Union environment ministry has created a draft policy to declare region eco-sensitive zone
Preparations are underway to declare Pong Dam Wildlife Sanctuary located in Himachal Pradesh and the surrounding area an eco-sensitive zone. Photo: Rohit Prashar Over 25,000 people displaced by the Pong dam on the Beas river in Himachal Pradesh have been waiting to be relocated for over five decades. Many of them were surviving by farming around the dam region. But a draft policy to declare Pong Dam eco-sensitive zone (ESZ) is likely to impact these oustees again, who are planning to protest against the Union ministry of forest, environment and climate change (MoEFCC ) decision.
The construction of the Pong embankment was completed in 1974, but those displaced by the construction are yet to be rehabilitated.
Local Panchayat representatives and Dehra Assembly constituency member of legislative assembly (MLA) alleged that the draft policy by the central government to declare the ESZ was prepared without suggestions of Panchayat representatives and residents.
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The declaration will affect the livelihood of millions of people, the residents said. It will also complicate the process of carrying out any development work in the region, leading to long delays.
Dehra Assembly constituency MLA Hoshiar Singh, Pong Dam-affected Panchayat representatives and the public held a meeting in Nagrota Surian town on December 26, 2023, to repeal the ESZ draft policy. In this meeting, all attendees agreed to reject any new rehabilitation policy until all issues are resolved.
Karan Singh Pathania, Pradhan of Sukhnara Panchayat near Pong Dam, told this reporter that settlement issues remain unresolved decades after the dam’s construction. “As the rehabilitation process is still incomplete, a new policy without Panchayat and public input is unacceptable. Thousands of people still have issues after the dam was built. The new policy will restrict people, causing more problems,” he said.
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Pong Dam area is considered to be the resting place of hundreds of thousands of exotic birds every year and was declared a Ramsar Wetland Site in 2002 and notified as a wildlife sanctuary in 2013. Every year more than 100,000 birds migrate here from Central Asia, Mongolia, Siberia and China. Some of the birds that migrate here are bar-headed geese, gray light goose, common teal and cormorants.
Locals said that the dam is filled with water for four months in a year. Once the water levels reduce, the residents carry out farming in the region. However, the locals are often harassed by wildlife conservationists, they alleged. The ESZ policy will impose more restrictions on these activities within a radius of 1-1.5 kilometres of the dam area.
Singh has strongly opposed the creation of an ESZ in the Pong Dam area. He had also sought the intervention of Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu to repeal this draft policy.
“The people settled around Pong Dam were already facing the brunt of displacement. Over 25,000 families were displaced by the dam and over 7,000 rehabilitation cases are pending. People living within a radius of 116 kilometres in the dam area will be impacted,” Singh said.
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