Ratnagiri hits green wall

India’s biggest nuclear power plant in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra has hit a green hurdle for now as the Environment Ministry has imposed a four-month moratorium on all projects in Ratnagiri and Sindhuburg districts of Maharashtra.

Updated on: Aug 26, 2010, 01:33:06 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India’s biggest nuclear power plant in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra has hit a green hurdle for now as the Environment Ministry has imposed a four-month moratorium on all projects in Ratnagiri and Sindhuburg districts of Maharashtra.

The ministry has asked the Western Ghat Ecology Panel headed by National Advisory Council member Madhav Gadgil to examine over a dozen power projects, including the Jaitapur nuclear power project, and 55 mining projects for their impact on environment and make its recommendations. “The panel will recommend the approach for deciding on these projects,” a senior ministry official said.

The ministry also said no projects would be considered for environment approval till December 2010 by when the panel will have to submit its report. “We will hold a meeting next month to decide on what approach to take on the ministry’s order,” Gadgil told HT.

There are a dozen power projects and 55 mining projects proposed in the two districts. Maharashtra government’s decision to open the fragile Western Ghats for mining had evoked protests from the green lobby, including Gadgil. The NPCIL had to stop land acquisition in Jaitapur after protests by locals.

“We are coming up with a mega nuclear plant in Ratnagiri in 600 hectares of land, two-third of which would be a green belt…” Science and Technology Minister Prithviraj Chavan said, while introducing Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage 2010 Bill.

The plant is the biggest nuclear energy project of the NPCIL, even though the corporation has sought environment clearance for three other nuclear plants. They are: 2,800 MW plant in Fatehabad in Haryana, 6,000 MW plant in Srikakulam, AP and 6,000 MW plant in Bhavnagar, Gujarat.

Gadgil said the panel, which met MPs on August 17, was of the view the suggestions for Ghats would evolve on making “development compatible with conservation”.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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