Recommending scrapping of two controversial hydro-power projects in Karnataka and Kerala that had run into difficulty due to opposition from environmentalists, the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) has suggested setting up of a statutory authority to protect the Ghats.

The report of the panel, headed by Madhav Gadgil, formerly with the Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore, has called for cancellation of Karnataka's Gundia and Kerala's Athirapally hydro-projects, and gradual phasing out of mining activities in ecologically highly-sensitive areas of Goa by 2016.

SIVASAGAR: Continuing its protest against construction of mega dams at the site of Lower Subansiri Hydroelectric Power Project, Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), the Sivasagar district unit led by its district general secretary Raju Gogoi, advisor Lu-chun-Shyam Gohain, publicity secretary Jadumoni Bora and Nari Mukti Sangram Samiti, Sivasagar district president and sister of the peasant leader Akhil Gogoi, Ambika Gogoi Saikia today, led a procession from the Boarding Field here to Sivasagar DC Court, and staged a dharna demanding immediate halt to the construction of the dam.

A team of TN public works department (PWD) engineers will visit Mullaperiyar Thursday to fill holes dug by experts to study structural safety of the dam.

Principal secretary (PWD) M. Saikumar said the work would be completed in four days starting Thursday. The experts appointed by a Supreme Court-constituted empowered committee (EC), which studied safety of the 116-year-old structure, reportedly dug seven six-inch wide and 130-190-foot deep holes across the 1,200-foot main dam.

The Hindustan Construction Company (HCC), is executing a 300 MW Kishanganga power project in Bandipora district of occupied Kashmir, despite a warning by the Centre for Inter-disciplinary Studies of Mountain & Hill Environment (CISMHE), New Delhi, of terrible anti-environmental dangers of the project. A report, prepared by CISMHE on Kishanganga, clearly pointed to the issues like environmental degradation and the impact on water quality of Bandipora.

GUWAHATI: The All Assam Lawyers’ Association has slammed Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi for his statement on Akhil Gogoi’s hunger strike in the city.

The Chief Minister dismissed Akhil’s protest stating that the government was not going to invite him for talks. The Chief Minister stated, “Akhil’s protest had political motives. But we are not going to invite him for talks.” General Secretary of the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS) Akhil Gogoi, who has been leading the anti-big dam campaign in the State, started his indefinite hunger strike in the city from May 19.

Agitated over the State government's plan to allow sand quarrying again at the dry Nambiyar riverbed in the district, residents of various villages in Radhapuram taluk submitted a petition to Collector R. Selvaraj on Monday against the move.

Unlike the Tamirabarani, the Nambiar would very rarely experience flood even during active monsoon. Naturally, sand deposit on this riverbed is not so dense and deep.

Environmentalists have slammed the environmental impact report of the controversial Mae Wong Dam, saying it was poorly conducted and underestimated the likely damage to wildlife and forest ecology.

The project's Environmental and Health Impact Assessment (Ehia) study was put up for final public review at a forum in Lat Yao district yesterday.

Around 1,000 people and some veteran environmentalists attended the forum, organised by Creative Technology Consultant, which was commissioned by the Royal Irrigation Department (RID) to conduct the study.

GUWAHATI: The All Assam Shramik Krishak Kalyan Parishad (AASKKP) has decried the role of the State Government and the police in the atrocities being meted out on anti-dam protesters at Lakhimpur and Dhemaji district. In a meeting of the central executive committee of the workers’ body held in Guwahati today, the alleged police atrocities on the anti-dam protesters was strongly condemned.

NEW DELHI: Union Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal on Monday said there was “nothing to suggest” that China was building dams to divert the waters of the Brahmaputra river towards its northern regions.

Replying to supplementary questions in the Rajya Sabha, Bansal said India has been assured by the Chinese government that all dams being built on rivers that flow into India are only for generating electricity, and will not store water.