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Protestors halt Tehri Dam work
NEW DELHI. Dec 3S : Hugging bulldozers and camp Ing on Masting sites In bitter cold hundreds of hill people have forced work to hail on a
India dam In the foothills of the Himalayas today, reports AFP
It needed an earthquake lulling more than 1.000 pee pie to spur the artion against the three Milton -dollar Tehri Dam, which the government calls a harbinger of prosperity
The October quake, which reached 6 I on the Richter scale, transformed an anti-dam movement hitherto sustained by environmentalists and villagers threatened with displacement.
It has now become a fight of the entire hill people." said Vandana Shiva, an ecologist who recently toured the Garhwal Himalayas where India s government Is building the 280-metre high dam. one of the world s highest
"Earlier It was Juel a movement by people angry about being uprooted. After October 31. the hill people as a whole haw realised that the Impact of the dam is much more than displacement. Shiva added
"People separated by river Valleys are feeling the dam. They have seen that earthquakes are not just a figment of our imagination."
On December 14. 5.000 people led by environmental crusader Sunder lai Bahuguna met and decided to force a
halt to work on the dam located on the Bhaglrathl river, less than 50 kilometres from the epicentre of the October quake
They did 1t by ’direct action’ — clinging to massive bulldosers, blocking access routes to the dam site and moving on to hill slopes being blasted with dynamite. Shiva said
Tehri dam Is located In a regton ol great seismic activity, according to experts who predict a quake measuring 8.5 and above during the project's 35-year lifespan, releasing a force 10.000 times that of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima
On a hazard rating scale of zero to 36 prescribed by the Parle-based Commission Internationale des Orande Barrages (International commission on large dams). Tehri is a 38.
Designed to withstand a quake of an intensity of 7.2. it is sited In a sone where seismic stress has been building up for years because of the ab sence of major tremors, and the October jolt was not enough to have released the strain, experts say
"It will be stored up for the big one. which could come any time.' James Brune, a professor of geophysics at the University of Vcvada. was quoted as warning tn the New Scientist Magazine after the October quake.
Should an earthquake of eight or above strike, the protestors say, the result
would be a calaalroohlc dam burst which would kill thou sands of people aid wipe out the holy Hindu towns of Deoprayang, Munikrill. Rishlkesh and Horldwar, which arc downstream on the Ganges, of which the Bhaglrathl is a tributary
But such warnings have had no apparent effect on project authorities, who have continued blasting tunnels heedless of the tremor which devas tated the Uttar Kashi region upstream of Tehri.
Environmentalists say that a powerful lobby of politicians, builders and engineers is determined to go ahead with Tehri dam because of the mas stoe amount of contract money al stake.
The lesson did not drive home." said N D Jayal. Director of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural 1 lerltagc "And the lesson was that after the quake, the dam lost whatever legitimacy It had."
Project authorities cite the benefits: The generation of 2.400 megawatts of electricity. Irrigation facilities for 270.000 hectares of land and the daily supply of 162 million gallons of waler lo New Delhi.
But on the down side would be the submergence of Tehri town and 112 surrounding villages. the destruction of fragile ecosystems and the ousting of 100.000 people from their lands.
Critics die another reason for scrapping the project: The fact that it was lo be financed
with Soviet funds which India can no longer be sure of getting after the Soviet Union's dlslntcgrattms.
The dam to being built by default on the assumption ths money will still come.' Shiva said. The government talks of doing away with sick public sector units. This project to the sickest of them all'
5 P Singh. Chairman of the project, said dam authorities still hoped Russia would come up with the (undo pledged by the Soviet Union.
"There Is no Indication from the Russian side that they would not fulfil their past <-ommitmcnl.' he said 'Even if they don't. there will be many other countries arllling to help.'
The October quake, he said, was also no reason lo slop con slructlon and ruled out scrap ping the dam. although he did confirm that work had temporarily slopped.
The dam has already come up lo a height of 29 metres from the foundation It is a reality," Singh said, adding it would be ready by 1996 or 1997. Ilfs remarks reflected what activists call a "save the dam at any cost" attitude, despite what they sec as a potent message from the earth
The people are on Ihe other hand saying save us " said Shiva, who warned that the hill people may lake up arms If the government does not heed their peaceful protests.