Dear all, It is with great shock we hear that the Kerala Govt.on 18th April 2007 gave administrative clearance to a new hydel project to be built within the ecological boundary of Silent Valley, entitled "Patrakadavu Hydro-electric Project". This was earlier proposed by the UDF government and had to be witheld due to public protest.While he was the opposition leader the present Chief Minister had proclaimed that he will oppose any move to build a hydro-electric project at Patrakadavu, which he thought will destroy Silent Valley.Now he says giving administrative sanction is only a procedural action and the project will be built only if Govt.of India gives environmental clearance, which according to him will be after careful study by experts. This does not make any sense! The kerala govt.itself could have consisdered the impacts of the project before it was to give adm.sanction. The govt.has a Department of Environment and a State Council for Science, Technology and Environment. These are meant for advising govt.on such matters.
The proposed site for the Patrakadavu project is only 500 mts away from the original dam site for the abandoned Silent valley Hydel=project and is very much within the ecological boundary of the Silent Valley ecosystem. The MGK Menon Committee appointed jointly by the State and Centre, in its report submitted in 1982 had categorically pointed out that building a hydel project in Silent valley would cause irreparable damage to the ecosytem. And the proposed project was abandoned.The same situation prevails even now.Now the Kerala State Electricity Board wants to build a hydel project within the Silent Valley ecosystem! It is a shame that the state endorses bringing irrepairable damage to a system and leaves it to the good sense of the Central Government to prevent that damage! Shame to an environmentally aware society. We should endeavour to stop this attrocity at ant cost.This 70 MW project is neither essential nor unavaidabe. Pleas G P Ramachandran --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ greenyouth mailinglist is the activist support mailinglist for kerala run by Global Alternate Information Applications (GAIA) To post to this group, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
