Hydro Disaster

Rishiganga HEP: A foretold disaster for River, People and Chipko legacy

The February 7 2021 Chamoli deluge has completely destroyed Rishiganga Hydro Electric Project (HEP). The 13.2 MW run of the river project has also become graveyard for over 50 innocent workers and villagers. The damages to homes, bridges, forest and river eco-system is additional which cannot be restored easily.

In fact, the disaster is among the threats against which experts and locals had been warning the authorities time and again. Sadly, the past history of struggle and destruction shows that not only the state government but the judiciary also failed miserably to address the pleas of locals and assess the disaster risks in a timely manner.

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Dams

Forget ILR pipedream, let us pray for smaller places of worship

Consider some basic facts: A specialized agency, National Water Development Agency (NWDA), was set up four decades ago to work only on Inter Linking of Rivers (ILR) projects, but even first project of the grand ILR plan is yet to take off to implementation as envisaged in ILR plan. In fact, NWDA is not confident of putting any of the thousands of reports produced by it in public domain, it knows they won’t stand to public scrutiny.

Continue reading “Forget ILR pipedream, let us pray for smaller places of worship”