HYDERABAD: The Forest Advisory Committee of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests granted Forest Clearance permission for the construction of Keshavapuram reservoir, meant for meeting the drinking water needs of Hyderabad on a permanent basis. The reservoir, which will have 10 tmcft capacity, would be filled upto five tmcft twice a year with water from Kaleshwaram’s Kondapochamma reservoir.
This is one of the conditions laid down by the FAC for according Forest Clearance permission to the Telangana government. The State government has to furnish an undertaking to this effect, mainly for the purpose of forest conservation.
Construction of the reservoir will come at a heavy environmental cost as it will require clearing 409.53 hectares of Keshavapuram Reserved Forest, including chopping down as many as 1,39,274 of trees.
According to the minutes of the FAC meeting accessed by Express, the State government informed the FAC that even though the proposal is for a 10 tmcft reservoir, only five tmcft water could be stored in it at any given time and the reservoir will be filled twice annually, thus reducing the requirement of forest land.
The Compensatory Afforestation (CA) in lieu of the forest land that will be lost will be 424.46 hectares of non-forest land in three districts of Siddipet, Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri and Suryapet.
It also laid a condition that the State government would encourage plantation of bamboo, along with tree species, in the degraded forest land proposed as compensatory afforestation. The State government submitted the necessary documents to the Centre, seeking Forest Clearance for the project in September, 2018. After various official procedures and communication exchanges, FAC considered the Keshavapuram project for discussion in its meeting held on August 18 through video conference and granted the permission.
The Keshavapuram reservoir will receive Godavari water from Kondapochamma reservoir under the KLIS.The project is envisaged in view of the projected rise in demand for drinking water of Greater Hyderabad to 1625.91 mgd (94.53 tmcft) in the year 2041, according to documents submitted for Forest Clearance by Telangana government.
