Karnataka - Mysore   

People ready for struggle against thermal power plant

Special Correspondent

500 attend the first public meeting against the project

Threat to environment: Former Minister M. Shivanna and people of Chamalapura and surrounding villages atop the Malleshwara Betta on Thursday surveying the valley below where a thermal power plant is to be established.

MYSORE: Battle lines have been drawn and the people are ready for a long-drawn struggle against the proposed coal-based thermal power plant at Chamalapura, about 30 km from Mysore.

Former Minister M. Shivanna along with members of the Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore launched the first of a series of public meetings to mobilise opinion against the project.

More than 500 people attended the meeting and apprised themselves of the perils of the power plant and vowed to fight and defend their land at all costs. “We will give up our life but not our land” was the general refrain of the people of Chamalapura and surrounding villages.

The project needs over 3,000 acres of land and 20,000 people will be directly affected as they will be evicted from the region. While farmers are concerned about their survival, the project has larger implications that will affect lakhs of people living in the Cauvery and Kabini valleys.

For, the commissioning of Chamalapura thermal power plant fuelled by coal may alter the scene irretrievably not only for Mysore district, but the entire Western Ghats region and beyond, according to experts who are apprehensive about the project.

Pointing out the various possibilities and consequences of the thermal power plant at Chamalapura, they said it would be unmitigated disaster for the region. It was pointed out that worldwide, there is widespread opposition to coal-based thermal power plants as they are the principle agents that contribute to the deposition of sulphuric and nitrogen compounds that are deposited in vast quantity in the atmosphere, according to Lakshman, chairman, Mysore chapter of The Institution of Engineers.

The fly ash that is generated in the thermal plants and released into the air have a very high temperature and when it is carried by wind and spreads over a radius of 100 km and more the ambient temperature of the surrounding region rises to alter the local climatic conditions and Mysore region may become a furnace during summer, according to environmentalists.

Again, the ash and carbon deposited in the atmosphere mingles with water vapour and comes down in the form of acid rain during monsoon. In the process, rain water harvesting which is being promoted as a panacea for drinking water scarcity, will have to be abandoned as acid rain will make it unfit for consumption. The 3,000-acre land required for the plant will also include large tracts of forests that will be used to dump coal. The run offs during rainy season will flow into the rivers and fields and destroy the ecosystem of the Cauvery and Kabini valleys and the surrounding forests of Bandipur and Nagarahole.

It is pertinent to note that 47 thermal power stations were blacklisted by the Government in China for not confirming with the environmental regulations.

But despite apprehensions, there is little by way of information about the project in public domain on Chamalapura.

Meanwhile, a senior Government official confided that apart from 3,000 acres of land, the project proponents may also acquire about 800 acres of forests.

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