Indigenous tribe opposes hydropower projects in Tawang | Janaki Lenin

On 24 and 25 August, the Expert Appraisal Committee on River Valley and Hydroelectric Projects of the Ministry of Environment and Forests is scheduled to discuss the impact of 15 hydroelectric projects planned for the Tawang river basin in western Arunachal Pradesh. In an area wedged between China and Bhutan, these dams, with a combined capacity of about 2800MW of power, will submerge 249 hectares (615 acres) of forest. Other construction work such as roads will affect an even larger area of forest. The Buddhist Monpa tribe, which lives in Tawang, fears its sacred sites, monasteries, and springs will be affected by the various components of these hydel projects. Villagers organised a huge rally from Tawang monastery to protest the construction of hydroelectric projects, defying a ban on public gathering in December 2012. In this mountainous country, 234 settlements are located along riverbanks, and all of them will be affected by at least one hydropower project. While members of the tribe oppose all power projects, they are dead set against four. These are the largest of the lot: 780 MW Nyamjang Chhu, 600 MW Tawang I, 800 MW Tawang II, and the Tsa Chhu projects. A 3-km stretch of the river Nyamjang Chhu is one of the wintering sites of black-necked cranes, a species that enjoys the highest protection under the country’s Wildlife Protection Act. The barrage for the Nyamjang Chhu hydel project is set to come up in the middle of this section. Although only five to seven birds show up every year, the Monpa revere them as the reincarnation of the 6th Dalai Lama. The high priest of Tibetan Buddhism was a Monpa, who lived in the 18th century, and wrote numerous poems featuring these cranes. Residents’ fear these hydel power projects will affect sacred sites, including Gomshing pilgrimage site at the confluence of Nyamjang Chhu and Tawang Chhu, Gorsam Chorten stupa, Tongsheng, and Shangya, and sacred springs. Since the Monpa number about 49,000, labourers brought from elsewhere could outnumber them and swamp their native culture and ethnicity. Constructing these power generation installations close to the Chinese border is another source of anxiety. In the event of hostilities, any sabotage of these structures could cause severe damage downstream. When the public hearing for the Nyamjang Chhu project was held on 8 Feb 2011, villagers who sought to raise these issues were turned away. Only those who would receive money for their lands were allowed to participate. Lobsang Gyatso, general secretary, Save Mon Region Federation, estimates Tawang needs only 5MW of power. He told the Times of India, “We don’t need so many hydel projects to meet the electricity demand of our people. Small hydro-projects would suffice. All these large dams are meant to generate electricity to be sold outside, at the cost of our livelihoods and ecology.” While considering the forest clearance for Tawang I and II hydro projects, the Forest Advisory Committee asked Arunachal Pradesh to conduct a cumulative impact study of all the dams in the river basin. The state in turn commissioned the North Eastern Hill University, Shillong, in neighbouring Meghalaya, to assess only 13 of the 15 projects. The report, submitted in June 2015, largely toes the state’s line, although it vetoes 43MW Tsa Chhu I and 60MW Thingbu Chhu. It doesn’t take a call on any of the hydropower plants that the Monpa vehemently oppose. NJC Hydropower, the company building the Nyanjang Chhu project, didn’t cooperate with the university researchers until winter had passed and the black-necked cranes had flown back. Activists allege the company joined the study only after the state’s power ministry forced it. While the WWF has detailed records of the cranes, the state power department flatly denied the birds were found on the river bank at all. Although the cranes have been coming here for decades, the company-sponsored EIA makes no mention of them. The cumulative impact report claims since “there is difference of opinion about the actual location of the habitat,” fresh studies should be conducted by wildlife research organisations such as Wildlife Institute of India, Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, or Bombay Natural History Society. Inexplicably, the study is not to investigate the impact of the dam on the cranes; it is to establish environmental flows. The report doesn’t acknowledge NJC Hydropower’s misdemeanour. On the basis of a complaint, the regional office of the Ministry of Environment and Forests in the northeast had found NJC Hydropower illegally constructing two hydropower projects in dense forest without getting permission from the ministry. It recommended that the project should not be given approval. Inexplicably, these are the two projects that were dropped from the collective assessment of the projects’ impacts on the river basin. Although these are integral to the Nyamjang Chhu Hydropower plant, the report doesn’t assess their impacts at all. Did the state drop these two projects from the expert team’s purview because any mention of the illegal construction may have invited adverse comment? In 20 July 2015, Save Mon Region Federation sent a letter to the Expert Appraisal Committee of the ministry. The federation accused NJC Hydropower of concealing the fact that black-necked cranes winter at their proposed barrage site. Concealment of such information can lead to cancellation of the project. But with the might of the state behind these companies, it’s unlikely they will suffer anything more than a rap on the knuckles. The group says parts of two of the larger projects, the 780MW Nyamjang Chhu and the 800MW Tawang II, are only 140 metres apart as their power houses are in close proximity. The fluctuation in water flow caused by two projects will disturb the pilgrimage site of Gomshing. Considering the degree of opposition to the hydropower plants, the report hardly pays any notice to people’s opinions. It summarises consultations with villagers in one table, and their concerns are listed as bullet points. While it acknowledges their opposition to Nyamjang Chhu, it makes no more than a cursory mention of the resistance to the other projects. Not only have the power companies not held adequate public consultations, even the expert team investigating the impact of these dams has failed the indigenous community. While the team met with government and company officials after the report was first drafted, it doesn’t seem to have extended the same courtesy to villagers whose lives and livelihoods are at stake. Back in May 2012, during a discussion on the subject in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, MPs of all political parties unanimously agreed that hydel projects should only be built in Tawang after proper public consultation. Despite these promises in parliament, no public consultation on the Tawang river basin study report has yet been held. As the community voices its concerns in rallies and letters, the state appears to distance itself from engaging with people. Without informed consent of the community, how does the state expect these projects to be viable?