The Madhav Gadgil Committee on Western Ghats has found that the Mullaperiyar dam is not safe for the ecology of the region and it should be dismantled – a position that the state has been taking for some time now.

The observation comes a while after the Supreme Court-appointed empowered committee expressed its view that the dam was “safe” in itself. By contrast, the Gadgil report classifies the dam area under Zone 1 of the (most) ecologically sensitive zones (ESZs) – zones where dams of more than 50 years old should be decommissioned. The ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) has put the report in public domain with a disclaimer that the ministry had not formally accepted it.

The Gadgil panel, also known as the Western Ghat Ecology Expert Panel , has recommended a phased decommissioning of all the dams in zone 1 of the ESZs that had crossed their viable life span.

The committee has identified Zone 1, 2 and 3 of the ESZs in the Western Ghat region in accordance with the ecological importance of the area. The committee has identified Peerumed in Idukki district, where the Mullaperiyar dam is situated, among the taluks that come under the
extremely fragile Zone 1 category.

Gadgil damns state

The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) headed by Madhav Gadgil has stated that the 163-MW Athirappilly Hydro-Electric Project will annihilate rare types of fauna: four species of hornbills (Malabar Grey Hornbill, Grey Hornbill, Malabar Pied Hornbill and Great India Hornbill), Lion-Tailed Macaque, a migratory fish named Osteochilichthys Longidorsalis and the Cane Turtle.

KSEB officials are not best pleased by the report, rating electricity generation as above preservation of endangered or rare species and ecologically sensitive areas.

“You just cannot torpedo a project, perhaps the state’s last hope to generate cheap power, on the specious argument that it would make extinct a set of birds and monkeys,” is how a top-ranking KSEB official put it.

KSEB is not buying WGEEP’s extinction theory. “All the four species of hornbills are available throughout the Western Ghats. Lion-tailed macaques are found in Silent Valley, Nagarhole, Sriviliputhur, Periyar Tiger Reserve and the Sabarimala forests. In short, they are not residents of the 26 kilometres of the Athirappilly project area.

What’s more, no migratory fishes have been observed in the project area. And the Cane Turtle was first reported from the Parambikulam Wildlife Sanctuary and has never ever been heard of from any other habitat,” a senior Board member said on condition of anonymity.

KSEB says WGEEP has factored in the biodiversity data of the entire Vazhachal forest division spread over 526 km to consider the feasibility of the proposed Athirappilly project which covers just 26 km.

Further, if the Centre approves the report, the state’s power sector is in for a major black out. All of KSEB’s small and big hydel projects have been proposed in the 16 ecologically sensitive zones (ESZ) demarcated by the WGEEP in 12 districts of the state. ESZs are areas from where big projects and dams will be strictly banned.

The existing protected area has already forced the state to shelve important hydel projects. “Now they have identified new ESZs without consulting the stakeholders in the state’s power sector,” said a KSEB engineer who did not want to be named. “A close scrutiny of ESZs identified by the Madhav Gadgil committee shows that all the proposed hydel project schemes fall within these areas.”

WGEEP has also recommended that dams should be decommissioned in a phased manner. There are 19 dams in the irrigation sector, 33 major dams in the power sector and two dams in the water supply sector. “When all dams that have completed 50 years are decommissioned and no new dams permitted, the entire monsoon showers will drain out into the Arabian sea in 48 hours. Severe drought will be the result. The state has no fuel reserves other than hydel,” the engineer added.

Water consumption, both for domestic and industrial purposes, is on the rise but natural water sources like rivers, lakes, ponds and paddy fields are fast drying up.

“We are desperately attempting to improve storage of water during the dry season and we have environment panels making not just outrageous but hilarious recommendations against a project that had received environmental clearance not once but thrice,” the senior Board member said.

KSEB also alleges that the ESZs identified by the Madhav Gadgil panel in Thrissur district are Irinjalakkuda, Thrissur and Wadakkancheri. But the Athirappilly project does not fall within any of the three areas marked as ecologically sensitive, KSEB says.