A resource-hungry industry has reasons to be perturbed about the possibility of the government accepting the recommendations of an expert panel which was constituted to look at the ecological status of the Western Ghats.
The Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP), which has also called for a blanket ban in mining in most parts of the ecologically fragile region, has recommended that power plants being set up in the Western Ghats should be subject to strict environmental regulations and monitoring and after cumulative impact assessments are undertaken.
On the face of it this might sound like only a perfunctory call to adhere to environmental laws, but there’s more to it than meets the eye. If the government accepts the sector-wise recommendations that have been made by the 14-member panel, headed by eminent ecologist Prof Madhav Gadgil, even describing the Western Ghats as a proverbial powerhouse would become difficult for both government and industry.
The panel looked intently at energy consumption patterns in the six Ghatsstates and concurred that it was “unclear” if all of the planned power projects in the region were needed, and sustainable, given their resource requirements and potential environmental and social impacts.
The experts found a number of issues worth a bother, and remarked as much, “Construction and maintenance of energy facilities in sensitive zones of the Ghats, it is argued, can affect ecosystem structure through clearing of vegetation, and habitat loss or fragmentation. This can affect not only the fauna and flora but also the microclimate in the region. The major impact that power plants have had and continue to have is loss of forest cover, where forest has been cleared for a dam.”
The two-volume report argued that it was important to find ways in which energy needs could be met through more efficient energy use and less degrading, less polluting, intrusive energy sources. It stressed on renewable energy, but also warned that there is need for a greater understanding of the impacts of the development of renewable energy sources on the local environment. For example, large scale wind energy farms do have significant effects on local ecosystems. There are many commercial proposals to erect wind mills in the Western Ghats and several have also been completed.
“Unfortunately, the areas deemed suitable for windmills, i.e. where there may be continuous high velocity winds are also the crest lines of the Western Ghat mountains which have the steepest slopes, the most fragile ecosystems, and are also accessed via equally biodiverse lateritic plateaus which harbour some of the most unique biodiversity elements in the Ghats,” the panel contended.
The WGEEP wants a special cell within the proposed Western Ghats Ecological Authority (WGEA) to power and energy sector-related issues.
