Forest Advisory Committee recommends scrapping 1,500 MW Tipaimukh project in the North East

NEW DELHI: The controversial 1,500 MW Tipaimukh hydroelectric power project located in Manipur and Mizoram looks unlikely to get off the ground in the light of a decision by the forest advisory committee, the statutory approval panel.


The committee turned down a proposal for the diversion of 1,550 hectares of forest land required for the project in Mizoram at its last meeting in August.

Earlier, at the July meeting of the committee, the panel had turned down the diversion of 22,777.50 hectares of forest land in Manipur. Together, the decisions are likely to close the door on the joint venture project of NHPC, Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam and the Manipur government that had been criticised for the high environmental and social costs that it entailed.

There are diplomatic objections as well to the project on the Barak river, with Bangladesh saying that the dam would dry up rivers and water bodies downstream, adversely affecting agriculture and food security in the north-eastern areas of the neighbouring country.

Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan will take a final decision on the fate of the project. The forest advisory committee was of the view that the felling of more than 7.8 million trees in Manipur alone was not justified. The Mizoram segment of the project represents a small part of the entire area covered by the project.

“This project requires 24,329 hectares of forest land, which is more than one-fifth of the total 118,184 hectares of forest land diverted for execution of 497 hydel project in the entire country after the Forest Conservation Act came into force,” according to the minutes of the committee meeting that have just been made public.

The forest clearance panel has already recommended that power companies explore the possibility of smaller dams requiring lower volumes of forest diversion in the area.

Deliberations on the Tipaimukh project were taken up by the committee over two successive meetings.

“The FAC after detailed deliberations concluded that requirement of forest land for the project is large and is disproportionate to its power generation capacity. Also very high ecological, environmental and social impact/cost of the diversion of the vast tract of forest land will far outweigh the benefits likely to accrue from the project. The FAC, therefore, strongly recommended that approval for diversion of the said forest land should not be accorded,” the July meeting’s minutes said.

The Central Electricity Authority gave the project its techno-economic clearance in July 2003, while the public investment board gave its approval in January 2006. The environment clearance was granted by the environment ministry in October 2008. The project has faced opposition from civil society, conservationists and residents of the area.