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Sign this Petition: Athirapally Dam - Action Alert

Athirapally Dam: Action Alert

Take out a little of your time and sign this... (if you are convinced)! Then forward it to others!!! trying to raise a lakh signatures!! so do your bit!!

www.thepetitionsite.com

The proposed Athirapally Dam project plans to violate all rules and regulations of environment, forests, tribals, science and ecology when it comes to proposing an infrastructure project - that too a critical one like Power generation.

Please keep in mind that the HEP is situated in the Chalakudy river which is 144 kms long and the fifth largest river in Kerala. This river has been hugely dammed already for power generation as there are already six dams for
power generation and one dam for irrigation (irrigating an area of 14,000 ha).

For more details about the dangers of this project.You can refer to Sanctuary Asia link on the subject: www.sanctuaryasia.com

People Impact:
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1. At least five lakh people from 19 panchayaths and two municipalities depend on the river for livelihood, irrigation and drinking water purpose. Once this dam comes up it will directly and indirectly affect these people
as the flow of the river gets blocked and stymied.

2. Hundreds of tribals make their home in the river basin. They belong to an endemic tribe called 'Kadar'. They have been living here for hundreds of years and are not settlers like we are in major cities. They will be thrown
out (our governments calls it easily as relocated) and with our corruput
officials having a field day with respect to displacement money

3. The famous Vazhachal and Athirappilly waterfalls visited by about 6 lakh
people every year will be wiped out by the project. This will be a huge loss
of tourist money for local economy and for Kerala's famed tourism industry.
Kerala's backbone is tourism and if good tourist spots are destroyed then how will tourists come to Kerala??

Environmental Impact:
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1. The submergence area ,part of Vazhachal forest division is the home to the endangered Tiger, Asiatic Elephant , Great Indian Hornbill, Malabar Giant Squirrel, Gaur, Lion Tailed Macaque,Nilgiri Langur and Cochin Forest
Cane Turtle and the unique niche specific riparian forests. It is also ironic that while govts. across the world are trying to save endemic species, Kerala seems to be in a hurry to destroy it.


2. The EIA has not done any scientific study of the ecological problems of submergence of the only remaining riparian forests at this altitude(200-300 mean sea level) in the entire Western Ghats.


3. The vital elephant corridor between the Parambikulam Sanctuary and the Pooyamkutty forests will also be affected as vast areas will be submerged.

4. Around 138.60 hectare of forest land will be diverted to KSEB for dam construction. This is roughly 13993083 SQ FT. Say if you are living in 1000 Sq Ft home, the loss of forest is like 15,000 homes like yours!!!!

Power generation angle:
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1. The proposed HEP would depend only on the tail race waters of Poringalkuthu (commissioned in 1958) HEP for power generation( 8x4=32 MW).
Based on the past 22 yrs stream flow data , People's School of Energy, a research team of engineers from Kannur has calculated that electricity can be generated maximum of 20% of the planned generation from December to peak
summer period. So the claim for peak load generation of 163 MW in itself is false.

2. With rainfall plunging 20% than expected, as many as 15 hydroelectric projects produced only 4,314 MU in 2003-04 compared to 7,305 million units (MU) of electricity in 1998-99. Considering that Kerala gets almost 60 per
cent of its power from Tamil Nadu and other states, under-performing hydroelectric projects mean severe economic loss.

3. With rapid destruction of forest lands and due to climatic patterns, Kerala once regarded very safe for water is now struggling with repetitive droughts. Evidence: Kerala had an estimated forest cover of 44.4 per cent
in 1900. Independent studies and satellite images show the forest cover came
down to 14.7 per cent in 1983 and is 9 per cent now. But the state government, which regards plantations as forests, says the cover is 27 per
cent.

4. The proposed 160MW is less than 3-5% of Kerala's current electricity production. This amount of power can be easily generated by sustainable wind farms, solar power, prevention of theft of power, cutting down transmission
loss, etc, etc. Constructing a dam on an important river without even doing
a proper EIA is the most unscientific way to generate power.

False logic of KSEB:
----------------------------
Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) had repeatedly rejected this project because it will destroy the world famous water falls in Athirapally. But somehow KSEB has got the nod by claiming that these waterfalls will be
maintained by constructing a dam toe power house of 3MW capacity.

KSEB is the only company in the entire world that generates power as a special segment in order to maintain a natural waterfall after destroying the waterfall, the forests and local ecology!!!

If this power house operated from 6 am-6pm to maintain the waterfalls, the water left in the reservoir for power generation from 6pm-6am is anybody guess.


Alternatives:
----------------------
Electricity is important for everybody. And there are good alternatives. They are,

1. Use of solar power. Your govt can make it mandatory to have solar water
heater, solar panels for electricity to tubelights,fans, TV's, etc in all
medium and high income households, hospitals, businesses, etc.

2. Use of wind power. Like Tamilnadu, your Govt can tap the enormous wind power that is available in Kerala.

3.Conservation of power. KSEB can run a high profile 'save electricity' campaign. Please note that 'Electricity saved is electricity produced'.

4. Charging more for high volume users so that they carefully use electricity.

5. Kerala's loss in transmission and distribution is over 30%. This can be bought down dramatically resulting in power savings.

6. Crack down on power theft. This can result in substantial power savings.

With respect to above points, we strongly urge you to drop the project. Let us not destroy Kerala forests which are the source of numerous rivers of Kerala, in name of 'development'.

If we don't act carefully now, our future generations will not tolerate us for the abuse that we have perpetuated on our environment.

The following link will take you to the petition... www.theteitionsite.com

Starts01/16/2006
Ends09/16/2006
IssuesEnvironment, Human Rights, International, Politics/Government, Agriculture, Animal Rights, Biodiversity, Environmental Justice, Environmental Preservation, Asia
Homepage
Contactrajani.mani@gmail.com

Posted on January 19, 2006 in Event / Call to action by rajani