Editorial - The Hindu - June 16, 2004
DISQUIET IN SILENT VALLEY
THE PROPOSED PATHRAKADAVU hydroelectric project across the Kunthi River in the Silent Valley National Park region of the Western Ghats has created a deep sense of anxiety among conservationists. The proposal is being defended on a technicality: the chosen site is a few hundred metres away from the southern boundary of the National Park. The controversy has revived memories of the campaign to save the Silent Valley in the 1970s and 1980s from an even bigger power project. The project was dropped in deference to public opinion and the entire area declared a National Park in 1984; this was eventually added to the core of the Nilgiris biosphere reserve. Pathrakadavu has raised the spectre of forests contiguous to the Silent Valley being submerged to generate 70 MW of power, with little evidence to show that the resulting damage to the environment, starting with the impact of dam construction, can be justified even in economic terms. The project of the Kerala State Electricity Board is being promoted on the ground that its damage potential is restricted to 22.16 hectares of forests.
The disquiet among scientists, who have over the last few decades developed their understanding of the importance of the rain forest, is based on unimpeachable evidence that many species of fish, amphibians, birds and plants are endemic to the power project area and they would disappear for want of protection. The forests that would be submerged form part of the habitat of the highly endangered lion-tailed macaque and Nilgiri tahr. Even the preliminary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) done for the Pathrakadavu project area presents enough data to put forth a strong argument against the dam; it lists a host of flora and fauna that are peculiar to the area, including some species that are categorised as rare by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. An independent study conducted recently by the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) has confirmed much of the EIA data on natural resources and, going beyond it, uncovered fresh evidence that points to the presence of richer biodiversity in the project area. Equally significant, SACON believes that the EIA has committed serious mistakes in calculating the water availability in the proposed reservoir which, if true, call into question the very rationale of the Rs. 420-crore project.
Opposition to Pathrakadavu on environmental grounds is bound to grow, as it is perceived by many conservationists to be a smaller version of the original Silent Valley hydroelectric project. The public hearing on the project in May witnessed unruly scenes triggered by the denial of opportunity to scientists and conservationists to put forward their objections. This revealed an unseemly haste to see the project through. The proposal to dam the Kunthi ignores the recommendations made years ago by UNESCO's World Heritage Bureau that the boundaries of the Silent Valley should be extended to include adjacent forests so that it attains viability in terms of area. The proposed project is also inconsistent with scientific reports produced by the Kerala Forest Research Institute recommending that all areas adjacent to the Silent Valley National Park be declared buffer zones. Besides threatening biodiversity, Pathrakadavu endangers the water security of several basin areas that depend on the Kunthi, the only tributary of the Bharathapuzha that flows freely. Kerala must explore other avenues to augment its power supply, such as improving efficiency of existing hydroelectric power plants and reducing transmission losses, rather than tinker with its rich ecosystem