Congress flays govt over hydel projects set up without thought to environmental impact.
Affected area by a landslide in Dipu Dara near Singtam in Gangtok district Tuesday, August 20, 2024. This was mentioned by officials who said that the landslide caused damage to the powerhouse of NHPC’s Teesta Stage V hydroelectric project.
The Congress hit out at the government on Wednesday (August 21, 2024) after landslides in Sikkim and said that over the past few years there have been hydel projects coming up in ecologically fragile regions without adequate consideration of their cumulative environmental impacts.
It also claimed that construction of dams on the Teesta river is an effective example of how ecology is being fundamentally changed with drastic implications for this generation and future ones.
A large scale landslide occurred in east Sikkim on Tuesday (August 20, 2024), causing destruction to parts of a 510-mw hydro-electric project at Teesta River.
At about 7.30 am yesterday morning, a massive landslide occurred at Dipu Dara near Singtam in Gangtok district causing extensive damage to the powerhouse of NHPC’s Teesta Stage V hydroelectric project.
According to him, there have been a series of landslides that have occasioned significant damage to Teesta V; a unit with an installed capacity of 510 MW located on Godak village in East Sikkim District along river banks.
This disaster came just after GLOF and Riverine floods in October last year that caused severe damages both within Sikkim and Kalimpong, West Bengal according to him.
While he highlighted this fact during his presentation it was only some time later that he would disclose where Nirmala Sitharaman had made a vague promise about “assistance” under Irrigation and Flood Mitigation section dedicated for Union Budget July-2024 without giving any fund details for Sikkim.
“The Budget was indifferent,” Ramesh said adding – “in a classic case of the Government’s confrontational federalism, to West Bengal areas that were equally affected.”
The former Minister of Environment noted; “Aside from the apparent vendetta politics, these budget commitments have been inadequate because the entire region’s development framework requires an ecological centered focus especially given the cascading series of calamities which have occurred over the past one year.”
During a recent interview, for instance, a senior leader pointed out that National Highway 10 has been extremely unstable with regular landslides and closures.
He said these floods have now closed NH for about a month crippling all trade, tourism and most importantly, endangering security in these sensitive border parts of India.
These natural disasters as described by Mr. Ramesh have become normal occurrences just like last year’s Oct disaster or even current landslides due to environmental degradation as well as unplanned developments.
According to Congress General Secretary, this is due to several hydro projects on Teesta River making it flood prone thus wiping off sections along NH10.
According to him there are altogether forty seven hydel projects being developed in Sikkim and West Bengal states on River Teesta at different levels according to figures compiled by National Hydropower Development Corporation (NHDC).
He added that nine among them have already reached completion stage while fifteen dams are under construction and another twenty eight are still in the pipeline.
This was disclosed by Congress spokesman who stated that the October 2023 calamity was caused by GLOF but became so catastrophic only after Teesta-III dam failed.
Additionally, the company has also constructed 14 tunnels for the Sivok-Rangpo railway line in this sensitive area (Mr. Ramesh said that this made it more vulnerable place).
He added: “The debris management mismanagement has also caused a rise in the riverbed level, thereby making the area prone to floods.”
Another point raised by Ramesh is that these projects have been done without any regard to the local communities.
“The people of Sikkim and Kalimpong did not benefit from these hydropower projects in terms employment generation, sharing of power or revenue earnings,” he explained.
Furthermore, he pointed out that there was no consultation with the local communities prior to undertaking the railway line projects.
Moreover, according to Mr. Ramesh, such lack of consultation should not happen again since recent experience showed that it was short sighted. In this regard, members of the local Lepcha community were dismissed by authorities when they contested an environment clearance for Teesta V project on grounds such as non-existence of research about GLOFs impacts on it in 2014.
“And just like they had predicted earlier on, last October their warning became a reality when a glacier lake outburst flood breached Teesta V dam damaging the project. The same dam now experienced landslides after several months,” he added.
According to Mr. Ramesh, hydel projects established during recent years within ecologically delicate areas have lacked concern over cumulative environmental consequences (Mr. Ramesh emphasized).
“Teesta is one example among others where huge dams are being set up across rivers with developmental considerations sweeping over ecology and threatening future generations,” said congress leader.
