Skip to content Skip to navigation

Anti-Dam Voices Heard in New Delhi

While anti-big dam protesters have assembled in eastern Assam for a mammoth public rally at Thekeraguri, serious concern is expressed in the national capital in an intense discussion. Addressing the rally at North Lakhimpur, eminent environmentalist Medha Patkar reiterated her stand that the people living in the catchment areas own a river and hence their interest must not be sacrificed to please the corporate players while going for larger hydro-electricity projects in India.


Meanwhile, attending a dialogue in memory of pioneer environmental journalist and activist of international repute, Anil Agarwal various speakers put forwards their fears that the hydro-electricity projects in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam would leave a devastating impact on the northeastern part of India and also in Bangladesh.


Organized by the Centre for Science and Environment at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, the two-day meeting was started with a keynote address by Sunita Narain, editor of Down To Earth, a CSE publication, where hundreds of environment activists and journalists across the country have participated.


Addressing the gathering, Partha J Das of Aaranyak (Guwahati, Assam) highlighted the overview of the government policy for Green Clearance to various hydro-electricity projects in northeast India. He revealed in his presentation that already 147 MoUs (out of 168 planned large HEPs in the region) had been signed with the Arunachal government (till July 2011).


“At least 55 projects have obtained scoping clearance and 12 projects (LSHEP for 2000 MW at Subansiri, Ranganadi-I for 405 MW at Ranganadi, Kameng for 600 MW at Kameng, Siyom /Middle Siang for 1000 MW at Siyom, Demwe Lowe for 1750MW at Lohit, Tawang-I for 750 MW at Tawang, Tawang-II for 750 MW at Tawang, Pare for 110 MW at Pare/Dikrong, Tato-II for 700 MW at Siang, Khuitam Lewuitkare for 66 MW at Gang/Bishom/Kameng, Gongri for 90 MW at Kameng) have received the final Environment Clearance in the bio-diversity hotspot region,” Mr Das pointed out.


He however argued that the environment impact assessment process, based on which the clearances are given, are inferior and misleading. Moreover the cumulative environment impact assessment is not done in-spite of the fact that the basins of each major river would have multiple projects. Similarly, the adequate study on downstream impacts is ignored jeopardizing ecosystems, lives and livelihoods, he added. Moderated by Himanshu Thakkar of South Asia Network on Dams, River & People, the session was also addressed by Chandra Bhushan of CSE, Bimal Bhai from Matu Jan Sangathan with many others.

Author info

Nava Thakuria's picture

Senior journalist based in Guwahati.

Add new comment

Random Stories

CAT cancels Sankar Baruah’s appointment as DGP

5 Mar 2010 - 10:33pm | editor
The Central Administrative Tribunal has scrapped the appointment of Sankar Prasad Baruah as the Assam police director general. The tribunal has further asked the Assam Government to appointa new...

Respectful adieu to ‘Guruji’

23 Feb 2015 - 10:08pm | Inamul Islam
Thousands thronged to pay their last respect to the departed artist Adya Sarma at Nalbari Art School here today before the body of the noted artist was assigned to flames. Sarma, popularly known as ‘...

Runway collision averted in Borjhar

2 Aug 2015 - 6:58pm | AT News
More than 200 people had a narrow escape when two planes carrying them avoided a runway collision in Guwahati on Sunday.The bizarre incident was averted in the afternoon at the Lokpriya Gopinath...

Blast in fancy Bazar; 4 injured

8 Mar 2008 - 7:42am | editor
More than four people have been injured while bomb exploded in the city's busy Fancy Bazar area just before a while. According to information, the bomb which exploded at aroun12.45 pm was planted in...

