Why Teesta III Dam Reconstruction in Sikkim Sparks Environmental and Security Considerations

The Central authorities appears to have prioritised company pursuits over public security in recommending environmental clearance to rebuild the Teesta III Hydroelectric Energy Venture in Sikkim. This 1,200 megawatt dam was washed away in a devastating glacial flood in October 2023, killing at the very least 55 individuals and displacing 10,000 others. The nod to rebuild it comes months after the Indian subsidiary of a Mauritius-incorporated renewable power holding firm acquired majority stake within the venture from the Sikkim authorities.

Regardless of the lack of lives and livelihoods attributable to the October 2023 flooding, an skilled evaluate physique below the Union Ministry of Setting, Forest and Local weather Change (MoEFCC) determined to forgo public session earlier than recommending the revival of the dam. In a gathering held on January 10, 2025, the MoEFCC’s Professional Appraisal Committee (EAC) for river valley and hydroelectric initiatives selected to depend on the proceedings of public consultations held practically 20 years in the past to provide its inexperienced sign for a brand new dam.

The minutes of the EAC assembly state: “The EAC felt no requirement of recent public listening to as there is no such thing as a involvement of extra land and different R&R [Rehabilitation and Resettlement] points; furthermore, PP [project proponent] has already carried out public listening to earlier than grant of earlier Environmental Clearance on 4.08.2006.”

Additionally Learn | Sikkim divests stake in worthwhile Teesta III venture to Greenko amid questions

The skilled panel really useful the clearance whilst a case difficult the choice of the Sikkim authorities to divest its stake within the venture is pending within the Sikkim Excessive Court docket. In February 2024, lower than six months after the catastrophe, the Sikkim authorities bought its 60.08 per cent stake in Sikkim Urja Ltd, the holding firm of the Teesta III venture, to its minority companion, Greenko Energies Personal Ltd. Included in Hyderabad, Greenko Energies Personal Ltd is a completely owned subsidiary of Greenko Mauritius. In Could 2024, the Competitors Fee of India, a statutory physique below the Ministry of Company Affairs that regulates and ensures honest enterprise practices within the Indian economic system, authorised Greenko’s acquisition of extra shares in Sikkim Urja Ltd.

A case can be pending within the Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal (NGT), the nation’s premier surroundings court docket, on the environmental implications of the lake breach that destroyed the Teesta III dam. The NGT took up the case suo motu on the premise of media stories of the incident. The venture proponent has estimated that it might value Rs.4,189.51 crore to revive the venture.

Reservations over rebuilding

A PIL petition difficult the disinvestment was filed in Sikkim Excessive Court docket by Mani Kumar Subba, a neighborhood political chief, who was earlier a member of the Sikkim Democratic Entrance. In December 2024, the Excessive Court docket turned down a requirement by the petitioner to implead the MoEFCC, amongst different organisations and companies, within the case. Subba had requested the court docket to problem instructions to the MoEFCC to submit a replica of the impression evaluation report, if any, of the devastation triggered to the dam within the glacial flood of October 2023.

Nevertheless, the Excessive Court docket turned down his demand on the grounds that the MoEFCC had no position to play within the disinvestment course of. In an order issued on December 12, 2024, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Biswanath Somadder and Decide Meenakshi Madan Rai mentioned: “… this Court docket is of the view that not one of the events/authorities whom the applicant/writ petitioner is searching for to implead as respondents had any position to play whereas a choice was taken by the State Cupboard in its assembly held on third February, 2024, for disinvestment of the complete stake, i.e. 60.08 [%] fairness shares…”

A supply near the petitioner instructed this correspondent that Subba is but to problem the Excessive Court docket’s December 12 order. Aside from the MoEFCC, Subba additionally needed to implead the Comptroller and Auditor Normal of India, the Nationwide Institute of Catastrophe Administration, the Land Income and Catastrophe Administration Division, the Forest and Setting Division (authorities of Sikkim), the Central Water Fee (CWC), and the Central Electrical energy Authority (CEA).

