Ministry of Environment and Forest approved Tawang II hydroelectric project
|The Tawang – II hydroelectric of 800MW project in Arunachal Pradesh will be executed by the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC). The Project is to be set up on the Tawangchu River, downstream of Forebridge near Jang in Arunachal Pradesh.
The projects include 800 MW Tawang-II Hydroelectric Project in Arunachal Pradesh and 520 MW Teesta-IV Hydroelectric Project in Sikkim. Both the projects will be executed by National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC).
The expected cost of the project is 6112.30 crore rupees. The Project will benefit all the States of Northeast and may generate 3622 million units annually. The Tawng project will require diversion of 116 hectares forest land including 19.6 hectares for underground use and at least 62 families are likely to be affected by it. The NHPC has last year obtained Central Electricity Authority’s concurrence for the 600MW Tawang-I and the 800MW Tawang-II projects in Arunachal Pradesh.
The project approved by the Ministry of Environment and Forest on certain conditions.
These conditions are:
NHPC would transfer the cost of compensatory forest to the state forest department;
NHPC will have to set up at its own cost a four feet high reinforced cement concrete pillars to demarcate the boundary of the diverted forest land; and NHPC will have to maintain the flora and fauna in the vicinity of the project.
Read more on Compulsory Hydro Power Purchase Obligations for DISCOMS
This is highly objectionable for many reasons.
1) Violation of Indigenous Peoples rights to Free, Prior and Informed Consent: The people of Tawang are against this project and have been protesting for more than past two years.
2) Absence of Cumulative Impact Assessment: There is no detailed impact assessment of the Tsa Chu II project on wildlife, biodiversity, social and cultural impacts, human rights impacts both in upstream and downstream of the proposed dam with due participation of affected communities as per the guidelines of the recommendations of the World Commission on Dams
3) Biodiversity and Wild Life Impacts of Tsa Chu II HEP
4) Social and Cultural impacts: The local indigenous peoples will be decimated due to the influx of migrant workers from other parts of India, which will further have a wide ranging impact on small local indigenous populations on their subsistence economy.
Visit Save Mon Region Federation’s website and you will find all the information on this project – http://www.SaveTawang.org