Himachal Pradesh’s prominet Ravi river may disappear from the Chamba district in couple of years. A 67 kilo meter long stretch will simply disappear as its flow will be diverted through tunnels for hydropower generation projects.

Additional chief secretary (forests) Avay Shukla in a report on the impact of hydropower projects on environment has asserted that in the entire 70 kilo meter stretch between Chamba town and Bajoli, upstream in Bharmour, only 3 kilo meter of the river will flow in its original bed and the rest will disappear.

“There are four run-of-river hydro projects sanctioned on the 70 kilo meter stretch. These are Bajoli-Holi, Kuther and Chamera II and III. When all these projects will be commissioned, the entire river would meander through tunnels of the projects,” Shukla observed in the 30-page report that was placed before a ‘green bench’ of the high court recently.

Shukla, who has examined the environmental fallout of big projects of over 100 Mw in the state, has recommended that a minimum riparian distance of 5 kilo meter be maintained between the two hydropower projects on the same river and the projects which do not confine this requirement should be put on hold until the entire issue is examined and a proper policy framed.

According to the report, which studied the Satluj, Beas and Ravi river basins, the main valleys in the state have been saturated with projects. Now projects are being allotted along side valleys of the tributaries. “The effect of large-scale cutting of trees, dumping of muck and diversion of river water over the entire basin has not been studied by the government so far. There is a need for studying the impact of projects on flora, fauna and the ecosystem,” the report pointed out.

The report recommends that the government should declare some areas as ‘protected zones’ to help maintain ecological balance and also conduct studies to know the carrying capacity of each river basin. ‘Even the forest advisory committee of the ministry of forests and environment has asked the Uttarakhand government to carry out basin-wise environment impact assessment in respect of more than 100 proposed hydroelectric projects,’ he said.

The report has also highlighted deficiencies pertaining to environment management not only in private sector projects but also those being executed by government agencies like NHPC and NTPC.

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