An expert panel of the Union Environment Ministry has recommended environmental clearance for the 3,087 MW Etalin hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh’s Dibang valley, as per minutes of the panel’s July 30 meeting. Etalin is a large run-of-river project on the Dri and Tangon Rivers and involves construction of concrete gravity dams to divert water through two separate waterway systems. The Dri River, after meeting Mathun, flows downstream and is joined by Tangon near Etalin village, where it is called Dibang River, as per details recorded by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) on hydroelectric and river valley projects. The project will involve diversion of 1,175 hectares of prime sub-tropical pine, wet evergreen, semi-evergreen, montane wet temperate, and moist alpine scrub forest and an estimated 2.7 lakh trees will be felled. “The EAC after examining the information submitted and detailed deliberations, reiterated its earlier recommendation on the project and recommended the proposal for grant of prior environmental clearance to the Etalin hydroelectric project in an area of 1175.03 hectares,” the EAC said, as per minutes of its meeting. The project will be developed by the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Ltd. The EAC had recommended clearance for the project in 2017. However, it was placed before the panel again for appraisal as the ministry’s norms mandate that if the project’s environmental impact assessment data is over three years old, it has to be referred back to EAC. Several Schedule-I species, granted highest protection under law, such as red panda, leopard, asiatic black bear, clouded leopard, tiger are found in the upper reaches of Dibang valley, as per a biodiversity study of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII). Overlooking its own previous concerns, the forest advisory committee of the environment ministry had granted in-principle forest clearance for the project in May, using WII study as a basis to gauge impact on wildlife. Conservationists have in the past panned the WII study for its limited study period. Though the WII study did not record the presence of tigers in the project area, the study itself had said that tiger presence and movement in the project area cannot be ruled out.
