The forest department identified and numbered trees to be cut for the project of drawn storage in Sagar and Honnavar Taluks. | Photo Credit: File Photos
The National Wild Animal Council (NBWL) granted fundamental consent for the Sharavathi Hydroelectric Project, despite serious environmental concerns raised over its impact on Sharavathi Valley Lion-Casné Makaka shrine in Western Gatts.
The project designed by Karnataka Power Corporation Ltd. is trying to build a drawn storage 2,000 MW storage system in the heart of Western Ghats and caused the use of 42.51 hectares or 105.05 hectares of forest or 149.57 hectares or 149.57 hectares or 149.57 hectares.
This is unlike 11.64 hectares or 28.76 forest acres and 28.074 hectares or 69.37 acres of non-sensitive zones around the shrine.
The scheme assumes the installation of underground turbines and tubes for connecting the Talakalale dam and the Gerusoppa dam to generate energy. Although the proposal was recommended by the State Council for Wild Animals and the State Government, the environmentalists attached their hopes for NBWL, which basically cleaned the project, but with 24 riders or conditions.
Activists, however, rejected these conditions as nothing but a list of protocols that need to be followed during the construction period, such as construction restrictions, prohibiting labor camps inside the forest, installation of the marking of wild animals, compliance with waste management protocols, etc.
The decision was taken at 84. NBWL 26th session on June and the records were released on July 9, 2025.
The Sharavathi Valley is part of the western ghats rich in biodiversity and the home of endemic and endangered species, including about 700 lioness-one of the most precious primates in the world.
The list of conditions includes “measures to alleviate”, but the conservationist has expressed their horror that afforestation can never compensate for the destruction of unaffected forests.
The project includes felling of almost 15,000 trees and NBWL said that if the underground road from Nagar Basti Kere to Begodi is stored more than 12,000 trees.
Giridhar Kulkarni, Nature Protection, says that relocation of forest residents to create unaffected spaces for wildlife and recommendation of environmentally harmful projects in the same shrine is very contradictory and certainly not in the interest of nature and forest protection.
He pointed out that 28 families had already sought to move and rehabilitate outside the Sanctuary LTM because they were denied basic equipment such as roads, electricity, etc., but the current movement negated the concept of untouched space, he added.
In his minutes, NBWL noted that Dr. R. Sukumar, one of the members, mentioned that the sanctuary is a densely wooded area that resides the maximum population of LTM throughout the Western Ghats.
According to Dr. Sukumara does not provide complete details of ecological loss in terms of forestry erosion, number of species that would be affected, etc., and therefore called on the environmental impact assessment.
Rinsed nature is the statement of a user agency that the project does not fall into the category of a hydroelectric project. The NBWL, which recorded a glaring claim, only sought to clarify the “competent organ”.
The project will now be moved to approval under the 1980 forest protection Act before returning to the NBWL Complex Committee, which, as activists said, would be a formality because it has already been granted for it.
Published – July 11, 2025 20:39
