NGT notice to NPCIL on plea on Kaiga plant expansion

The National Green Tribunal on Thursday issued notice to the Centre and Nuclear Power Corporation of India on a plea questioning the environmental clearance to expansion and enhancement plans of the Kaiga Atomic Power Project (KAPP) at Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka allegedly in disregard to 'catastrophic risk' and adverse impact on the eco-sensitive Western Ghats.

An NGT bench of Southern Zone at Chennai sought a response from the Union government and the NPCIL on a joint appeal by Kaiga Anuvidyut Sthawarad Ghataka Virodhi Horata Samiti, Kadra Anekattina Nirashrtar Sangha, and Kaiga Kali Santrastara Sangha. It put the matter for further consideration on January 28, 2020.

The local organisations, represented by senior advocate Devadatt Kamat, challenged the validity of the grant of environmental clearance by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change of August 5, 2019, for expansion of the capacity of Kaiga Units 5 and 6 from 235 MWe to 700 MWe each.

“Clearance has not taken into account the adverse environmental impact likely to be caused as a result of laying down of 100 km long power transmission lines on a 75-meter wide corridor through the dense tropical forests of the Western Ghats surrounding the project site, which is in an eco-sensitive zone,” they claimed.

This would also require clearing of forest area in order to create an evacuation path for the power generated in an area within 10 km from the boundary of Anshi National Park, which has been granted the status of a tiger sanctuary and also considered as an eco-sensitive zone by various studies.

Maintaining that expansion of Kaiga will be catastrophic for the biodiversity of the area, having its effects on Karnataka, India and even the world, the appellants claimed the nuclear power posed many threats to people and the environment including health risks and damage from uranium mining processing and transport, the risk of nuclear weapons proliferation or, sabotage, and the unsolved problem of radioactive nuclear waste.

The petitioners also represented by advocates Javedur Rahman and BS Pai pointed out the environmental clearance was against the NGT's previous orders for maintaining the eco-sensitive zone of Western Ghats. They said the public hearing in the matter was conducted at NPCIL township, 18-km away from the villages likely to be affected by it.

They also pointed out that the forest cover in Uttara Kannada district, where KAPP is located, has already come down from 70% of the land area in the 1950s to less than 25% now due to various projects including the Konkan Railway, sea-bird naval base, national highways, industries, many dam-based hydel projects, and the KAPP since 2000.