Environmental compliance of hydel projects in Himachal Pradesh - Shukla committee report (2009)

The terms of reference for monitoring included the following:

• Whether the hydel projects while undertaking construction of projects have followed in letter and spirit the mandatory conditions of environmental clearance and forest clearance granted by the central and state authorities
• Whether precautionary/necessary steps have been taken by the companies to restore environment and ecology in the project areas
• Whether it is advisable for the state government to sanction construction of hydel projects at the height of more than 7000 feet above the sea level. The alpine forests grow at the height of 7000 feet above the sea level.
• The committee shall visit all the projects to assess the damage already caused and the essential steps required to restore the same.

An application was filed in the court that pointed out that there were 150 big and small hydel projects in the state and it would be difficult for the committee to inspect all the projects. Following this, it was decided that the committee would be allowed to inspect and report on projects over 100 MW capacity.

It was also decided that since the concern was to monitor projects while the construction was going on and damage to the environment was  mainly caused during the construction phase of the projects, projects that had finished their construction phase need not be taken up for monitoring and the committee could concentrate on environmental audit of hydel projects under construction.

The report acknowledges and warns that environmental damage to the ecology in the area surrounding the dams is an important concern and that the government as well as the people involved in the project implementation need to be very careful while planning, designing these projects and should weigh the pros and cons of undertaking such activities against the costs they will have to pay in terms of environmental damage.

The report also raises concerns about the way in which some of the projects are being implemented and warns that most of the damage to the environment is being done by the debris and muck dumped on the roads at the project sites, there has been a massive destruction of trees at the sites and no consideration has been given to the sensitive river ecosystems rendering them dry or dead.

The report provides a list of 100 MW and above hydel projects for monitoring and provides detail observations on  the individual projects.

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