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In a important submission to the Supreme Court, the Union authorities has said that nary caller hydroelectric projects should beryllium permitted successful the precocious reaches of the Ganga successful Uttarakhand, with the Ministries of Environment, Jal Shakti and Power presenting a single, restrictive presumption to the court.
In a communal affidavit filed connected May 19, the 3 Ministries stated that isolated from 7 hydroelectric projects already commissioned oregon substantially built, the authorities “is not successful favour of permitting immoderate different caller hydro-electric task successful the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi stream basin successful the precocious reaches of the River Ganga successful the State of Uttarakhand”. The hardened basal is notable for the Power Ministry’s concurrence; arsenic precocious arsenic November 2024, done a committee, it had argued for arsenic galore arsenic 8 projects.
The 7 projects cleared volition person a full capableness of conscionable implicit 2,150 MW and see immoderate of the State’s largest. They are the 1,000 MW Tehri pumped-storage task connected the Bhagirathi; the 520 MW Tapovan Vishnugad connected the Dhauliganga, damaged by the February 2021 Rishiganga flood; the 444-MW Vishnugad Pipalkoti connected the Alaknanda; the 99 MW Singoli Bhatwari and 76 MW Phata Byung connected the Mandakini; and 2 tiny projects, the Madhmaheshwar and Kailganga-II. Four are already commissioned portion the remaining 3 are 74% to 80% complete. The government’s rationale for letting these proceed is that they person absorbed important nationalist and backstage investment, nary falls wrong the Bhagirathi Eco-Sensitive Zone, and nary was flagged by the adept bodies. Halting them present would strand sunk costs without commensurate biology gain, it said.
In August 2024, the Supreme Court constituted the committee chaired by Cabinet Secretary T.V. Somanathan, with the 3 Secretaries and Uttarakhand’s Chief Secretary arsenic members, directing it to springiness owed information to Expert Body-II’s findings and spot the Centre’s reasoning connected record. The committee — whose recommendations person lone go nationalist with the affidavit — narrowed 21 projects nether information to five: Bowala Nandprayag, Devsari, Bhyundar Ganga, Jhalakoti and Urgam-II, concluding that “the benefits outweigh the drawbacks and successful equilibrium it would beryllium successful nationalist involvement to spell up with these 5 projects.”
The Centre has present declined to judge adjacent those five, citing the cumulative interaction of “bumper-to-bumper” dams, seismic fragility, and a drawstring of disasters, including the 2013 cloudburst and the Dharali flash flood of August 2025, that near the foundational concerns of the 2013 judgement “fully subsisting.” The substance is listed for proceeding connected May 20.
Also read: Four hydro projects interruption Ganga travel norms: Central Water Commission
“This is simply a omniscient and invited measurement from the authorities that came retired aft much than a decennary of hold and respective adept recommendations,” Mallika Bhanot, an biology activistic and portion of the Bhagirathi Eco-sensitive Zone monitoring committee, told The Hindu.
The lawsuit originates successful the Kedarnath floods of June 2013, which killed astatine slightest 5,000 people. Halting hydel improvement successful the State, the Supreme Court directed the Environment Ministry to analyse the relation specified projects played successful amplifying the disaster. A 17-member committee led by environmentalist Ravi Chopra — Expert Body-I — concluded successful 2014 that 23 of 24 projects examined would person terrible interaction connected the ecology of the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi basins. A 2nd sheet nether Vinod Tare of IIT-Kanpur, examining six developers’ projects, recovered they “may not beryllium taken up” successful their contiguous signifier pending review.
The Environment Ministry past acceptable up Expert Body-II nether B.P. Das, who had dissented from the earlier findings. After studying 70 projects, Expert Body-II successful March 2020 took a markedly much permissive view, recommending 26 for implementation with plan modifications to others. The Centre, however, lone ever accepted 7 — a spread from the adept proposal that was ne'er afloat explained connected the authoritative record.
Activists and respective intervenors person pressed the tribunal to halt adjacent these. Representations earlier the Somanathan committee, including from Matri Sadan and the campaigner Bharat Jhunjhunwala, argued that the projects amplify flood hazard and that enactment should cease careless of however precocious it is — a presumption the Jal Shakti Ministry itself erstwhile echoed erstwhile it opposed caller projects “whatever whitethorn beryllium the presumption of construction”. The Tapovan Vishnugad project, doubly battered by floods portion nether construction, is often cited by critics arsenic grounds that adjacent cleared projects stay dangerously exposed successful a warming Himalaya.
The Uttarakhand government, a power-deficit State that spends implicit ₹1,000 crore annually purchasing electricity, has consistently backed EB-II and favoured each recommended projects, offering the tribunal fallback options of 14 oregon nine. The Jal Shakti Ministry’s absorption has its ain lineage: arsenic the Water Resources Ministry nether Uma Bharti, it was the archetypal hostile of dams connected the Ganga, earlier the renamed Ministry, by 2019, settled connected accommodating lone the 7 precocious projects.
