An expert appraisal committee of the Union Environment Ministry has been advising site visits before environmental clearances are given to pumped storage projects (PSPs) in the environmentally fragile region of the Western Ghats. The logic is obvious—the large scale of infrastructure creation may have a massive impact on the environment in the region, leading the EAC to insist on an in-depth site visit to assess the damage that might be done in different sectors if the project goes ahead. The Western Ghats are sensitive in the same way as the Himalayas and are highly susceptible to environmental degradation from illegal mining, unregulated construction, and uncontrolled commercial activities.
The EAC took decisions at its meeting held on September 27 regarding environmental impact assessments for 15 pumped storage projects that are planned in the Western Ghats. The projects have obtained Terms of Reference (ToR) from the ministry and entail significant interventions in sensitive ecological zones, by which large tracts of forest would be influenced. Consequently, the EAC has laid special stress that the site inspections must be conducted properly before environmental clearances.
They are designed for the balancing of supply and demand in electricity, especially when such output is intermittent, as in the case of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind. Such projects have seen the excess electricity pumped to an upper reservoir, where during peak demand, the water will be released to a lower reservoir wherein it produces power. Nonetheless, such projects come with a substantive risk to areas known to be ecologically sensitive, like the Western Ghats.
Environmental risks associated with the growth of development in the Western Ghats have been a cause for concern over the last ten years. In 2010, the Center constituted the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel, led by ecologist Madhav Gadgil, to appraise the environmental challenges in the region. The report submitted by the panel in 2011 suggested that the entire Western Ghats be declared an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), which is divided into three zones according to environmental vulnerability. The committee also suggested a complete ban on new mining, new thermal power plants, and large-scale hydropower projects in sensitive areas, including ESZ 1. However, this too was deterred for some time by the state governments and the industries.
In 2012, the Western Ghats were declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It only made people more conscious of its ecological importance. A sequel High-Level Working Group, led by scientist K. Kasturirangan, determined 37% of the Western Ghats as ecologically sensitive and related to nearly 60,000 square kilometers of area. Yet, the Union Environment Ministry has drafted six notifications since 2014 to declare the Western Ghats as an ecologically sensitive area, and finalizing the notification has been objected to by several state governments and thus stalled.
Recently, devastating landslides in Kerala’s Wayanad district once again raised the question of the need to protect the Western Ghats. Now, the ministry is considering a phased approach to notifying the ecologically sensitive areas. Individual sensitivities of states will be taken care of under this strategy, potentially letting the Center implement environmental protections more effectively while curbing local resistance.
An expert panel came into existence in 2022, led by former Director General of Forests Sanjay Kumar, which is collaborating with the states to evolve a consensus on the eco-sensitive zones. The panel has accepted the challenges of haphazard human settlements, especially those seen in certain areas of the Western Ghats, which have led to issues of law and order. Therefore, the ministry is looking into finding a balance between environmental protection and local people’s needs.
Over the past few years, the Environment Ministry has declared many protected areas across the country as eco-sensitive zones. It has issued notifications covering 23 protected areas and drafted additional ones to protect 32 more zones over the last three years, but declares the Western Ghats as an ESA. The window for raising objections on the draft notification was set to close yesterday and, hence, remained on the minds of the Center. It now awaits the center’s move after listening to the stakeholder feedback.
Conclusion
Protection of the Western Ghats from haphazard developments had been long needed. Environmentalists and government panels have been demanding greater restrictions in the region for some time. While pumped storage projects would go a long way in stabilizing India’s energy grid, especially in its transition towards renewable energy sources, their development needs to be taken into full consideration as well while working to protect ecologically sensitive areas. This is reflected in the Environment Ministry’s decision to make site visits mandatory for all projects before clearance, showing a rising awareness of the need to preserve the fragile ecosystems of the Western Ghats while balancing developmental needs.
Source: PTI