Jairam Ramesh raps Yeddyurappa on Gundia hydel project
The Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has reprimanded Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, for laying the foundation stone for Gundia hydel project in Hassan district without obtaining the mandatory environmental clearance.
The Karnataka Power Corporation’s project, which seeks to set up two 200 MW units, has run into a major ecological controversy with environmentalists and civil society groups opposing it tooth and nail.
They argue that it involves destruction of hundreds of acres of thick pristine forests of the Western Ghats – one of the world’s premiere biodiversity hotspots.
In his letter to Yeddyurappa on June 20, Ramesh said the hydel project would lead to drowning of almost 1,900 acres of dense forests in the ‘already endangered Western Ghats. This is something that both Karnataka and our country can ill afford.”
No green clearance
The minister was particularly upset on laying the project’s foundation stone on May 26 without the mandatory central green clearance.
“I do not think that environmental clearances should be taken for granted any longer. We have to go through the process as laid down by law, and we should not consider this process a routine formality,” the minister said.
Admitting that Karnataka needs to increase its power generation capacity, the Union minister said, this should not happen at the cost of ecological security.
The first phase of the project, which will be implemented in four years, at a cost of Rs 1,120 crore, is expected to generate 613 million units power at the rate of Rs 1.90 per unit.
The project – opposed by the environmentalists from the beginning – will be built across Gundia river, a tributary of the Kumaradhara, with its source in the Western Ghats near Kudremukh of Chikmaglaur district.
The river flows through the districts of Hassan and Dakshina Kannada piercing through forests.
