July 16-31, 2007

Environment Vol. 3 Issue No. 31

July 16-31, 2007

Hydel project no threat to Lepcha culture: Govt

Sikkim Government sought to allay apprehensions that the 280 mw Panan Hydroelectricity Project in the protected Lepcha reserve of Dzongu in North Sikkim posed a threat to the Lepcha culture and the ecology of the area. “All measures have been taken to ensure that the damage to the ecology is mitigated and as a special safeguard for the preservation of the Lepcha culture the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest has barred the developers of the project from setting up any labour colony within the Dzongu region,’’ an official release said. The Panan Hydel Power Project is one of the seven projects proposed for Dzongu against which the Affected Citizens of Teesta (ACT) have been on a hunger strike for the last 15 days.
They have been demanding scrapping of all these projects because of the threat posed by them to the fragile ecology of the region and the culture of the Lepchas, the most primitive tribe of the State. As to apprehensions that the Panan project encroaches upon the Khangchendzonga National Park, the release said that none of the project components fell in that area

‘Quake-proof designs for dams in seismic zone’
Allaying fears about possible damages to several big dams coming up in Arunachal Pradesh, located in a highly seismic zone, top officials of National Hydro Power Corporation (NHPC) have said they are so designed now that they seldom get damaged under the impact of a tremor.
Referring to the condition of dams in Jammu and Kashmir, post-2005 tremor, NHPC chairman-cum-managing director S K Garg and Technical Director S P Sen said here last week the dams could withstand the shock since the design took care of the tremor aspect.

The NHPC top brass came here to sign MoUs with the State Government for development of three hydropower projects.Turning to the world scenario, Sen said one of the world’s largest dams was constructed in Kazakhstan right on the seismic fault which is much more dangerous than that in the North Eastern region of our country.
Large dams were also constructed in seismically volatile regions in Turkey and Chile but no dam has either failed or been damaged because of earthquake, he said emphasising that modern designs take care of seismic factors though devising such designs are much more expensive.

Sen said seismic observatories were functional at the sites of proposed mega hydro-projects of Arunachal Pradesh having a huge potential to produce 55,000 mw of hydel power and turn it into the powerhouse of the country.

“The data collected by the observatories would be used as inputs for advance designing of the projects to be finally approved by the National Committee on Seismicity, a Central government undertaking”, he said.Some experts are also associated with international bodies working on dam safety designing, he said.Among other projects, NHPC has already spent Rs 1,700 crore on 2000 MW Lower Subansiri project in the State which is by far the biggest in the country and is likely to be commissioned in 2012.

The 3,000 MW Dibang project is to be commissioned in ten years if things move as per the roadmap, Garg said.

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