Indian Citizens' / Netizens' Forum

[Indian]

Campaign against Coal Based Thermal Power Plant project at Chamalapura Mysore

http://www.petitiononline.com/coalbase/

http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/16/stories/2007061653690500.htm

Chamalapura valley under threat

R. Krishna Kumar

Coal-based thermal power project likely to render a large number of families landless

A VALLEY IN DANGER: A view of the valley around Chamalapura from atop the Malleshwara Betta. The valley faces danger as a thermal power plant is likely to come up in the area.



CHAMALAPURA (Mysore District): A drive up Malleshwara Betta provides a bird’s eye view of the valley below that is lush green with sugarcane fields and coconut trees.

The contours of Chamundi Hills are clearly visible from here. It is at a distance of 16 km as the crow flies. Towards southwest, you get a stunning view of the Western Ghats beyond which lies Wyanad on the one side and Kodagu on the other.

Within a radius of 35 km from Chamalapura is the pristine valley of Kodagu, and to its northeast is the tourist centre of Mysore that has been identified as the “least polluted” among cities Indian cities.

To the north of Chamalapura, over 2,000 elephants and other animals such as tigers and leopards and over 300 species of birds thrive in the jungles of Bandipur and Nagarahole national parks. In short, the region surrounding Chamalapura is a treasure trove of biodiversity apart from being endowed with a rich cultural heritage.

So it is not for nothing that Chamalapura is called “Kanasugarara Kanive” (dreamer’s valley) in local parlance. But the Government is pushing ahead with a coal-based thermal power plant here. It says, “the proposed project site is situated in an area without any forest and has a thin population and minimum impact on the environment is expected.”

The stage is set for another confrontation on the lines of Nandigrama in West Bengal, according to the people of Chamalapura who have vowed not to part with their land. “We will give up our lives but not our land” is their stand. The first of a series of public meetings planned against the project was held on Thursday in Chamalapura that is located in H.D. Kote taluk. The meeting convened by the former Minister and Congress leader M. Shivanna, Institute of Engineers Mysore Chapter president M. Lakshman, and members of the Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore highlighted the perils out of the thermal power plant coming up in the area.

The people of Chamalapura have been kept in the dark about the project that will provide power to distant Bangalore. The Government’s Expression of Interest from power-generating companies has drawn response from 30 companies, including Tata Power, Reliance Energy, NTPC and Lanco. The proposed power project is to be built on public-private partnership and will require 3,000 acres of land that will be acquired from farmers.

The project is likely to affect more than 20,000 people who will be rendered landless. It has major environmental and cultural ramifications over which there has been no debate, and the Government has not conducted any public hearing nor has it carried out the mandatory Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA).

The project requires not less than a million litres of water a day, which will be drawn from the Kabini, and over 600 tonnes of coal to operate the plant.

The environmental impact of the project is enormous as the valley surrounding Chamalapura is a catchment area for the Cauvery and the Kabini. The slurry from the thermal plant and tonnes of coal used to fuel the plant in open yards will pollute the rivers and jeopardise the existence of thousands of people living in the downstream of the two rivers.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. The southwest monsoon winds from here drive clouds towards Mysore and the discharge of fly ash from the power plant will result in acid rain.

While the Government is trying to promote the project, the negative impact on wildlife, flora and fauna, the rivers and lakhs of people within the vicinity including Mysore city, which is a tourist paradise seems to have been ignored. The public is waking up to the grim reality.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/15/stories/2007061550390300.htm

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.

http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=40601

Villagers protest Chamalapura thermal project

Mysore, June 19: As many as 1,000 villagers, including women, today took out a silent march to protest against the proposed Rs 5,500 crore Chamalapura Thermal Power Plant project, near here.

The protest, organised by Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore (ACICM), submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner urging the state government to halt the project, which would be detrimental to environment and health.

Addressing the protestors, the former Minister M Shivanna said they should be ready to sacrifice their lives but not their fertile lands. Maintaining that he was not against the project, he urged the government to set up the project in a barren area and not on cultivated lands.

--- UNI

http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Jun272007/district200706269611.asp

Chamalapura project: indefenite fast planned from July 5

Mysore, DHNS:

The Association of Concerned and Informed Citizens of Mysore (ACICM), which is spearheading the agitation against the proposed thermal power plant at Chamalapura near here, on Tuesday decided to launch a fast-unto-death protest in front of the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Bangalore, to draw the attention of the powers that be to the ill-effects of the project on the ecology in the region.

This was announced by at a meeting called by ACICM in the city, by its convenor M Lakshmana.

Vijaykumar Hegde, President of the anti-Nagarjuna power plant committee, Udupi, who spoke on the occasion, explained the demerits of a coal-based plant and said that the whole concept was redundant in an age whe concerns are being expressed over the disaster called global warming contributed to by the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon-di-oxide that coal-based power plants emit in large quantities.

http://www.newkerala.com/news5.php?action=fullnews&id=39722

Proposed Thermal plant to be hazardous to environment: MP


Mysore, June 16: People's movement against the proposed Rs 5,500 crore Thermal Power Plant (TPP) at Chamalapura village in H D Kote taluk in the district is gaining momentum with BJP Member of Parliament C M Vijayakumar rising his voice against the project today.

