& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Tehri dam an invitation to disaster
NEW DELHI. July 19: Indian / conservationists are push Ing the government to scrap a huge. Soviet-aided dam In the Himalayas where experts believe an earthquake with the force of 10.000 atom bombs is waiting to strike, reports AFP
But they are fighting a powerful lobby of politicians engl neers and builders deter mined to make the three billion dollar Tehrf Dam a reality.
ND Jayal. Director of the Natural Heritage Cell at the Indian National Truat for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). calls the project an invitation to disaster
The dam should be built to withstand a quake strong enough to uproot and throw objects Into the air. but has been hopelessly under-de signed he said
Seismologies believe a quake with a magnitude of 8.5 on the Meher Scale la almost a certainty during the lifetime of the Dam Such a quake would unleash the same energy as 10.000
ptodM at the same time
The dam has been designed to withstand an earthquake of magnitude to 7.2. Jayal said, but an earthquake of 8.S would unleash 300 times as much energy
"Imagine you are sitting tn a room where a bomb drops and maybe you are either not hurt or escape with tn jury." said Jayal whose or ganiaation is at the forefront of a campaign against the project.
Then imagine a bomb 300 times as powerful drops Then what happens? To proceed with the dam is an act of great folly It to a total subversion of the environ mental system. It would have catastrophic consequences'.
Last week. Jayal sent missives urging a second look at the dam's design to practically all top government officials, from the President and the Prime Minister on down
He acted after project author! ties approached the Finance Ministry's public investments board for an approval that would open up the gw eminent'* coffers Project ■uthorltie* and builders fol lowed up with large news paper advertisements ex tolling the "necklace of the
They cited the dam a benefit*, including the generation of 2.400 megawatt* of elec tricity the creation of trrl nation facilities for 270 000 hectares (667 000 acres) of land, and the dally supply of 162 million gallons of water daily to New Delhi
SP Singh, chairman of the Tehrl Hydro Development Corporation, said In a statement he was confident the new Indian government would grant approval, and vowed to complete the project by 1995
Opponents of the dam are disheartened enough to believe the project will ultimately go through thanks to the powerful support tt enjoys from politicians and the bureaucracy
But they have the experts on thetr side tn the campaign against the rock and earth fill dam. located at a height of 260 metres (860 feet) In the foothill* of the
Soviet setomologlat VI Keth* Borok. President of the International Unton of Geodesy and Geophysics, and US expert JN Brune have both testified to the
Delhi to go ahead art th the project by agreeing to fi nance tt in IMS. but Soviet experts were unanimous that the Tehrl Dam re qutred "serious reconalder atinn". Borok wrote to a let ter to Jayal.
Brune.who paid a recent visit to India, said In an article he wrote for an INTACH publication that the dam s location was one of the most hazardous from the point of view of earthquakes
The risk factor was "extreme." he said
On the hazard rating scale of zero to 36 prescribed by the Paris baaed Commission Internationals Des Grande Barrages (International Commission on Large Dams), the Tehrl Dam rates □a
Jayal said that should an earthquake strike, the re- ( suit would be a catastrophic' lain burst which would kill millions of people and wipe out the Hindu holy towns of Deoprayag. Muntkirlti. Rlahlkeah and Hardwar. which He downstream along the Ganges river
Eight major earthquakea of 7.5 or stronger and many leas powerful ones have oc cunvd along the Himalayan front over the peat century, and thousands are believed to have died tn a 1803
Tehrl region
We should ask ourselves for whom is the dam la being built."