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By N P Chekkutty In a move that's being hailed by environmentalists, the Kerala government has decided to set up a 148 sq km buffer zone around the Silent Valley National Park, home to a rich variety of flora and fauna. This should put to rest fears of a new hydel power generation project coming up in the area
The Kerala government's decision to declare the area around the Silent Valley National Park a buffer zone has given the country's environment movement a major boost. The buffer zone comprises an area of 148 sq km of forest land adjoining the park, providing protection to the region's rich and varied plant and animal life. Declared a national park in 1984, Silent Valley encompasses 89.52 sq km of reserved forest land in the ecologically strategic Nilgiri biosphere region. Its boundaries were fixed in 1914, taking various administrative and legal aspects into consideration, although the park's natural habitat extends much beyond the park area. If human encroachment and development activities were allowed in the surrounding areas, it would spell doom for the Silent Valley National Park . This point is stressed by both environment activists and government agencies connected with the forest. The Left Democratic Front government in Kerala that came to power in 1997 made a commitment in its draft forest policy, released a few months ago, that the area surrounding the Silent Valley National Park would be declared a buffer zone in order to protect this ecologically fragile national treasure. Forest Minister Benoy Viswam has been passionately committed to protecting the park, although there was some resistance from within the government to the proposal. Opponents of the proposal were led by A K Balan, Minister for Electricity Generation, who was campaigning for a new hydel power generation project in the vicinity, called the Pathrakkadavu Hydel Power Project (PHPP). The Pathrakkadavu project was first proposed in 2004 by the earlier Congress-led government. But it faced stiff opposition from various government agencies and environment groups from within the state and outside. The reason was simple: the PHPP was a watered down version of the Silent Valley Hydel Power Project of the 1970s that became the focus of an environmental movement in the country that attracted national and international attention. The Silent Valley movement, which raged from the mid-'70s until the early-'80s, was the first major rallying point in the country's ecological movement. It came to a successful conclusion only when then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi decided to declare the valley a national park. The PHPP, envisaged by the Kerala State Electricity Board, was projected as an environment-friendly initiative necessitated by increasing power shortages in the state. It was designed as a run-of-the-river hydel power generation scheme, channelling water from the Kunthipuzha over a 2.5 km stretch, with an installed capacity of 70 MW in the first phase (105 MW in the final phase) and generating around 214 million units of energy from a 64.4 metre high dam. The total area of forest land to be submerged by the dam was a minimal 4.10 ha, according to the project report. A subsequent study, however, showed that the actual submergence would be greater, at 22.16 ha, though this figure is small compared to the 830 ha of tropical evergreen forest that would have perished if the original Silent Valley project had been implemented, argue proponents of the PHPP. A rapid Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), carried out in 2004 in a 5 km radius of the proposed project site, however, revealed that the impact of the project would not be as minimal or as simple as was being made out. The most important objection raised by environmental groups was that any development activity in the region would destroy the fragile ecological balance and eventually spell doom for the park. The significance of Silent Valley is that it is an 'ecological island' with a relatively undisturbed evolutionary history of at least 50 million years, manifested in a high degree of floral and faunal endemism. Rare and endangered new biological species have been discovered in the region, making it a hotspot for biologists around the world. Any intervention in the park or the surrounding areas would be disastrous, say the project's opponents. The government-sponsored EIA report also highlighted the ecological significance of the Pathrakkadavu region. It found 381 species of flowering plants in the proposed PHPP region, of which 55 were endemic to the Western Ghats . Seven have been categorised as rare by the IUCN. The EIA also listed 23 species of mammals, 79 species of birds, 22 species of reptiles, 14 species of amphibians, 18 species of fish (of which 10 are not found in Silent Valley), and 43 species of butterflies in the region. The report pointed out that of all the species, 20% were endemic to the Western Ghats . Ecologists like Dr V S Vijayan, then Director of the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology, Coimbatore , argued that the rapid environmental impact study was inadequate as it was carried out too quickly. In order to properly assess the region's biological diversity, the study must include multi-seasonal sampling. What is significant, however, is that even the rapid study could not conceal the biological uniqueness of the Pathrakkadavu region. This prompted Kerala's LDF government, when it came to power in May 2006, to take a fresh look at the issue and to declare its intention of creating a buffer zone around Silent Valley . This decision has been strongly backed both by the scientific community and the government at the Centre. The Ministry of Forests and Environment (MoEF) has promised to double its financial support for Silent Valley, which currently stands at around Rs 30 crore annually, in the event of the state setting up a buffer zone. A 1979 proposal by Dr M S Swaminathan, then Secretary in the Department of Agriculture, had called for a National Rainforest Biosphere Reserve in the region, bringing together 39,000 ha of forest land falling within Silent Valley (8,952 ha), New Amarambalam Reserve (800 ha), Attappadi Reserve Forest (12,000 ha), all in Kerala, and the Kunda forests (10,000 ha) in Tamil Nadu. Forest officials in the Kerala government assert that with Cabinet approval for a buffer zone around Silent Valley , the KSEB's Pathrakkadavu power project is as good as shelved, although Kerala's electricity minister maintains it will go ahead. Perhaps one of the more important reasons for the change in public mood is a proposal to engage the tribal population in nine settlements in the region as major stakeholders, and involve them in environmentally sustainable projects inside the zone. (N P Chekkutty is a journalist based in Kerala) InfoChange News & Features, July 2007
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