Forest panel to take call on nod to controversial power project in Arunachal

The project will involve felling of over 2.8 lakh trees in dense subtropical, evergreen, broad-leaved forest and subtropical rain forest according to a factsheet submitted to the Forest panel to take call on nod to controversial power project in Arunachal

The Union environment ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) held a meeting  to consider a proposal for diversion of 1,165.66 hectares of forest land in Arunachal Pradesh’s Dibang Valley for the construction of the 3097-MW Etalin Hydroelectric Project, said officials familiar with the matter.

The Etalin Hydro Electric Power Company Limited is a joint venture of Hydro Power Development Corporation of Arunachal Pradesh Limited and Jindal Power Limited (JPL) and the project was to be developed the cost of about ₹25,296.95 crore.
The project will involve felling of over 2.8 lakh trees in dense subtropical, evergreen, broad-leaved forest and subtropical rain forest according to a factsheet submitted to the 
The FAC has heard the proposal four times so far — 

Following widespread criticism by scientists and environmentalists, the committee hadeferred its decision on the project, but heard the proposal again on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, scientists from 16 research institutes wrote to the FAC stating that a fresh assessment of the region’s biodiversity must be conducted before the project is given approval.

“We find it pertinent to remind the committee of the need to conduct fresh, unbiased scientific studies to fully understand the impact of the country’s largest proposed hydro-project on this region’s fragile ecology and people.

We believe that such decisions of national importance should not be based on faulty and erroneous science,” the letter, signed by 29 researchers and scientists from Bombay Natural History Society, Nature Conservation Foundation, 
Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History, among others, read.

On May 5, 2020, the same group of scientists had released a peer-review of Wildlife Institute of India’s (WII) report on the project which concluded that it was “biased” in its findings. 

The review stated that WII hadn’t revealed crucial information about the area, particularly the presence of tigers and the impact of the project on ecology and local residents.

On February 28, 2017, the FAC had met to discuss granting clearance to the project but recommended a “multiple season replicate study on biodiversity assessment of the catchment area.”

In 2019, the WII produced a technical report that was funded by the Etalin Hydroelectric Power Company at a budget of ₹1.73 crore.

While WII was asked to do a multiple season study, the institute had only conducted field observations between February and June 2018.

Based on a camera trap exercise, the WII concluded that there are no tigers in the project area but recommended continuous monitoring of key mammalian fauna including tigers in a 10-km radius of the proposed project area.

In their letter on , the scientists wrote, “Importantly, in the past year, new evidence has emerged of multiple tigers inhabiting forests close to villages in Talõ Valley, one of the two limbs of the river Dibang where the project infrastructure will be located and where the WII had asserted there was no evidence of tigers in their Conservation Plan.”

However, even as FAC considers the project for forest clearance, the developers of the hydroelectric project are likely to change.

PSU, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited is in the process of signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Arunachal Pradesh government to take over five hydropower projects in the Dibang basin including the Etalin project.

“There are 5 projects that are to be allocated to us very soon in the Dibang basin of around 5,097 MW. The process of allotment has not yet begun. Three projects have been already cancelled by previous allocatees. 

For Etalin hydro electric company, the process of cancelling the allocation of JPL has begun. We will wait and see what happens,” said NL Sharma, CMD, SJVN Ltd.
SJVN Ltd will sign a memorandum of understanding with Arunachal government for transfer of these projects.

But we have referred back certain points to the Arunachal Pradesh government. 

Paying an upfront premium is not economically viable for hydropower; the joint venture model is also not sustainable; the commercial viability of the project needs to be studied and we prefer a ‘build-operate-manage’ model rather than ‘build-operate and transfer’. \

Once these points are resolved, we can take over these projects.
Sharma said difficulty in getting forest clearances and high tariff of hydropower projects make it difficult to attract investment.\

“The viability of a hydropower project can be assessed on a case-by-case basis. For example, if there is a large forest area involved, we need to first check if there is land for compensatory afforestation. 

Then we need to have an environment management plan also to address environmental issues. If the tariff is too high like ₹7-8 how can we sell? So these are issues that will have to be considered,” 

Sharma said, adding that the Centre is focused on increasing hydropower capacity in India.

“We need a clean power source to balance the deficits in other renewable energy like solar and wind. Plus, due to the oil and gas crisis in Ukraine India will have to be self-sufficient in energy sources. 

Hydropower will become cheap in the long run and these projects can be relied on for nearly a hundred years because they are dependent only on river flow,” Sharma added.

As per minutes of FAC’s meeting on  meeting, FAC had sought comments from the Power Ministry on: the project is delayed by six years and the country’s energy plan may have changed; a large number of hydro-electric projects are pending due to environmental and forest clearance concerns; tariff structure of the project was already high when proposed in 2022

FAC had asked the power ministry to comment whether the project in its current form is viable. It has also directed 

Arunachal Pradesh to submit a cost-benefit analysis of the project which has still not been submitted according to documents available on Parivesh website.

Jindal Power Limited did not respond to HT’s queries on whether it is quitting the project, and why.
We discussed the project at length but I cannot say anything about the decision until minutes of today’s meeting are made,” said an FAC member who did not wish to be named.