hydroelectric Project (RHP), being developed on the Chenab river in Jammu and Kashmir.
The RHP is one among 60 bumper-to-bumper hydroelectric projects coming up in the Chenab basin of Himachal Pradesh and J&K. But these projects, experts warn, have been green signalled without any cumulative impact assessment being carried out in terms of their ecology, geology, disaster and climate change impacts.
While some projects are operational, many are under consideration. Projects include Kirthai 1, Kirthai 2, Bursar, Pakal dul, Dul hasti (operating ), Balighar 1 (operating), Balighar 2, Sawalkote, Salal (operating) Kiru and Kwar.
Already 49 hydroelectric projects are planned or under construction in the Chenab where the state government has suggested to the environment ministry that the cumulative impact assessment for all these projects be lifted as “it is contrary to the state’s interests”.
Several projects, including Gyspa, Chattru, Shangling, Miyarm Tandi, Seli, Reoli Dugli, Bardang, Patam, Tinget and Purthi, are coming up in the ecologically vulnerable Lahaul and Spiti regions.
Himanshu Thakkar, dam expert with SANDRP, warns that “no carrying capacity study has been undertaken to ascertain if the area can absorb so many projects.”
Already, the Indian Meteorological Department has warned that glaciers in the Chenab basin are retreating rapidly. Considering the devastation caused by the Uttarakhand floods, one would have expected that all new hydro-projects in the fragile Himalayan region would be reviewed.
Water expert Parineeta Dandekar pointed out, “Already, ecologists and environmentalists are linking the Uttarakhand floods to the excessive damming, blasting, tunnelling, mining, muck, dumping and deforestation in the state. Going ahead with a slew of projects in J&K and Himachal will send a wrong signal to communities living in the Himalayas.”