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Bengaluru: The pumped storage project (PSP) in Belagavi’s Saundatti is set to receive environment clearance from the expert committee of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) with about 65,000 trees of scrub forest set to be cleared for the project, ten times higher than the 5087 trees estimated earlier.
The project, originally proposed in 2018, had gone through several iterations with the latest amendments increasing the capacity of the power project from 1,260 MW to 1,600 MW. Greenko, the company which got clearance in 2022, had requested the ministry to allow increasing the capacity before it takes up the work.
The project involves recirculating about 0.7 tmc of water between upper reservoir and lower reservoir, both located close to the Renukasagar dam backwaters. The company has sought a total of 759.65 acres of land of which 395.36 acre is forest. Most of the forest land will be submerged under the waters of the upper reservoir.
Back in 2018, the proposal’s impact on the scrub forest was shown to be much lesser than the current evaluation. Forest officers of the Gokak division had enumerated 5,087 trees in the area that will be affected by the project. The project’s ecological footprint has since then increased.
As per the latest count, a whopping 64,454 trees will be felled for the project. The company, however, stated that no additional forest land has been requested but the component of the private land has increased by more than 250 acres.
Indian fox, asiatic jackal, jungle cat, black buck, spotted deer, were among the 23 mammals reported in the area. Back in 2018, the forest department had given a report stating that the area proposed for diversion “does not form habitat of Indian Grey Wolf”.
Till 2018, the company had proposed to build the powerhouse underground, a measure which would reduce noise.
However, due to the increase in capacity from the initially proposed 1,200 MW to 1,260 MW, it was changed into a surface powerhouse. The increase of the capacity to 1,600 MW last year has led to bigger changes in the project.
Gokak Deputy Conservator of Forests Shivanand Naikwadi said the company has submitted a draft wildlife mitigation plan.
“A meeting will be held soon to look into the plan and suggest better measures. The project has received Stage 1 (preliminary) clearance. Before the final clearance, we will look into all the matters,” he said.
Sources in the department, however, said the mitigation measures suggested for the project were weak. “There are patches of non forest land in Ramdurg taluk that can be notified as forest and a dry land sanctuary could be proposed to protect the fauna. But nothing like that has been proposed in the mitigation plan. Given the forest diversions for many dams in the landscape, we should just stop submerging forest land for hydropower in whatever form,” the source said.