please find the press release from river research center on the athirapally project.

Athirappilly Hydro Electric Project

Expert Committee on River Valley and Hydro Electric Projects makes site visit and holds sitting with affected people

Five Members of the Expert Committee on River Valley and Hydro Electric Projects, the Committee constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests that recommends Environmental Clearance to river valley projects made a site visit to the proposed Athirappilly project and impact areas and held public interaction with the people during the 12 ^th and 13^th April 2007. Dr. P.G.Sastri (Retd.Professor), the Chairman of the River Valley Committee was accompanied by Prof. S.Chanda, Dr. Satya.P.S.Kushwaha, Er. R.K.Khanna and Dr.S.Bhowmik (Member Secretary).

The site visit on 12^th April that started at 10.15 a.m in the morning from Thumboormoozhi, culminated at 6.30 p.m at Pokalapara, the Kadar tribal settlement facing displacement. The Committee was accompanied by the Chairman, KSEB and other top officials, officials from the Kerala Water Authority, Irrigation, Eco Tourism and Forest Departments, Member Secretary, Kerala State Pollution Control Board and members of Chalakudy River Protection Forum. The Committee visited the key sites; the Chalakudy River Diversion Scheme (CRDS) site where the major irrigation project is located, the Kannankuzhy stream where the water would be released after power generation 7 km downstream of dam site, the Athirappilly waterfalls and eco tourism area, the Vazhachal rapids, the Vazhachal Kadar tribal settlement, the proposed Dam site and the Pokalapara tribal settlement. The Committee gave a patient hearing to the grievances raised by all the complainants, spending atleast 2 hrs at each spot.

A large number of problems and impacts related to the project were raised by the public throughout the site visit. The impact of flow regulation on irrigation and drinking water resources for the 19 panchayaths and 2 municipalities in the downstream area was the main topic of discussion at Thumboormoozhi. The members of CPF pointed out how the flow regulation would impair the operation of the CRDS scheme already working under low efficiency. The people demanded the KSEB to return the CRDS to pre 1990 situation when the Poringalkuthu HEP upstream was operating as a base load Power station and steady release of water was ensured.

At Kannankuzhy near the dam project site office, the Committee was greeted by the Athirappilly Vana Samrakshana Samithi members including women and children with posters of 'Abandon Athirappilly project' who were concerned about the future of the magnificent Athirappilly waterfalls and their tourism related livelihoods once the dam is constructed. They told the Committee that the project would take away the sheen from the waterfalls and reduce it to trickles.

At Vazhachal, the Committee gave a patient hearing to Geetha, the Kadar tribal volunteer, who had filed the PIL in the High Court of Kerala in 2005 challenging the WAPCOS EIA. The WAPCOS EIA had incorrectly depicted the location of their tribal residential school and omitted the Vazhachal settlement even without visiting the settlement! Actually the settlement of 58 families is located just 400 m downstream of the dam site. The significance of protecting and preserving the hunter gatherer Kadar tribes as a primitive tribal group and their habitat with just around 1500 individuals remaining on earth was pointed out. When questioned by the Chairman of the Committee as to what compensatory measures were required by the settlement when the dam would be built, the united response from the tribals gathered at Vazhachal was, "We do not want any compensation. Drop the dam project".

At the dam site, a brief background on the uniqueness of the area and the river in terms of riparian flora and fauna, elephant movement from Parambikulam to Pooyamkutty forests, the exceptionally high fish diversity and the several studies pointing towards the high conservation value of the forests and the need for raising the status of Vazhachal Division from its present Reserve Forest status was provided to the Expert Committee.

At Pokalapara Kadar settlement located in the proposed reservoir backwaters area, the same response as at Vazhachal was echoed. Though the KSEB tried to convince the Committee and the tribals that they would be given jobs as skilled labourers during the dam construction, Thankamma a senior citizen from the Settlement responded quickly that, "We have lost trust in the KSEB who have not kept any promises given to us all these years". "We have been displaced several times for dams in the upstream without any compensation, jobs or proper rehabilitation," she added. The deep rooted mistrust towards the KSEB was clear from her words.

The Committee did not receive a single representation during the entire site visit supporting the project. However, there was widespread complaint that the site visit and the public interaction was not properly publicized or informed to the people by the KSEB. Moreover, the venue of public interaction for 13 ^th April was kept 60 km away from the dam site so that the affected people cannot attend it.

The Public Interaction on 13^th April saw a large turnout of people from Athirappilly grama panchayath, surrounding grama panchayaths, voluntary associations, environmentalists and the KSEB officials and media persons. The program which started at 10.30 a.m lasted till 4 p.m. in the evening. Apart from the five Expert Committee members, Dr. Sharma, former Director, KFRI and the Chairman of KSEB along with other State Department officials also listened to the people. Renown environmentalists, Prof. M.K.Prasad, presently Director, Information Kerala Mission and Dr. V,S,Vijayan, presently Kerala State Biodiversity Board Chairman, famous left thinker and energy analyst Prof. M.P.Parameswaran and social activist C.R.Neelakantan were among those who raised objections to the project being implemented. The 2006 Public Hearing panel members, Leena Davis (President, Chalakudy Block Panchayath), Sandhya Unnikrishnan ( former Athirappilly Grama Panchayath President) and Vijaya (Member, Athirappilly Grama Panchayath) expressed their deep dissent at the manner in which the Hearing report was manipulated by the Kerala State Pollution Control Board.

