-Down to Earth The need of the hour is to put halt large hydel-power projects in the Himalayas. Can small hydropower plants offer a sustainable solution? Hydropower is a renewable and non-polluting source of energy. India has an economically exploitable and viable hydropower potential, which is estimated to be about 84,000 megawatt at 60 per cent load factor. It has an installed capacity of 148,701 MW, according to the National Hydroelectric Power...
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China gives green light for first downstream dams on Brahmaputra -Ananth Krishnan
-The Hindu Nod in new five-year-plan for hydroprojects near border with India A draft of China’s new Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), which is set to be formally approved on March 11, has given the green light for the first dams to be built on the lower reaches of Yarlung Zangbo river, as the Brahmaputra is known in Tibet, before it flows into India. The draft outline of the new Five-Year Plan (FYP) for 2025...
More »When the mountains had a meltdown in Uttarakhand -Jacob Koshy
-The Hindu An avalanche in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand early this month claimed at least 62 lives, destroyed two Hydropower projects and ravaged the region. Jacob Koshy reports on how development projects are endangering the lives of people in the young and fragile Himalayas The Rishiganga river looks like an idyllic brook from the balcony of Gyan Singh Rana’s two-storey house. The former headman of the village of Raini, who is in...
More »Chamoli glacier burst: Himalayan blunders compounded -Sunita Narain
-Down to Earth The issue is about carrying capacity of the fragile region, which is even more at risk because of climate change The flash flood in high Himalayas, which has claimed lives and wiped out two hydroelectric plants on the Ganga, should be a grim reminder of the mistakes we continue to make. There is no rocket science here about why this devastation happened. The Himalayas are the world’s youngest mountain...
More »Dams and damages -Kavita Upadhyay
-The Hindu The Uttarakhand government continues to ignore evidence that Hydropower projects in the fragile region exacerbate disasters In 2018, while travelling through the villages near the India-China border in Niti Valley in Uttarakhand’s Chamoli district, I stopped at Reni village, the birthplace of the iconic Chipko movement. The way to Reni was dotted with Hydropower projects that were marred by controversy. The villagers complained about the rampant flouting of norms by...
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