The long-pending Renuka Dam project has got approval from the forest advisory committee (FAC) of the Union ministry for environment, forests and climate change. This has been done without the tricky issues of settling of tribal rights and actual demarcation of the land. Both are to be later done by the ministry.
The FAC gives an in-principle nod to projects requiring forest clearance. The Rs 3,600-crore project, which requires 909 ha of forest was taken up in the FAC meeting on July 17 and 18. Its aim is to provide 275 million gallons of water to Delhi every day.
While recommending the project, the FAC said the state government should furnish the digital map of the proposed land, along with the needed compliance under the Scheduled Tribes Act, 2006, to the ministry. Both are supposed to be required at the time of granting environment clearance. The maps are required to assess the quality and expanse of area that project developers require The settling of rights under the Forest Rights Act and consent from the gram sabhas for projects using these settled lands is mandatory but the FAC has repeatedly passed the buck to the ministry. The Union government has often, in turn, left it to the states to merely give an assurance on this count instead of providing proof as required by the rules.
The dam is proposed to be built on the Giri river, a tributary of the Yamuna in Sirmaur district of Himachal Pradesh. Even before environment clearance had been accorded, the Union Budget had allocated Rs 50 crore to it.
Under the United Progressive Alliance government, the project was mired in controversy, with then environment minister Jairam Ramesh denying it a forest clearance. Ramesh overrode the then FAC's grant of recommendation in October 2010 and said the national capital should first fix its water distribution losses.
The FAC also gave a green nod to another controversial scheme, the Rs 2,000 crore Kundaliya Major Irrigation Project. The proposal is to build a dam on the Kalisindh river in Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh. Although this is a standalone project for the time being, it might become a part of the ambitious Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal (PKC) river interlinking project involving Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh if the latter idea takes shape in future.
"The Government of Madhya Pradesh has expressed its agreement to let the proposed project be a part of PKC as and when the PKC detailed project report is prepared, if at all," a note from the environment ministry said.
Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator at the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People told Business Standard, "MP is jeopardising the whole river-linking idea and is going ahead without involving Rajasthan."
The FAC also approved renewal of salt leases for six factories set up in Jamnagar district of Gujarat. About 70% of the salt produced in India comes from Gujarat.
