NHPC beacons for destruction of human lives

Singtam, Sikkim: It’s almost been years or so the most disputed NHPC Stage V Hydel Project has started a production of Electricity from raging Sikkim’s largest torrential river Teesta but beside production one very important thing hydel project has neglected is security of human habitats meandering along the river side’s. Thousands of people lives along the river banks, playful childrens and animals comprising of domestic & wild life who are constantly roaming along great river bank of Teesta. Some of the people are sustaining their livelihood from the river too alternative to that occupation they have no other option for survival for themselves and their families. May be crores of rupee worth power is generated from the river but what’s the value of those generated power where shaft of turbine kills innocent human lives? The violent gushing current of Teesta is ferocious which has never left anyone alive on its vicinity since many hundred years, now the trapped lakhs of cubic meter volume of water in a dam in recent times if there goes anything wrong then one can think about unscalable catastrophe raging from dam site in Singtam to plains of West Bengal. It is although know reality that the tiny himalayan piece of land Sikkim resides on top of deadly seismic zone and fault, so precaution was top priority to be given at earliest then thinking about production?
What early precautionary measures are adopted and commissioned by NHPC so far, it could just be no other written black & white promises in MoU signed with authority. Lets come to a basic thing now, has any one estimated how much water is stored up there in reservoir in the closed dam of NHPC? Alas! Not really has anyone thought about it…
The necessity is surely a mother of invention but subject to constrain about security first then comes the usages, is not it so? Busy highway NH-31 A runs parallel to the river Teesta, apparently or unfortunately there’s not a single well equipped alarm system or visible signboard which reads “Death is following you!”. Not just a highway even a residential houses which are on both sides of road from Singtam to Sevok in plain are safer in case water level goes bewildering anytime.
Sikkim is a tourist destination place as well as nearby hills of Darjeeling lives up with tourism benefits from river Teesta using it for adventure sports like rafting. In that case what precaution is made so as to notify the innocent people about sudden rise in water level or even while draining excessive water level in reservoir in dam site?
The Hindus cremate dead body in river bank a ritual which is followed since thousands of years, astonishingly there has triggered many instances where the ritual being concluded properly the body gets washed away due to sudden rise in water level of Teesta.

Source: Voice of Sikkim

Strike in Sikkim against power projects enters 577th day

The ongoing relay hunger strike by Affected Citizens of Teesta against the proposed mega hydel power projects in North Sikkim reached its 577th day on Friday. The longest protest in the history of Sikkim has not received a response from the State Government.

Mr Dawa Lepcha General Secretary of Affected Citizens of Teesta told reporters that the protest is being held to protect the indigenous Lepchas and the fragile bio-diversity of Dzongu from the mega hydel power projects. MORE...

Sreelatha Menon: A cow`s leg for tribals

An environment impact assessment report on a hydel project in Dzongu, the holy land of the Lepchas, overlooks the fact that it is banned to the outside world and falls in a biosphere reserve.

What has chastity of women, belief in spirits and gifting of a cow’s leg in marriages got to do with hydel power? One needs a consultant to give an answer.

Check this out. This is from an environment impact assessment report commissioned by a company called Teesta Urja Limited and prepared by consultants Wapcos Centre for Environment.

The consultants were asked to assess the impact that a 1,200-Mw hydel power project on Teesta river, called Teesta 3, would have on Dzongu, the ancient settlement of the Lepcha tribals in North Sikkim. The Ministry of Environment Ministry’s approval to the project depends on this report.

“Lepchas are animists (having clans named after animals, wherein they worship animals) and believe in many gods and spirits of land, water and trees.’’

The consultants definitely were confused about animism and just stopped of calling Lepchas a species of animals who could not write a consultancy report in English like them.

Teesta 3 is one of the 26-odd hydel projects for which the Sikkim government has signed agreements with sundry private companies.

About 60 per cent of Teesta 3 involves work in the holy land of Lepchas, the mountains of Dzongu.

The Lepcha youth, those who had the benefit of an English education and had transcended the “animal” existence attributed to them by the consultants, found this report hard to take. Already aggrieved by handing over of their mountains to the hydel power companies, they protested with a letter, which of course yielded no reply.

The report gives cultural details unsubstantiated by the authors and smacks of voyeurism. It says: “Among Lepchas, marriages are solemnized with the boy’s parents offering two cows, a pig, 12 chicken and a mun jad (liquor)…In the bride price, jewelery, land, cloth and a right leg of a cow is offered.”

Of course, the report’s obsession with cows matches only that of the RSS and it adds: “Gifting a leg of a cow may not be liked by their Hindu counterparts and this (?) may create discontent among the people.”

The report skips the essential fact that Dzongu is a place banned to the outside world by the government of Sikkim in order to protect the shy Lepchas and their cultural identity. It also skips the fact that it is a world heritage site and falls in the Kanchendzonga biosphere reserve and national park.

Lepchas may agree to lump the cow’s leg but this one really takes their goat. Wapcos says: “Chastity of women at the time of marriage does not hold a lot of importance. Pre-marital and extra- marital relationships are not uncommon.’’

The report concludes that the project doesn’t hurt anyone, least of all Lepchas and hence can be proceeded with, except that the workers should not mess around with the cows and the girls. The blasting of Dzongu for Teesta 3 is in full swing now.

There are 2,200 workers, which is 10 per cent of the population, and the project will last five years. Remember why Goans threw out the SEZs. But then Lepchas are not Goans.

The unlettered tribals, 1,000 in all, are moving out of nine villages of Dzongu, leaving the educated Lepcha youths to sit on a hunger strike in Gangtok which is now 200 days old, of course, with no one listening.