NEW DELHI: A sense of disquiet prevails in Multhan village (Barot region) in the mountainous Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh ever since a penstock burst in the 25 MW Lambadug Hydroelectric Power Project (LHEP) and flooded it on May 10. A penstock is a channel or pipe for sending water to a hydroelectric power station. The project is being executed by the Megha Engineering and Infrastructure Ltd (MEIL) on the Lambadug river, a tributary of the Uhal river.
The flash flood swept through the village and market, causing large scale damage to the properties of locals and agricultural fields. Thankfully, there was no loss of human life.
People are worried as their pristine but fragile mountains are dotted with over 50 small and medium hydropower projects. They say many of the projects have had inadequate environmental impact assessment (EIA) studies besides negligence and violation of safety guidelines and environmental norms by the project proponents.
The LHEP was commissioned in February 2024. Locals suspect that the executing agencies compromised on EIA studies to complete the project in a short duration.
Tragic day
On that dreadful morning, as villagers started their daily routine, they suddenly heard screams and a number of alarming whistles from village habitations located just above Multhan market.
“I had just removed my shop’s shutter when I heard a loud alert to run away as flash floods were approaching,” said Mala Devi, 45, a grocery shop owner at Multhan market. “Within a few minutes, water started gushing through our shops, alleys and roads along with boulders and muck. The situation was chaotic as we all started running helter-skelter to save our lives. For the next 11 hours, we watched helplessly from a safe distance as flood water rushed through shops and houses and finally swept away our slope agricultural fields and produce,” she explained over phone.
A local team then went up to the site and found the penstock pipe was leaking. The flood was because of some damage in the project tunnel or the penstock. All muck and boulders were dumped in the open on slopes while constructing a forebay and tunnel and installing the penstock. The breach in the penstock swept those boulders and muck downstream. Another disaster in the upcoming monsoon season cannot be ruled out if corrective steps are not taken immediately.
“The project proponents did not come to the site immediately even after repeated calls on May 10 to help plug the leak," complained Sanjiv Thakur, deputy village head. The local police arrived in the afternoon. After a while, JCBs were brought in to clear the area and allow the water to flow out but the seepage continued, he further explained. Later that night, there were reports of falling rocks and mudslides near the project. The sludge from the flash flood buried all crops such as potato, barley, garlic etc. The muck also entered homes, shops and alleys in the affected stretch of about 500 metres.
“My grocery shop was totally buried under the sludge. I was not able to rescue any of my belongings or valuables,” said Ashok Kumar, 47, another resident.
Over 100 villagers signed a joint letter to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Harikesh Meena, Director (Energy), Himachal Pradesh to fix MEIL’s accountability and provide compensation for the damages. MEIL was recently in the news for its humongous donations to political parties through electoral bonds. An FIR was also registered on the matter at the Baijnath Police station on May 10.
According to the FIR, during the testing of the project three months ago, a similar leak was noticed. But the company had assured the locals that it had been fixed. The affected people allege the use of substandard construction materials and compromises in the quality of the civil works. Villagers also reported that muck dumped on open slopes damaged the local flora and crops. Besides, water sources in other villages along the alignment of the tunnel were also affected. Initially, the local administration distributed relief materials such as food, tents and some cash. Later, the MEIL gave some compensation.
Fact finding report
A report of a three-member fact finding team of the Himdhara Collective, a non-profit, which visited the village and the project site, said that the flooding was a clear case of extreme and criminal negligence by the LHEP executing agencies.
The report states that “A series of violations seem to have taken place from planning to execution that need detailed assessment.” Additionally, it observed non-transparency and lack of accountability with regard to the project information in the public domain. An official report on the Ministry of Environment & Climate Change (MoEFCC) website stated that the environment clearance letter for the project was not available.
Further, the report points out that the project seems to have undergone some changes in design from the time of clearance. However, there is no clarity on whether the relevant permissions were obtained for these changes in the project from the Expert Appraisal Committee of the MoEFCC as well as Technical Clearances from the relevant agencies. The report mentioned the project’s allotment of a paltry Rs 15 lakh for its disaster management plan, adding it had no disaster risk assessment as far as the tunnel and dam site were concerned.
“The EIA report is shoddy as is commonplace of such assessments,” says Manshi Asher, an environmental justice activist and researcher, who was part of the fact finding team of the Himdhara Collective.
Not the first time
On the Uhl river in 2020, the penstocks of a 100 MW Uhl III project at Lad Bhadol similarly burst during testing leading to flooding of downstream power houses. The Himdhara Collective had earlier carried out similar investigations, like the 100 MW Sorang Project, Parbati II project and the 180 MW Bajoli Project (Chamba). It has also been documenting the short and long term impacts of hydropower proliferation in Himachal Pradesh.
“These incidents show that not only mega projects but small and medium projects, too, can cause both short and long term disastrous impacts in the fragile Himalayan ecosystem and changing climatic conditions of the region,” said Himanshu Thakkar of the South Asia Network of Dams and People. “A credible and independent EIA is the need of the hour to avoid disaster,” he added.