The public stance of opposing the project taken by the left ruling Athirappilly GP President Kanchana, a Kadar tribe herself, became the most significant event of the day. Geetha, the tribal leader from Vazhachal, representatives of the Vana Samrakshana Samithi from Athirappilly, representatives of local self governments Merchants Association representative, , downstream farmers, were among the others who raised their concerns about the impact of the project on their water needs and livelihoods. River Research Centre pointed out the violations and manipulations involved in the Clearance process from 1996 onwards and Convenor of the Chalakudy River Protection Forum demanded that the KSEB should take the responsibility of responding to the various queries raised by the people regarding the project.

Two officers from the KSEB, four grama panchayath representative and a District panchayath member spoke in favour of the project.

The Committee expressed its satisfaction in having heard the people's voices and remarked that the Athirappilly issue is a 'pointer towards dam construction in India'.

The Committee recommendation is awaited.

Report by A.Latha and S.Unnikrishnan

the statement of kerala's electricity minister on the athirapally project is funny.

as repeatedly highlighted in this blog, athirapally is a classic example of how brutal development of india is being pushed in name of growth, jobs, progress. and that too growth, jobs and progess only for a section of the society.

as per the minister, kerala govt will 'take care' of all issues arising out of the project and hence the project can come. indeed many examples in kerala, even with kadar tribals, have shown that consecutive governments do not care once they put a monster unsustainable project in place.

indeed that has been the case in whole of india. arundati roy has given a good summary of project displaced people and their plight in her mega head turning essay titled 'greater common good'.

she summarises it aptly below as
"India lives in her villages, we're told, in every other sanctimonious public speech. That's bullshit. It's just another fig leaf from the Government's bulging wardrobe. India doesn't live in her villages. India dies in her villages. India gets kicked around in her villages. India lives in her cities. India's villages live only to serve her cities. Her villagers are her citizens' vassals and for that reason must be controlled and kept alive, but only just."

indeed athirapally is also one of the casting stones for the elite of the cities so that they can splurge on electricity as if it is their birth right.

the forests right bill has been widely debated between various sections including the environmentalists, wildlifers, tribal ngo's, tribals, etc.

i am no expert in this complicated issue. but ashish kothari's article in frontline is a nice balanced article.

as he rightly says as below:
Finally, let us remember that if conservationists and human rights advocates do not join forces, both interests will be defeated by powerful corporate and commercial interests that are on the upsurge owing to the mad rush to achieve a 10 per cent rate of growth. Even as the government gives forest rights to Adivasis, it is opening up Adivasi and other forest areas in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa and elsewhere for mining, industries and the like.

forests, rivers and other natural pillars are very crucial for corporates so that they can slam these crucial resources for their own gains in a unsustainable and brutal manner. this is happening in india right now in name of developement.

as the author points out if conservationists and tribal rights activists join hands in conservation (of forests) and livelihood (of tribals) angle then the result will be a huge plus for both of them. if these 2 crucial sections fight each other, the result will be not be good for either of them.
(athirapally forests are crucial watersheds for chalakudy river in kerala)

(kadar tribal home in athirapally forests.)

(the majestic nilgris with tea plantations in foreground and settlements in background. less than 5% of natural shola forests remain in nilgris with the rest tapped indiscriminately in name of development)

after our communist friend and minister of electricity in kerala mr.a.k.balan asked for industry 'support' (and i think after the support, the awards and the rewards) for the proposed destructive athirapally hydel dam project, he went a step ahead and told that he will bomb the dam in case the dam causes water level to come down in the chalakudy river. reproducing his exact words,
“I am ready to join anyone to bomb the proposed Athirappilly dam if the water level (in Athirappilly) comes down,” he said.

there is no need to bomb the dam. instead of bombing, there are simple things our beloved minister can do. simple things such as
- doing a honest environmental impact assessment report
- analyzing the carrying capacity of the already heavily dammed chalakudy river
- listening to local marginalized people who will get slammed due to loss of tourism revenue and hit due to agricultural impact
- listening to environmentalists and river experts on the destructive impact given meager electricity the dam can produce
- listening to hundreds of families of endemic kadar tribals who will again be displaced by this brutal dam

well, if our planners and policy makers listened to simple things so much environmental destruction will not have happened and continue to happen in india. there is no need to 'bomb' anything to 'solve' a monster issue. for that we need to stop creating monster issues in name of fake development.

the long debated and destructive athirapally hydel power project is on news again. with our beloved ministry of non-forests and non-environment (mo-ne-nf), granting it clerance, the destructive hydel dam has got a life on its own.

looks like anywhere there is a river, there is a dam being proposed/bulldozed/built. if ever a poem was written it would be like,
dam dam india
damn damn environment
develop develop india
pamper pamper the rich
if ain't no dam
it ain't no river
if ain't no destruction
it ain't no development
brutalize, bulldoze the feeble
shower, socialize the rich

downtoearth article also illustrates the plausibility of the project. With an improper EIA, fake river flow data, hyped up electricity generation figures, discounting the huge loss to the endemic kadar tribals, the forests and the wildlife, stabbing the huge tourism industry, killing one of the majestic waterfalls of the world - this athirapally project is the one of the hallmarks of fake development in south india.

let us be clear on one thing. this 'development' is not development but destruction. destruction of environment, destruction of truth, destruction of people who depend on the chalakudy river, stabbing of tourism livelihood amongst others.(the majestic athirapally waterfalls in the crucial chalakudy river in kerala. facing an uncertain future amidst fake development)