A Posco in Himachal: Locals oppose hydel power projects

As the world watches peaceful protests of villagers against land acquisition for Posco project in Orissa, a silent protest is brewing in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh against number of small hydro projects in the Saal valley of the district.

Updated on: Jul 26, 2011, 23:34:22 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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As the world watches peaceful protests of villagers against land acquisition for Posco project in Orissa, a silent protest is brewing in Chamba district of Himachal Pradesh against number of small hydro projects in the Saal valley of the district.

Since April this year the villagers from eight panchayats have prevented the construction of small dam hydro projects on Hull river, a tributary of river Ravi.

“We have been sitting on a dharna as the state government has refused to act on our petitions against the projects,” said Rattan Chand Sharma, who heads the Saal Ghaati Bachao Sangharsh Morcha.

The Himachal government has approved two hydro projects of 2.35 MW and 1.40 MW on the river to Delhi based companies and allowed construction despite resolutions passed by affected Panchayats. The state government had promoted run of the river small hydro projects to harness the hydel capacity but the policy had evoked protest from ecologists.

But, has irked the locals in Chamba is that the water will be diverted for the projects affecting their drinking water supply and will affected the local ecology. They also claim that the dams will kill the few kms of the Hull river, vital for their livelihood. “We don’t want compensation and want that the dams being scrapped,” Sharma said.

The protest against Hull hydel projects is just one of the several going on in the Himalayan region from Himachal to Assam in north-east. Akhil Gogoi of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) was recently arrested after a protest over hydel projects coming up in Arunachal Pradesh turned violent.

Already, the Central government had scrapped two projects on river Ganga in Uttarakhand following protest by locals and religious leaders and refused permission to three more. Similarly, locals are up in arms against small hydro projects in Uttarakhand, like the one being seen in Chamba.

Unlike the big hydel projects for which the Central government’s environment clearance is must, the environmental approval for small hydro projects is domain of the state government. Both the projects in Hull river have state government’s approval.

Sharma said the people of eight panchayats are protesting as they believe that these projects will have adverse impact on local forests, water resources and environment, a claim refuted by the state government. But, their protest has not received the attention as of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti in Jagatsinghpur district of Orissa.

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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