The Himalayan mountain belt is one of the most seismically active as it is located on seismic zone 5
2013 Uttarakhand earthquake. Photo for representation only. Source: iStock Joshimath and some other Himalayan cities are reeling under landslides and land subsidence, resulting in damage to houses, loss of land and livelihoods. In the wake of this crisis, there is an urgent need to understand the Himalayan ecology.
The Himalayan mountain belt is one of the most seismically active as it is located on seismic zone 5, where the most intense earthquakes occur. The region is thus prone to earthquakes, landslides and other natural disasters.
Recently, intense earthquakes in Turkey and Syria killed over 30,000 people. Both countries fall in the seismic active Anatolian Plate, which borders two major fault lines.
This puts the earthquake risks of the Himalayan region in perspective: The Himalayan mountain belt is rising as the Indian tectonic plate is pressing against the Eurasian plate — the largest active continental megathrust fault in the world.
The construction of various dams and highways further deteriorate the ecology thus resulting in disasters like Joshimath.
Read more: Stop all hydroelectric projects in Himalayan region to avoid a Joshimath repeat: Experts
After getting the status of a separate state in 2000, the Uttarakhand government was keen on turning the state into ‘Urja Pradesh’ (energy surplus state). Since then, there was a spate of dam construction throughout the state — nearly 200 were planned at one go — by not only displacing a number of villages but also causing irreversible harm to Himalayan ecology.
I visited the village Chain in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand in 2008 to study the plight of the residents whose hometown was under threat due to severe ecological damage caused by a hydropower project. The village made headlines when it boycotted the 2009 general elections.
Chain is located about 12 hours from Dehradun. It has suffered due to the 400 megawatts Vishnuprayag Hydro Electric Project by Jaypee Group. The company proudly announces on its website that this is an environment-friendly, non-consumptive, run-of-the-river project with a near-zero carbon footprint. But the ground reality was shockingly different.
There has been widespread environmental degradation due to this project, impacting hundreds of people. At the time of my visit, around 25 households (mostly Dalits) were rendered homeless by the project and another 110 families were on the verge of being displaced.
The powerhouse of the project has been constructed below Chain village, which sits atop a mountain. The field visit to the village revealed that the houses had developed cracks due to repeated blasting underneath for the dam construction.
People were feeling helpless against the might of a multi-crore company. The district administration said that the crisis was ‘daivi apda’ (act of God)!
The pattern of damage was observed in several other Himalayan villages since then. Under-construction projects such as the Rishikesh-Badrinath Highway and the Tapovan-Vishnugad Hydropower project of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) has made the area vulnerable.
This threatens the lives of villagers in ecologically risky places like Joshimath, which sits on an ancient landslide area. The entire town is at risk due to unbridled construction over a decade and a half.
NTPC has proposed the Lata-Tapovan hydropower project (171 mw) in Chamoli. The residents of Lata village have been writing to the company since last year seeking correct information regarding the proposed dam.
The local community wanted to know about the status of forest and agricultural land after the dam was constructed. They also wanted to know how the environment would be affected due to the dam. NTPC failed to provide any detail.
In one of the public hearings of NTPC for Lata-Tapovan hydropower project in 2006, local people, including the Panchayati Raj Institution representatives boycotted the meeting and hearing could not be started due vehement opposition of NTPC.
The villagers of Lata alleged that on one hand, the state declared Lata, Reni and Tapovan as the buffer area for Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve and on the other hand, invited the companies to build hydroelectric dams.
Dam reports also failed to mention that the upper reaches of the Tapovan village in Reni, Lata, Jugju, Juagwar villages is inhabited by people from the Scheduled Tribe Bhotia. The government says it is a world heritage area and then ignores the effect on wildlife due to dams, the villagers cried.
In the environmental impact assessment report, the officials wrote that the population of wild animals in the project area is negligible, the villagers pointed out. But in reality, wild animals inhabit the upper parts of the project area and it is also the place where animals come during migration in winter.
The report also does not mention how it will compensate for usurping cremation grounds and other cultural venues, which are related to the river. The livelihoods (farming & animal husbandry) of the people is related to the forests. The company failed to mention how it will compensate for the loss of livelihood due to the project, the villagers argued.
Dams — large or small — are no more revered unthinkingly as the temples of India’s progress. The question now being raised is whether the people who have been sacrificed at the altar of so-called development have been given informed choices and have been consulted before being displaced. The answer is an obvious no.
Various community movements against dams and displacement have been witnessed in the last few years in the states of Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and those in the northeast of India. Besides causing socio-economic and cultural displacement, dams also cause serious damage to the environment, various reports (like the MC Mehta report) showed.
Unfortunately, the combined environmental consequences are not captured in the individual environment impact assessment reports of the hydropower projects.
Socio-ecological audits of all development projects in the fragile Himalayan regions are required and we also need to see the costs of such development to the local people and its ecology.
Can there be a low-cost model in which there is a small hydro project run entirely by people and is ecologically sustainable? Can we think of other methods of power generation that do not entail displacement? Can the local groups, media houses and research units highlight the overall impact of developmental projects in the Himalayan and mountainous states in India?
Can we hear the voices of local people trying to conserve the Himalayan ecology? Ironically, the Chipko movement started in Chamoli district in the early 1970s under the leadership of Chandi Prasad Bhatt, where people formed a human chain and encircled the trees to keep them from being cut down for a factory.
We need more such local movements and active involvement of policymakers to save the Himalayan ecology. This is indeed now a question of survival and perhaps our last chance to conserve the fragile Himalayan ecology.
Debabrat Patra is an associate director and humanitarian lead, ActionAid India.
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth or ActionAid India.
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