The 20-odd lion-tailed macaques that I encountered magically, have no clue that fate of the tree crowns they hold on to, hangs in the corridors of power in New Delhi.
In January, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) issued a show-cause notice to the Kerala state electricity board (KSEB). KSEB was asked to justify as to why the 2007 environmental clearance issued under a central law by the MoEF itself, should not be revoked.
MoEF's grounds were that they had come to know that the construction of the 163 mw Athirappilly hydroelectric project would impact the primitive Kadar tribe residing in the project area. Moreover, the valuable biodiversity of the area will also be threatened. While I welcome this decision, I wonder why this logic didn't wash while granting the clearance in the first place.
But what's critical to understand is that there is a decade old history of a multi-dimensional struggle against the Athirappilly project. The dam is proposed to be constructed over a river whose basin has been already dammed for electricity or irrigation six times upstream in its catchment. Five of these projects are located in Kerala and one in Tamil Nadu.
The effects:
While the forest streams struggle to retain their perennial nature, the loss of most of the evergreen and riparian forests is not helping the case. As a result, the Vazhachal area and the highly popular Athirappilly waterfalls downstream in the Chalakudy river basin remain the relatively untouched stretch where one can find river rapids and fast flows. This is what is going to be impacted the maximum if the dam construction becomes a reality.
Read the full article by Kanchi Kohli here.
