Environmentalists and Adivasis in the Vazhachal forest division are up in arms once again as the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB), after its unsuccessful bid for the Athirappilly project, is all set to implement a hydroelectric project at Anakkayam.
The Anakkayam small hydroelectric project, coming up in the buffer zone of the Parambikkulam Tiger Reserve, is conceived as a tail-race scheme of the existing Sholayar power project. The outflowing water after power generation at Sholayar will be made to pass through a tunnel and a turbine to produce power for which, the KSEB claims, there is no need for additional storage facilities.
Though small, the environmental impact of the Anakkayam project is huge, says M. Mohandas, convener, Chalakudy River Protection Forum.
A vast stretch of evergreen forest, home to rich varieties of mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, has to be cleared for the project. Extensive blasts have to be carried out for making a five-km-long tunnel in the highly eco-sensitive area, which witnessed many landslips during the floods in 2018. Both the Madhav Gadgil and K. Kasthurirangan committees have noted these forests as environmentally sensitive areas, the greens say.
“First of all, the project blatantly violates the forest rights of the Adivasis who have community forest rights over these areas. The project has been planned without their consent. Secondly it is an unscientific, uneconomic, and unnecessary project. The State is not facing any power crisis now. It sells power to other States on many occasions,” says Mr. Mohandas.
The project is coming in 20 acres of dense evergreen forest. Around 2,000 huge trees and 6,000 small trees have to be felled. The construction of the tunnel will destabilise the eco-sensitive area, notes People’s Movement against Anakkayam HEP.
‘Uneconomic plan’
Sarat Chelur, a coordinator of the movement, says the project, with an installed capacity of 7.5 MW, would cost of ₹150 crore. “That means, one MW of power has a production cost of ₹20 crore,” he adds.
If vast stretches of forest will be destroyed and blasts will be conducted for the tunnel, wild animals will stray into human habitations in large numbers, causing threat to standing crops and human life, noted environmental activist Vaxerin Pereppadan at a meeting of the Tribal Resources Enlighten Ecology Society here recently.
It is learned that a contract has already been given for felling trees. Authorities expect that protests will be feeble in the wake of COVID-19. But the joint protest committee has decided to intensify its stir in the coming days. The Adivasis and local people have started protests and legal battles against the project. The grama sabhas of the tribal settlements have passed resolutions against the project.
