Green clearance to country's biggest proposed hydro project challenged in NGT

The environmental clearance (EC) to the country's biggest proposed hydroelectric project (HEP), the 2880MW Dibang Multipurpose Project (DMP) in Arunachal Pradesh has been challenged in the Kolkata bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT). The petition, filed on Thursday, states that there has been no application of mind while appraising the project. It has expressed concern that the project would cause "irreversible environmental damage and destroy one of the last refuge of pristine biodiversity of one of the mega biodiversity hotspot of the world and immense downstream impacts on livelihood and wildlife in Assam".

The DMP will see construction of a mammoth 278-metre tall concrete gravity dam and it will submerge a vast forest area of 4,577.84 hectares or 45.77 sq km, of which major chunks are community forests. The forest land to be diverted is also a major habitat of endangered species such as tiger, leopard, snow leopard, Himalayan Black Bear, Slow Loris, Himalayan Black bear, Leopard cat and Fishing Cat.

Quashing the project's environmental clearance, declaring the Dibang-Dihang Biosphere Reserve as a 'No-Go Zone' for massive HEP's are the key prayers of the petition. In addition, it has also asked the Tribunal to commission a detailed basin based cumulative impact assessments of HEP's in the entire Dibang valley through an interdisciplinary expert group for scientific evaluation of sites.

The petition highlights two major contradictions and anomalies in the process of granting environmental clearance for the project. Firstly, the petition claims that the MoEFCC granted clearance without following the due process. It says that ignoring an earlier NGT order, no downstream impact and cumulative impact assessment was carried out. Secondly, the petition stresses that the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) twice rejected recommending the project for clearance. But, after the FAC was reconstituted, the project was recommended for forest clearance even though there was no major change made to the proposal.

Even the public hearing process, the petition says, has not been taken into account while giving the clearance. Before clearing the project, no public hearing was carried out in the downstream areas of Assam while in Arunachal Pradesh, the Idu Mishmi tribes have strongly opposed the project.

The petition has also drawn attention to the seismic vulnerabilities of the region and to the issue of ecological flow of Dibang River. The DMP site lies close to an active Fault Line in the Mishmi Thrust of the Mayudia Group in Eastern Arunachal Pradesh. It has a witnessed seismic activities, including the Great Assam earthquake of 8.6 magnitude in 1950. The Environment Impact Assessment of the project makes only cursory remarks on the natural and reservoir induced seismic threats, the petition added.