6 months ago
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A connection to found a 50-MW objection upwind workplace successful Dhanushkodi successful Rameswaram taluk has drawn interest from section residents and environmentalists implicit imaginable ecological impacts connected the fragile coastal ecosystem and the adjacent Greater Flamingo Sanctuary.
The project, projected by the National Institute of Wind Energy (NIWE) nether the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, aims to acceptable up 4 upwind turbines with associated facilities and a jetty for logistics and research. The Dhanushkodi site, classified nether Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) categories IB, II, and IVA, has been identified arsenic a trial determination for offshore upwind vigor probe nether India’s 2015 Offshore Wind Energy Policy.
The connection was discussed astatine a gathering of the Ramanathapuram District Coastal Zone Management Authority (DCZMA) held successful 2024. Project representatives explained that the installation was intended arsenic a probe and objection level to enactment the improvement of offshore upwind exertion successful Indian conditions. They said the task would proviso renewable powerfulness to Rameswaram and make section employment opportunities.
However, section sportfishing assemblage representatives, including Nallathambi and Rayappan, raised beardown objections during the meeting, saying the task tract overlaps with food breeding areas and turtle nesting grounds and lies adjacent to wetlands frequented by migratory birds specified arsenic flamingos betwixt December and March. They cautioned that the projected jetty and turbines could disturb marine beingness and impact the livelihoods of sportfishing communities.
District wood officials besides noted that the task study did not relationship for turtle nesting sites already notified by the Tamil Nadu government, and pointed retired concerns arsenic flamingos visited the tract betwixt December and March. They recommended that a elaborate Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) beryllium carried out, covering seagrass beds, coral reefs, oversea horses, and underwater sound levels.
In a caller practice to the Tamil Nadu Coastal Zone Management Authority, environmentalist K. Saravanan reiterated these concerns, informing that the upwind farm’s proximity to the Greater Flamingo Sanctuary could airs risks to vertebrate populations done collision and situation disturbance. He urged that the CRZ clearance beryllium reconsidered to safeguard the sanctuary.
The DCZMA had decided to guardant the connection to the State Coastal Zone Management Authority for information nether the CRZ Notification, 2011, taxable to respective conditions, including mentation of a elaborate EIA, extortion of marine breeding areas, and anterior clearance from the Tamil Nadu Maritime Board.
A.R. Rahul Nadh, Member Secretary of the Tamil Nadu State Coastal Zone Management Authority, said the Authority had sought further inputs from the Ramanathapuram Collector regarding the project. He noted that the connection would not beryllium placed for appraisal until the method reappraisal was completed and added that each biology and societal implications would beryllium cautiously evaluated earlier immoderate clearance is considered.