Other Contents by Author

It’s shocking to report that a number of Guwahati-based scribes and RTI (right to information) activists have been facing interrogation and even arrest by Assam chief minister’s special vigilance cell following the allegations of Sewali Devi Sharma, the prime accused in Rs 105 crore State council of educational research and training (SCERT) scam, as being blackmailers to her in different occasions. The arrestees include a female reporter (identified as Pujamoni Das alias Honey Kashyap, who reportedly took a large volume of money from Ms Sharma) along with a satellite news channel reporter named Bhaskarjoti Hazarika.  RTI activists namely Rabijit Gogoi (who pretended to be a...
Can we imagine a world of zero poverty, zero unemployment, and zero carbon emissions with a new approach in post-corona economics! Ask Nobel laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus and he will answer in the affirmative. The university professor turned revolutionary banker believes that the human race should not only dream about a safer world by reducing global warming, wealth concentration and unemployment, but also work in that direction with personal and collective capacities. In his latest book titled ‘A World of Three Zeros’, Prof Yunus proposes a new economic system focusing on every human being as an entrepreneur in the making. He believes that humans are not born to work only for...
Guwahati: Assam is all set to host first sustainable financial working group (SFWG) meeting and Youth 20 inception meeting as part of India's year-long G20 presidency, where it is meticulously chalked out various tour programs that would help in promoting the State’s rich biodiversity and socio-cultural heritage in international arena. The authorities have completed the preparation to welcome the foreign delegates to the State. Guwahati is adorned with digital wall painting, thematic gates, flags of G 20 countries, LED cut-outs, standees, hoarding, etc as part of branding and beautification. The government has also completed the arrangement for the visiting delegates to places of...
Guwahati: India observes National Press Day on 16 November with an aim to pay tributes to everyone who contributed to the growth of print media along with its mentor & watchdog the Press Council of India (PCI). Moreover, it’s also an occasion for the practicing media persons to introspect seriously over their noble profession where it has been heading in the post-Covid-19 pandemic era. Since its inception and functioning, the PCI continues to symbolize a free and responsible press in the largest democracy in the world. Among all press or media councils, functioning in various countries, the PCI is recognised as a unique entity that exercises authority over the media and also safeguards...
Participating in a debate on satellite television or digital channels needs some homeworks to make the deliberations short and clear. Unless you face an arrogant anchor and unruly participants, the experience in talk shows normally emerges as an intriguing one. It happened to me, as I had recently participated in a digital media discussion on the pertinent issue of National Register of Citizens  (NRC) in Assam, where the prime guest was none other than the immediate past State NRC coordinator Hitesh Dev Sarma. The talk show host Dikshit Sharma put the questions in a clever way so that the issue comes alive and my part was just to interpret Dev Sarma’s version for clarity to the valued...
Guwahati: It was an amazing experience to attend the foundation day of a 25 year old press club in central Assam on a lazy Sunday, where a number of senior citizens along with rural scribes and novice journalists were waiting to listen to my speech. It’s easier to address a journalist’s meet- where we can discuss many issues with liberties, but while the audience includes respected senior citizens and young people, it becomes a difficult task to speak to them together. First, the question that arises, how much should I highlight the eroding credibility of the mainstream media around India in general and Assam in particular and secondly what may be the role of social (alternate/digital)...
Guwahati: A year-long celebration of 100 years of sports journalism in Assam begins coinciding on the day while the first ever news related to a football competition is published in Asomiya (a weekly news magazine mentored by Chandra Kumar Agarwala) on 1  July 1923. Assam Sports Journalists Association (ASJA), which is affiliated with the Sports Journalists Federation of India (a national affiliate of the International Sports Press Association), has taken the lead in celebrating the occasion that will culminate on 1  July next year. On Saturday, flags for ASJA and the centenary celebration were hoisted by ASJA’s founder president Balendra Mohan Chakraborty and his successor...
Reactions from the public (sensitive readers) against a news item in any newspaper (also news channel) are usual in India, but outrages against the mainstream media outlets in digital platforms for not covering a particular issue is definitely an unusual phenomenon. The north-eastern state of Assam witnessed such public fury against some of the editor-journalists for avoiding press conferences by opposition political parties where they targeted the state chief minister for his family’s alleged land scam. The organized public uproar in the alternate media was so intense that the celebrity editor-journalists of Assam did not dare to clarify their positions. They preferred to avoid the...
Hyderabad: The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) has strongly condemned the incident of assault on a Manipur journalist and urged the state chief minister, N. Biren Singh, to book the culprits under the law. The National Union of Subscribes also wished for an early recovery of Elangbam Rameshwar, who works as a Thoubal correspondent for the Naharolgi Thoudang regional daily newspaper, which is published from Imphal. Local media hinted that the handiwork was masterminded by some Congress workers in the Thoubal locality of the north-eastern state, who were attacked by a group of 20 to 25 masked men in the morning hours on 24 October. The rural reporter faced assault at his residence in the...
Hyderabad: The national executive committee meeting of Indian Journalists Union (IJU), which concluded on Sunday in the capital city of Telangana, discussed various burning issues concerning the practitioners of journalism across India and emphasized on effective safety & security to journalists, reforms in Press Council of India (PCI) and basic minimum facilities to the media fraternity sustaining the spirit under freedom of the press to serve the largest democracy on the globe. Chaired by IJU president K Sreenivas Reddy, the two-day meeting held at Tourism Plaza in Begumpet locality expressed serious concern over killings of journalists by anti-social elements and filing of cases...