(Feature Image:-Damaged Tapovan hydel project tunnel, after glacier burst in Joshimath causing a massive flood in the Dhauli Ganga river, in Chamoli. PTI/HT)

It is good to see the report of the National Disaster Management Authority, incidentally chaired by the Prime Minister of India mincing no words regarding the Chamoli disaster of 2021, holding the hydropower project authorities (again basically central agencies including Ministry of Environment and Forests, Central Water Commission, Central Electricity Authority and also NDMA itself), district disaster administration and lack of early warning systems.

The stark conclusion of the NDMA that the government needs to pursue alternative sources of Energy rather than the hydropower. Projects in what it calls environmentally fragile area has many implications, but the first one is to stop pursuing more hydropower projects all across the Himalayas. However in the same week we also get the reports that the central government, pushed by vested interests of hydropower lobby, is going for clearing the disastrous Etalin Hydropower project in Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh in North East India. The Forest Advisory Committee of the same MoEF is indulging in all kinds of manipulations to clear the Etalin project.

Continue reading “DRP NB 060622: NDMA says not to rely on hydropower, Central lobby pushes disaster called Etalin HEP“ →