windmill is an emerging and a strong wave for future when it comes to renewable and green energy. increasingly western countries (and developing -and destroying!!!- countries) are turning to wind power.

with zero emissions, zero wastage, zero effulents, etc, etc wind power offers a green energy that is attractive for public utilities to mix and match their offering so that economic viability can be maintained.

but officials of karnataka and Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Ltd has taken an extreme step to go 'extreme and destrutive brown' i guess.

what else would explain opening up a forest area that too a protected national treasure in terms of bio diveristy to wind mills and that too to a company that is trampling upon communities for a coal power plant in coastal karnataka.

ms.manorama madhwaraj, congress MP from karnataka questions on this is the same question i have. hindu has captured this nicely and the summary is below.

To set up a windmill in hilly areas, a minimum of 50-metre long and wide concrete platforms were needed; The towers, generators and the machines with gearboxes would have to be lifted with the help of trawlers; To shift this, roads with a width of 10 to 12 metres had to be laid; The boulders and stones on the way would have to be blasted with dynamite; Apart from this, a substation building, permanent quarters for staff and guesthouses had to be built;Trees would have to be felled to draw high-tension wire to transmit 66 kV or 110 kV power.

looks like same case as athirapally wherein the lust for electricity has prompted officials to trample upon the pristine chalakudy ranges.

let's part with the summary that the MP has put so eloquently. "If the wind-power project were set up in plain lands, it could be called environmentally friendly. But if such projects were set up in the dense forests of the Western Ghats, then it is not environmentally friendly"

when maniac growth is the only mantra, nothing else stands in front of it. not even pure logic.



(the above 2 pictures are from altamont pass outside bayarea in california. these windmills have been under tremendous pressure from bird lovers and environmentalists because of the bird kills happening. and altamont pass is not even a forest. it is a hilly area in the middle of urban sprawl. imagine putting such power plants bang in middle of national forests in california!!!. imagine the same thing in india. in india, our urban elite and policy makers will gleefully call this merciless growth as 'development')