The Hill Devar Betta is sacred to Todas. Crying appears near this hill for Horní Bhavani drawn storage project. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
According to the ecologist, Todas will affect the sacred soil and will damage the upper bhavani hydroelectric project.
The blasting occurs near the hill of Devar Betta (Kownttaihh hill in Toda), one of the most sacred hills of Todas in Nilgiris. “It is the most pyramidical of all Nilgiri hills and the real mountains of the Mero of our area,” says Dr. Tarun Chhabra, ecologist and culture expert.
“Salililege”
“Tryst around it would be a sacrament for which the future generation would pay the price. The seasonal Toda Hamlet Kolimund (Kwehh (R) Shy), which was imitated again after almost two decades,” he points out.
“The reservoirs have already destroyed the huge biodiversity of these former wetlands and now threaten the stability of the surrounding untouched hills by large water mass.
The project will affect the village of Badaga, such as the Atbuboil, which has already been influenced by the storage of the emerald dam. The underground water conductor runs under the terrain, which includes sections that are open to the sky and host huge and irreplaceable endemic flora. According to him, they include a series of endemic balsams, such as impatiens laticornis, Impatiens Lawsonia, Impatiens Orchioides and Impatiens Nilagirica, which are located in several located valleys and nowhere else on Earth.
“There is no way they can restore the destroyed country. The report mentions compensatory afforestation, something that our untouched grass stands do not need.
An important habitat
As for the ecological aspects, the conservationist Nilgiris, N. Mohanraj, says that the project falls into the bumper zone of the Mukirthi National Park, which is considered a notification as a tiger reserve because of its high population of carnivores. “The National Bureau of Tigers Protection itself states that the region is a corridor connecting Mudumalai with the Silent Valley National Park and is also an important migration route for elephants,” he emphasizes.
Mohanraj believes that energy projects in combination with factors such as poaching have led to a drastic decrease in the Tahrs population in Nilgiris. “Over the years, the population from Mukirthi has begun to expand to the surrounding areas, including Avalanche, Frog Hill in Gudalur and Naduvatam, and they could also cover and stop again.”
Benefits over predominant costs: official
Reference conditions for environmental permits were approved by environmental regulators. Studies are now underway. Any measures have been introduced that propose to reduce the impact on local ecology, says Aneesh Sekhar, CEO of Tamil Nadu Green Energy Corporation.
Published – October 5, 2025 17:49