Talking to reporters here, he said "as peoples representative in the Parliament I will oppose it cent per cent and will not allow the Plant which is hazardous to environment to come up".

He said he would seek the detailed information from the Deputy Commissioner on the proposed plant and would talk to Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy urging him to drop the project.

The project would pose a great danger to the environment of Mysore in particular district in general. "We have Nagarahole, Bandipur National Parks, Raganathittu Birds Sanctuary, Zoo gardens, Chamundi Hills and water bodies around us. The airport also coming up. The power plant would have hazardous effect on the environment", the MP said.

The Karnataka Power Corporation Authorities implementing the project without consulting the local bodies. Even, he was prepared to sacrifice his MP seat for the cause of the people, he declared.

--- UNI

http://green.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-overview.html?source=G2300&kwid=ContentNetwork

What Is Global Warming?

http://green.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-overview.html?

The Planet is Heating Up—and Fast
Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are drying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace. It's becoming clear that humans have caused most of the past century's warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives. Called greenhouse gases, their levels are higher now than in the last 650,000 years.

SEE HOW IT WORKS http://green.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/gw-overview-interactive.html

We call the result global warming, but it is causing a set of changes to the Earth's climate, or long-term weather patterns, that varies from place to place. As the Earth spins each day, the new heat swirls with it, picking up moisture over the oceans, rising here, settling there. It's changing the rhythms of climate that all living things have come to rely upon.

What will we do to slow this warming? How will we cope with the changes we've already set into motion? While we struggle to figure it all out, the face of the Earth as we know it—coasts, forests, farms and snow-capped mountains—hangs in the balance.

Greenhouse effect

The "greenhouse effect" is the warming that happens when certain gases in Earth's atmosphere trap heat. These gases let in light but keep heat from escaping, like the glass walls of a greenhouse.

First, sunlight shines onto the Earth's surface, where it is absorbed and then radiates back into the atmosphere as heat. In the atmosphere, “greenhouse” gases trap some of this heat, and the rest escapes into space. The more greenhouse gases are in the atmosphere, the more heat gets trapped.

Scientists have known about the greenhouse effect since 1824, when Joseph Fourier calculated that the Earth would be much colder if it had no atmosphere. This greenhouse effect is what keeps the Earth's climate livable. Without it, the Earth's surface would be an average of about 60 degrees Fahrenheit cooler. In 1895, the Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius discovered that humans could enhance the greenhouse effect by making carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. He kicked off 100 years of climate research that has given us a sophisticated understanding of global warming.

Levels of greenhouse gases (GHGs) have gone up and down over the Earth's history, but they have been fairly constant for the past few thousand years. Global average temperatures have stayed fairly constant over that time as well, until recently. Through the burning of fossil fuels and other GHG emissions, humans are enhancing the greenhouse effect and warming Earth.

Scientists often use the term "climate change" instead of global warming. This is because as the Earth's average temperature climbs, winds and ocean currents move heat around the globe in ways that can cool some areas, warm others, and change the amount of rain and snow falling. As a result, the climate changes differently in different areas.

Aren’t temperature changes natural?

The average global temperature and concentrations of carbon dioxide (one of the major greenhouse gases) have fluctuated on a cycle of hundreds of thousands of years as the Earth's position relative to the sun has varied. As a result, ice ages have come and gone.

However, for thousands of years now, emissions of GHGs to the atmosphere have been balanced out by GHGs that are naturally absorbed. As a result, GHG concentrations and temperature have been fairly stable. This stability has allowed human civilization to develop within a consistent climate.

Occasionally, other factors briefly influence global temperatures. Volcanic eruptions, for example, emit particles that temporarily cool the Earth's surface. But these have no lasting effect beyond a few years. Other cycles, such as El Niño, also work on fairly short and predictable cycles.

Now, humans have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by more than a third since the industrial revolution. Changes this large have historically taken thousands of years, but are now happening over the course of decades.

Why is this a concern?

The rapid rise in greenhouse gases is a problem because it is changing the climate faster than some living things may be able to adapt. Also, a new and more unpredictable climate poses unique challenges to all life.

Historically, Earth's climate has regularly shifted back and forth between temperatures like those we see today and temperatures cold enough that large sheets of ice covered much of North America and Europe. The difference between average global temperatures today and during those ice ages is only about 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit), and these swings happen slowly, over hundreds of thousands of years.

Now, with concentrations of greenhouse gases rising, Earth's remaining ice sheets (such as Greenland and Antarctica) are starting to melt too. The extra water could potentially raise sea levels significantly.

As the mercury rises, the climate can change in unexpected ways. In addition to sea levels rising, weather can become more extreme. This means more intense major storms, more rain followed by longer and drier droughts (a challenge for growing crops), changes in the ranges in which plants and animals can live, and loss of water supplies that have historically come from glaciers.

Scientists are already seeing some of these changes occurring more quickly than they had expected. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, eleven of the twelve hottest years since thermometer readings became available occurred between 1995 and 2006.
_________________
Sd/-

Administrator