The river should be left alone: report

DAMMING THE TEESTA ? 2

Professor M K Pandit, director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Mountain & Hill Environment (CISMHE), has produced a bombshell.

His assessment of the Teesta basin's carrying capacity will not please the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) which commissioned it or provide much comfort to the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) which paid for it.

His brief was to evaluate the capacity of the Teesta river system with regard to the hydro power projects being proposed in the state and the findings are stark: the ecosystems above Chungthang and its environs have low carrying capacity for large-scale projects and should be left unperturbed.

This means that the first three stages of the six cascading projects on the river (Teesta I to III) must be scrapped. However, since the last is under execution, there is nothing much that can be done, concedes Pandit.

"The stakes are high in Sikkim and it is unlikely that the other two projects will be scrapped," says the CISMHE director who put together the 10-volume report jointly with Wapcos, IIT-Delhi, North Bengal University and Sikkim Government College.

It cost Rs 5 crore, took nearly six years to complete and is a landmark report. "Initially, only five projects were envisaged; now there are 29 and I am horrified," says Pandit.

The major concerns highlighted in the report are the cluster of epicentres in the region and the probability of earthquakes "" the most recent was in February 2006 "" combined with the geological weakness of the region. Apart from the frequent landslides, the thick moraine deposits in north Sikkim provide weak substrates to any large project, it warns.

The other serious problem is the threat to the flora and fauna of the state, a huge chunk of which comes under the Khangchendzonga Biosphere Reserve.

The report provides detailed threats presented by five of the hydroelectric projects "" the analysis on Teesta V, which is being executed by NHPC, is missing "" and the short point is: the projects are all in geologically and ecologically fragile regions that are also biologically very rich.

While Teesta I and II are deemed not feasible, detailed geological investigations are absolutely essential for Teesta III. The only project that the report endorses is Teesta VI because significant changes in the land use have already taken place.

Pandit has suggested the setting up of a Teesta Basin Development Authority as the final authority for monitoring the various hydro projects and suggesting appropriate changes in their design and implementation. It should have legal powers and its rulings would be binding on all parties.

The report also says it would not be wise to ignore the opposition to some of the projects by the local people. The Lepchas, one of the original tribes of Sikkim, have been on relay hunger strike since June 20 last year to protest against the incursion of outsiders into Dzongu Valley which they consider sacred. They are planning a legal challenge to Teesta III.

Neither the Sikkim government nor MoEF has responded to Business Standard's queries about the conclusions of the carrying capacity report.

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AGAINST THE RIDE

The government and developers always emphasise that run-of-the-river hydel projects are benign.

This is not usually the case. In the case of the larger Teesta projects, it involves construction of large dams which divert the river waters through long head race or underground tunnels (HRTs) before the water is dropped back into the river at a downstream location after passing through the powerhouse.

Some of the tunnels are over 17 km long, which means that the river runs dry for long stretches since 80-90 per cent of the water is diverted into the tunnels.

The tunnels add to the geological problems in the area, which is marked by lethal flash floods. The only plus point is that smaller areas are submerged compared to storage dams.