Construction and controversy

Nearly 20 years after its inception, the controversy over construction of the 2400-megawatt Tehri Dam has finally ended. Or so it seems. Th...

Nearly 20 years after its inception, the controversy over construction of the 2400-megawatt Tehri Dam has finally ended. Or so it seems. There is not even a murmur of protest against the dam. Except, of course, the septuagenarian environmentalist, Sunder Lal Bahuguna, who is continuing with a lonely battle, both in the courts and outside, against it. But residents of Tehri town and adjoining villages which are to be submerged once the reservoir is filled, appear to have deserted him.

Of course, there is resentment and anger among the people against the Government. But not on construction of the dam but against the rehabilitation package given to them by the administration. This when over 90 per cent of Tehri evacuees have already been paid compensation, given alternative accommodations and jobs.

The Tehri town, with a population of 25,000, which will be submerged with flash floods in the Bhagirathi after completion of the 661-metres high coffer dam, is, however, still bustling with activity. There is no apparent concern among the people about this or for that matter over the inevitable evacuation after the completion of the main dam, three years later. The emphasis is on the amount of compensation one can extract from the Government.

Work on the Tehri dam is almost three-fourths complete. The coffer dam has been constructed by diverting the Bhagirathi and Bhilanga rivers into tunnels. Mountains surrounding the prospective reservoir have been fortified by using steel and cement. Diversion tunnels for power generation too are complete. What now remains to be done is increase the height of the coffer dam to form the main dam and installation of turbines for power generation. The Tehri Hydro Development Corporation8217;s THDC M.P.S. Tyagi hopes to 8220;dedicate the dam to the nation8221; by the end of 2000.

Tyagi, armed with a number of experts8217; reports and technical data, claims that construction of the dam would not increase seismic activity in the Himalayan mountains. 8220;If anything, it would be a dampener for seismic activities,8221; he says. But Bahuguna remains unimpressed: 8220;They are creating an environmental disaster. I will fight till my last breath against the project.8221;

The initial project cost of Rs 192 crore when work started on it in 1978, has now become Rs 6,000 crore mainly due to the delay caused by anti-dam protests. Each one year delay escalates the dam cost by Rs 300 crore, Tyagi claims. Now with thinning support for the anti-dam lobby led by Bahuguna the cost is not expected to go up further. 8220;Bahugunaji talks only of stopping work on the dam. He doesn8217;t utter a word about payment of compensation to the evacuees8221; says a local resident explaining the dwindling support to Bahuguna8217;s movement.

The stress of the people therefore, is not on whether the dam should be built or not but on the amount of compensation. Tehri is a hill town linked to Rishikesh, Gopeshwar and Srinagar, it also serves as a big business centre. Being a district headquarter, it is also home for the working classes. Though most of the Government offices have been shifted to New Tehri Town NTT, about 24 kms from Old Tehri, the main business centre is still in the old township.

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The dam once functional would submerge the homes of 4,551 families in Tehri town, but according to Tyagi most of them have already been rehabilitated. THDC has already provided land to 2,283 families, constructed houses for 1,701 families and shops for 451, leaving only 116 families which are yet to be rehabilitated. Similarly, of the 2,064 families to be displaced from 27 villages, 2,034 have been paid compensation for the land and houses to be submerged, Tyagi says.

The dam would affect 9,290 families in 107 villages of which 27 villages will be completely submerged and 80 partially 8212; only the agricultural land of the villagers will be submerged and not the residential localities. The villages, according to Tyagi, are being rehabilitated at 11 different places in Hardwar and Dehradun districts.

Villagers, however, dispute his claim by saying they were being given too little to compensate their land. THDC officials claim that as against only 6.9 per cent irrigated land of the evacuees, they were being provided 100 per cent irrigated land. But the dispute on the area and cost of the land still rages on. Villagers also resent THDC8217;s definition of partially affected8217; villages. 8220;If our land is submerged, what will we eat,8221; asks N.S. Gairola.

Tehri district administration and THDC officials both contend that they have already paid the compensation as per the survey conducted on June 6, 1985. But, a number of pending litigations in various courts falsify their claims. THDC officials attribute the disputes on the greediness of the local people. Some people still living in their original houses in Tehri town or village, had already sold off the land or house given to them as compensation, only to haggle for more, they contend.

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The THDC8217;s major hurdle in making the dam functional is displacing the original inhabitants. The officials tried to scare away the people in the past two years by raising the bogey of floods due to construction of the coffer dam. 8220;In case of heavy rains in the catchment area or upstream in the river, there is a distinct possibility of once in a century flash floods, thus wiping out the entire Tenri town,8221; Tyagi warned in a letter to the Uttar Pradesh and the Union Government.

Bahuguna calls the threat of floods a hoax meant to scare away the residents of Tehri town. 8220;My residence, Himalaya Kuti, is at the lowest point in the entire valley. If there are floods I will be the first to get affected. But, I am not running away from such hollow threats. The town is at a height of 700 metres from sea level while the coffer dam is only 661 metres high8221; he says.

The THDC officials hope that Tehri residents will eventually vacate the place before the tunnels are closed and the water level swells in the valley after completion of the dam. 8220;We have got three and a half years to persuade them to vacate the place and we hope to succeed8221; says an official engaged in rehabilitation work.