The Teesta III venture was commissioned in February 2017 at a value of Rs.13,965 crore. It was operational till the night time of October 3-4, 2023, when water from a flash flood in a glacial lake within the higher reaches of the mountains washed away the dam and flooded the underground powerhouse.

In response to the appliance filed with the MoEFCC for reconstructing the dam, the venture proponent has determined to alter its design from “a concrete gravity dam” to a “concrete confronted rockfill dam”, which, it claims, “is a way more resilient construction minimising the prospect of dam failure resulting from overtopping”. The minutes of the January 10 assembly file that the venture proponent claimed that there was “a simply case” to revive the venture and convey it again into operation. They state: “The underground powerhouse and electro-mechanical gear could be restored to their unique situation in about 10-12 months. The water conductor system is usually unaffected within the flash flood, therefore, apart from the dam many of the elements could be restored in a yr’s time. As many of the elements can be prepared in a yr, there’s a case for restoring the dam and bringing again the Venture in operation on the earliest for which EC modification is requested.”

The MoEFCC’s evaluate panel had earlier expressed critical reservations about rebuilding the dam. In a gathering held on November 30, 2024, the MoEFCC expressed issues concerning the dam’s design and stability and “its capability to resist potential pure disasters sooner or later”. It emphasised the necessity for an intensive evaluate of the modifications proposed to the dam to make sure the “structural resilience and security of the dam” in mild of the area’s susceptibility to excessive hydrological occasions. It really useful consultations with the CEA, India’s apex company for coverage formulation and planning within the energy sector, on the proposed modifications. Additional, a website go to of Teesta III was carried out by an skilled panel constituted by the EAC between December 26-28, 2024. On the premise of the skilled panel’s website inspection report, the venture proponent was directed by the EAC to include sure measures through the building and operation phases of the venture to boost dam security parameters.

The minutes additionally state {that a} complete research has been carried out to determine potential threats to the dam from glacial lakes within the higher reaches. As a part of this research, as many as 119 glacial lakes had been recognized within the catchment space of the dam, out of which 50 lakes with an space of 10 hectares or extra had been shortlisted for additional analysis. The research focussed on 13 doubtlessly harmful lakes on the premise of parameters akin to their water unfold areas (40 hectares or extra), volumes, and distance from the venture website.

‘Hasty’ clearance

The venture proponent has reportedly considered the worst-case situation of a simultaneous breach of two of those lakes, through which the best quantity outflow was projected at 12,946 cubic metres a second, and added this capability to the possible most flood degree to resolve the dam’s spillway (construction to permit protected passage of extra water from the reservoir) capability. Additional, the venture proponent has additionally mentioned that it’s going to coordinate with the Central and State catastrophe administration authorities to acquire data pertaining to the monitoring of the lakes.

The environmental activist Himanshu Thakkar termed the advice for environmental clearance as “hasty” on the grounds that the proposed rebuilding venture is but to be ratified by the CWC, the nation’s apex physique for controlling and regulating water sources, and the CEA. Talking to Frontline, Thakkar, who’s the coordinator of the South Asia Community on Dams, Rivers and Individuals, a casual community of organisations and people engaged on points associated to the water sector, mentioned: “The spillway capability of the reservoir could be decided solely after finalising the possible most flood degree. This degree has not but been determined upon. The larger the capability of the spillway, the extra impression it would have on the ecology and surroundings of the areas downstream of the dam.”

Thakkar added that the destruction triggered within the October 2023 floods was owing to shortcomings in environmental impression evaluation stories prior to now that didn’t foresee a glacial flood of this nature. He mentioned: “Furthermore, the rebuilding venture must be thought of as a recent venture contemplating the change in peak and sort of the proposed dam, its building methodology, the huge change in spillway capability, and the modifications in upstream and downstream situations, together with glaciers, glacier lakes, and their threats. The venture requires a brand new surroundings impression evaluation research and a brand new surroundings administration plan, together with a recent public session course of, given the huge impression of the October 2023 flood on the lives of native individuals.”

