MoEF, Jal shakti said no, but panel tells SC 5 hydro projects on Ganga are good to go

Context: A Supreme Court appointed panel has suggested that setting up of hydroelectric
project (HEPs) on the ganga and its tributaries in Uttarakhand, the court has
been examining these projects since 2013 following a Suo Motu case of the
Kedarnath floods that killed over 5000 people. This recommendation is opposed
by the Ministry of Environment (MoEF) and Jal shakti. The objections were
raised due to a lot of reasons like impact on rivers or the project falling
into landslides or seismic zones. Initially the Court granted a momentary
clearance for any new HEPs and directed the MoEF to form a committee to further
study the impact of such projects. The five hydro projects include Bowala Nandprayag
(300MW), Devasri (252MW), Bhyundar Ganga (24.3MW), Jhalakoti (12.5MW) and Urgam-II
(7.5MW).

Key points

·       Overview: Following the
top courts recommendations three committees were formed, first one was led by
environmentalist Ravi Chopra, concluded in 2014. The ministry formed a second
committee in 2015 under IIT-Kanpur’s Vinod Tare. Then, a third committee formed
under engineer B P Das recommended in 2020 that 28 projects be given a nod.

·       Violations: According to
the Central Water Commission (CWC), some hydro power projects on the upper
reaches of the river Ganga’s tributaries are violating Ganga ecological flow
(e-flow) norms.

·       Ecological-
Flow Norms: The Central Government under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 has
notified the minimum environmental flows for the River Ganga that has to be
maintained at various locations on the river. Environmental flows are the
acceptable flow regimes that are required to maintain a river in the desired
environmental state or predetermined state.

·       Power
Companies and E-flow Norms: The Centre’s e-flow notification came into
effect in October 2018 and gave companies three years to modify their design
plans, if required, to ensure that a minimum amount of water flowed during all
seasons. Power producers generally hoard water to create reserves to increase
power production. In September 2019, the government advanced this deadline,
from October 2021 to December 2019. This was after the CWC undertook field
visits to hydropower sites and reported that most of the power projects could
begin implementing the norms right away and didn’t need three years.