KPTCL accused of felling trees in violation of court order

KPTCL accused of felling trees in violation of court order

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Mar 4, 2012: The Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) stands accused of felling trees in Bolakodi in open violation of an interim stay order issued by the National Green Tribunal in New Delhi on Feb 13. 

Making the above statement in a press release, the Nandikur Janajagrithi Samithi also stated that A. Suryanarayan Naidu, the acting chairman of the National Green Tribunal, and Dr. G. K. Pandey, its expert member, heard an appeal filed by the samithi and issued an interim stay order that MoEF, Government of Karnataka, and the KPTCL are not to cut trees on this land. The case was to be heard on Feb 29. The interim order remained in force on Feb 29, and the case was last heard on March 2 Friday. On March 2, when the case was in progress, KPTCL workers were seen cutting trees in Bolakodi, alleges the samithi.

The release also stated that the ministry of environment and forest has halted the Sindudurg Project till a decision is made based on the report submitted by the Western Ghat Ecological Expert Panel, chaired by Prof. Madhav Gadgil. In spite of this, an attempt is being made to cut more than 4 lakh trees for these transmission lines, the release alleged. To make matters worse, the KPTCL is showing on account only 23,000 trees, all this without taking into account ecological impact and without conducting any impact assessment study. According to a WGEEP report, the Western Ghats are to be considered “ecologically sensitive.” 

The release also said that the transmission lines are meant to evacuate UPCL-generated power, 600MV of which is already evacuated from the first unit to Kemmar. The new transmission lines through the Ghats will be used to evacuate only 600MV from the second unit. 

It further informs that it was found in 1996 that building power transmission lines across the Ghats is unworthy and uneconomical unless at least 2500MV of power needs to be evacuated. The samithi says that it has a copy of the letter written thus to the Government of India. 

Besides, power can be evacuated through southern or northern routes or transmission lines can be built underground using technology that is widely available, but is not being explored in India, states the samithi release. 

The press release concluded by stating that the samithi had always argued that the project must be shifted closer to Bangalore, that Chennai must be used for coal handling, and that existing railway systems must be used for transportation, which would be an environmentally and economically better plan that attempting to run power plants in an eco sensitive zone.