Hanging by a thread

Sand slips

Lessons from Kakarapalli

We were standing at the edge of what looked like a swamp—grass and pools and streams. On one side was heavily barricaded land with high walls, barbed wires and armed security. A board read: East Coast Energy, Kakarapalli. This was where a bloody battle had taken place a few months ago. People protesting the takeover of their wetland were shot at and three lost their lives. Now the site of the 2,640 MW thermal power plant is under siege—locked and in court.

Stay on land allotment for thermal power plant in Sompeta

In a significant shot in the arm for agitating farmers and fishermen, the Andhra Pradesh High Court recently suspended an order issued by the state government alloting 394 hectares (ha) of wetlands for a thermal power plant near Sompeta in Srikakulam district.

Chronology of events

April 2008: Public hearing

Lies, deceit, half truths

False information. Wrong data. This is what sums up the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report of the power plant project at Kakarapalli, according to an analysis by non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in Delhi.

Nirma whitewash

About a decade ago, farmers of 15 villages in Mahuva block in coastal Saurashtra could barely grow one crop a year. This was because the groundwater they used for irrigation was saline. Their fortunes changed in 2000 when the Gujarat government created a reservoir—Samadhiyala bandhara— by building a dam at the mouth of the river Shensuri that flows through Mahuva. The dam prevented sea water from entering the river. The reservoir’s sweet water helped farmers grow up to three crops a year and set up agro-processing units. But the good times were not to last. In 2008, the state government allotted part of the reservoir and its catchment area, totalling 268 hectares (ha), to detergent company Nirma to set up a cement plant.

People’s power v thermal power

On July 14, two people were killed at Sompeta in Andhra Pradesh’s Srikakulam district when the police opened fire on protesters. The people were incensed at the Andhra Pradesh government allotting a tract of Sompeta’s wetland, or beela, to private firm Nagarjuna Construction Company (NCC). The company plans to build a 2,640 MW coal-fired power plant on 480 hectares of the wetland.

Clearance based on false claims

A COMMITTEE set up by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has confirmed the existence of wetland at the thermal plant near Sompeta and the Bhavanapadu thermal plant site near Kakrapalli village in Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh.

Skewed evidence

Reports NCC submitted Demarcation of Coastal Regulation Zone, high-tide line and setback line by B P Rao of National Institute of Oceanography, Goa Biodiversity and water quality of site and downstream drainage up to the sea by Seshagiri Rao, University of Hyderabad and V S Raju of Kakatiya University, Warangal Assessment of soil types and water quality from the regional agricultural research centre, Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University, Bapatla Regional geology of site by M