In response to the rebuilding proposal, the catchment space of the dam (2,786.7 sq. kilometres) and the possible most flood restrict (7,000 cubic metres a second) stay unchanged, whereas the utmost peak of the dam has been elevated from 60 metres from the riverbed degree to “118.64 metres from the deepest basis degree” and the entire size of the dam on the prime has been decreased from 298 metres to 279.65 metres.

Thakkar identified that no cognisance in any respect had been taken of a report that was ready within the wake of the October 2023 catastrophe by the Nationwide Committee on Dam Security, a panel constituted below the Nationwide Dam Security Act, 2021, to stop disasters associated to dam failure and preserve requirements of dam security.

Political slugfest

In the meantime, a political slugfest has damaged out over the venture’s clearance, with a number of events alleging that the advice was granted by the MoEFCC in haste with out contemplating the bottom realities of the individuals who stand to be affected and bypassing concerns to find out the long run security of the dam.

On February 2, D.R. Thapa, president of the Sikkim unit of the BJP, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that environmental clearance for the dam be saved in abeyance till a choice primarily based on “newest scientific information, threat assessments and inclusive public participation” may very well be taken. As Thapa identified within the letter: “A recent public listening to was not carried out, and as an alternative an outdated session from 2006 has been used to justify the clearance—that is utterly out of sync with current realities.”

A short lived bamboo bridge being constructed at Chungthang, connecting it to Pegong, on October 8, 2023, days after a flash flood in Mangan district, Sikkim.
| Photograph Credit score:
PTI

Thapa famous {that a} revised most flood research is pending, and the brand new dam’s structural security and design haven’t been totally authorised by the Geological Survey of India, the CWC, and the Central Soil and Supplies Analysis Station. He alleged that the chance evaluation of upstream glacial lakes is insufficient, with no readability on whether or not essentially the most weak lakes have been precisely recognized.

On the time of submitting this story, there was no response to an electronic mail despatched to the MoEFCC requesting readability on these allegations.

Opposition events have additionally criticised the EAC suggestion. Three days after Thapa’s letter, Jairam Ramesh, former Minister for Setting within the UPA authorities and the Congress’ normal secretary, tweeted that it was a “inconsiderate clearance” and that “the specter of catastrophe persists on the dam website. There are additionally cascading & multiplying results on habitations downstream.”

Additionally Learn | Dammed within the Himalayas

The Congress issued an in depth assertion on the perils of senseless building of dams alongside the course of the Teesta following one other landslide incident on August 20, 2024, that triggered main harm to the Teesta V venture. This venture, downstream of the Teesta III venture, belongs to the general public sector NHPC Ltd. In an announcement dated August 24, 2024, the Congress said: “These pure disasters, just like the October 2023 disaster and the latest landslides, have change into commonplace resulting from ecological destruction and unplanned constructions.… Other than this environmental disaster within the making, these initiatives have additionally been undertaken with out native communities in thoughts. The individuals of Sikkim and Kalimpong [this district in West Bengal was also affected by the October 2023 floods] haven’t gained from the hydro initiatives by way of employment, share in energy, or income era.”

Barely a number of days after the advice of the environmental clearance, a analysis article was revealed within the journal Science highlighting the necessity for a paradigm shift in glacial lake outburst flood risk-management methods in Himalayan and different mountain environments in opposition to the backdrop of the Teesta III catastrophe of October 2023. It mentioned: “The bodily scale and human and financial impression of this occasion prompts pressing reflection on the position of local weather change and human actions in exacerbating such disasters.”

Ayaskant Das is an unbiased journalist and author primarily based within the Nationwide Capital Area.