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<\/a><\/p>\nThe massive damage to the local environment (the rich biodiversity of Sharavathy valley and adjacent areas) from this proposal can be judged by the fact that about 80 to 100 Feet of land for about 100 kM in the forested area will have to be dug to lay 2 or more sets of pipelines.<\/p>\n
If we go along with the feeble argument that the loss of more than 7,200 MU per year from hydel power can be made up through other power projects (only to meet the ever growing but grossly inefficient water needs of Bengaluru), the very need for additional hydel power project proposals in the state should be questioned, because the Sharavathy Valley Hydel power project is considered to be one of the most efficient among the country’s\u00a0hydel power projects. Extending such feeble argument further, it can be also be argued that all other hydro power projects in the state can be delinked from power generation purpose and used for water supply to distant places like Bengaluru, Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli, Gulberga, Bidar etc.<\/p>\n
For the year 2017-18, Karnataka experienced annual electrical energy shortage of 168 MU and the peak power shortage of 22 MW, which indicates that the state continues to have power deficit (ref: CEA’s executive summary report for March 2018). In such a scenario, how practical is it to seek addition of more than 3,000 MW of power demand and 3,600 MU (7,200 MU net burden on the grid) of annual energy demand because of an avoidable project, since there are many benign alternatives?<\/p>\n
In this context, if we also take into account the proposal to build a 2,000 MW pumped storage hydel plant in the Sharavathy river valley,\u00a0 about 2,500 MW of power may be required to pump the associated amount of water from the lower reservoir to the Linganamakki reservoir (as per the general rules of a pumped storage hydel plant engineering about 2,500 MW of power may be required to pump water to the higher level reservoir to be able to generate 2,000 MW of power from the same quantity of water).<\/p>\n
Assuming that pumping of water for these two proposals may have to occur during the night time, there may be additional load of 5,500 MW (3,000 MW for the first scheme PLUS 2,500 MW for the second scheme) on the state’s grid.\u00a0 Will this scenario be acceptable and in the true interest of the state?<\/p>\n
When we also consider many other existing proposals for linear projects such as the transmission lines required for the capacity expansion at Kaiga nuclear power project and the Udupi thermal power project; Gundia hydel power project; the Hubli- Ankola railway line and Talaguppa – Honnavara railway line; many road expansion\/build project in the Western Ghats, the total annihilation awaiting one of the eight hottest of biodiversity hotspots in the whole world (i.e WGs of Karnataka alone) should become evidently clear for all those who are concerned about the upkeep of our environment.<\/p>\n
It is hard to imagine as to why our officials seem to be always interested in such ghastly schemes without considering the overall implications on the ecology of the state?\u00a0 Between these project proposals, the total number of mature trees (in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats (WGs)) may be hundreds of thousands, and the total land area likely to be required for the project works may exceed few hundred hectares.<\/p>\n
In order to put these issues in proper perspective, I would like to list some of the project proposals which have already resulted and \/ or will lead to the cutting of a large number of trees in the Western Ghats (WGs):<\/p>\n
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