After two committees opposed construction of six hydroelectric power projects in the Ganga basin in Uttarakhand, the Union Environment Ministry’s decision to form a third committee to review the projects has drawn flak from environmentalists. In June, the Union Environment Ministry issued an order for the formation of a 12-member expert body to review the six projects -- Lata Tapovan (171 MW), Alaknanda Badrinath (300 MW), Kotlibhel 1A (195 MW), Jhelum Tamak (128 MW), Bhyundar Ganga (24.8 MW), and Khirao Ganga (4.5 MW).
The committee will be the third to review the projects after two committees have rejected them.
The expert body formed by the Union Environment Ministry under the Supreme Court’s order in the year 2013 headed by Ravi Chopra, Director of the Dehradun-based Peoples’ Science Institute, had rejected 23 projects which included the six projects. Another four-member committee headed by Vinod Tare of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, which was constituted to study the projects, had suggested that the six projects must not be taken up. “The six projects may not be taken up as they have potential of causing significant impacts on the bio-diversity, riverine system, wildlife and other fragile eco-systems in the areas where these projects are located… As such entire process of according clearances to these processes warrants review,” the report of the Tare panel stated.
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Other than the Vinod Tare Committee and the Chopra Committee, the projects were also rejected in a report by the Dehradun-based Wildlife Institute of India.