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Prepared and Presented By :• Coorg Wildlife Society• Kaveri Sene• Kodagu Basava Devarbana Samrakshana Samithi• Raitha Sangha• Wayanad Prakruti Samrakshana Samiti• Our Own Nature, Wayanad

Elimination of 1 lakh trees for power line in Wayanad (Kerala) and Kodagu (Karnataka ) by Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd

Coffee Estates of Kodagu have been protecting these large trees for centuries.

There are an estimated number of 350 old growth trees per hectare ( Ref : College of Forestry, Ponnampet) in these estates. Sightings of large mammals like elephants and Gaur are common. Tigers and leopards are also sighted.

In Nov 2013, the Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) cleared 4.55 Km of thick forests in Doddaharve, Dubbare, Devamachi divisions of forest in Kodagu- Mysore district to give way for 400 Kv DC power line from Kaiga to Kozhikode.

• 4.55 km (23.166 hectares) of moist deciduous forests cleared in Kodagu-Mysore districts• FC clearance was for 52 m wide clearance and PGCIL cleared close to 80m width. The

actual requirement is just 30 m clearance as per PGCIL

• The govt claim is they have just cleared 2500 trees. • Govt estimates 350 trees per hectare in coffee estates in these regions . Hence , 23.166

hectares of forests should have a minimum of 8000 trees .• 30 km of coffee estates have an estimated number of 54,000 trees. ( 30 km long, 52 m wide =

156 hectares x 350 trees)• There are roughly 350 different species of endemic trees in coffee estates alone.

PGCIL Claims 2,247 trees, DCF of Virajpet has submitted 21,000 trees to NGT, and activists who have done GPS mapping and scientific data analysis confirms 55,000 trees

In 2011 , another 40 hectares of tropical wet evergreen forests in the North Wayanad, South Wayanad and Kozhikode districts were cleared for Kaiga--Kozhikode line

• Science estimates 800-1000 trees per acre of tropical wet evergreen forests• Assuming 500 trees per acre, 40 hectares of forests roughly adds to cutting of

50,000 trees in Kerala• Official figures from Kerala were not provided in spite of filing an RTI

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• Sharing interstate border of Karnataka and Kerala, Kodagu and Wayanad have similar topography• East sloping from the Western Ghats, Wayanad’s forests are the origins of 3 rivers (Panamaram

river, Mananthavady river and Thirunelli river ) that eventually flows as Kabini• Hence, Wayanad and Kodagu are main source of river Cauvery that provides food and water

security to over 80 million people in peninsular India.

Wayanad and Kodagu, origins of river Cauvery

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Conclusion from Lakshmanatirtha catchment (Kodagu, Mysore, Mandya, Hassan (3969 Sq Km) analysis , IEEE GHTC

• The landuse was analysed for the year 2013, the catchment is covered with 14.4% of vegetation, it could be observed that the Ghats regions of the catchment has higher vegetation cover compared to that of the plains.

• The hydrologic assessment demonstrated that with high rainfall towards the Ghats, the characteristics such as water holding capacity with lower runoff, higher infiltration capacity are towards regions with good vegetation cover.

Conclusion : The presence of higher forest cover in a catchment would help in catering the demands of water during the post monsoon hence catering for all the12 months.

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Locals with support from Coorg Wildlife society and Cauvery Sene have been agitating in this area since year 2006 prior to the FC clearance .

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Increasing Man-animal conflicts in Wayanad and KodaguWayanad alone had around 4,000 compensation claims filed in 2012-13 in wildlife related incidents and

forest department had hiked the compensation rate in 2013.

Save Wayanad and Kodagu from the grip of Power Grid Corporation Ltd and timber mafia. This project would trigger more man-animal conflicts in Wayanad due to habitat loss for elephants , wild boars and monkeys.

Save river Kabini and Cauvery by stopping cutting of over 1 lakh trees in Wayanad and Kodagu .

Save our water sources and crops that provide food and water security to 80 million people.

Do we need to sacrifice 1 Lakh trees for drawing 40 MW power from a distance of 600 km , when viable alternatives are available ?

Our Appeal

In the long term, policy makers should choose de centralised renewable power

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Power Vs Water – What are the alternatives ?

• Upgrading existing 220 Kv HD Kote – DB Kuppe line to Kozhikode. This line is 65 Km shorter than the existing alignment. The PGCIL claims that if this line is to be upgraded, then the present line would have to be switched off and Kerala areas supplied by this line would be without power for a prolonged period of time. It is for consideration that alternative grid hook ups could be made for this period of time or power could be evacuated from the Kudankulam nuclear plant in Tamil Nadu.

• Upgrading existing 110 kV line from Mangalore to Kasargode. This option may be much less controversial than the proposed 400 KV D/C line through Western Ghats. The 1,200 MW power plant of Udupi Power Corporation and the proposed expansion of generating capacity at Kaiga atomic power plant may lead to adequate despatch of power to north Kerala

• The current requirement for Kerala from Kaiga III and IV is only 40 MW. Kerala is already connected to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka various transmission lines. The total power carrying capacity of all these lines can be as much as 3,000 MW. This is approximately 3 times Kerala’s share in the southern region.

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Power needs of Kerala and current supply• As per power ministry total share of Kerala from Kaiga III and IV will be less than 40 MW • The Committee has noted that power to an extent of 190 MW is already flowing to Kerala

on the existing 220 kV line between Kadakola (Karnataka) and Kaniampetta (Kerala).• Kerala’s total share from the maximum output of all the central sector power plants in

Southern Region is about 1,280 MW as per the allocation by the Union Ministry of Power. Since no power plant generates electricity at 100 % at all times, and station auxiliary consumption in each power plant consume about 12% of generated power, Kerala’s total share in Southern Region may be less than 1,000 MW on an average.

• Kerala is already connected to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka through the following transmission lines. The total power carrying capacity of all these lines can be as much as 3,000 MW. This is approximately 3 times Kerala’s share in the southern region. (i) 400 kV Udumalapet-Palakkad-Trichur D/C(ii) 400 kV Tirunelveli-Trivandrum D/C(iii)400 kV Tirunelveli -Edamon line D/C (iv)220 kV Udumalpet - Idukki(v) 220 kV Theni – Mooziyar(vi)220 kV Mysore – Kaniaympetta(vii)110 kV Mangalore –Manjeshwara (Kasargod)

• For the year 2013-14 Kerala’s entitlement from the southern regional grid was 9,350 Million Units (MU), and it was scheduled to draw 10, 879 MU from the grid, it has actually drawn 11,374 MU as per Southern Regional Power Committee.

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Contradicting Statements that changes with time…

• PGCIL claims 8000 trees and DFO of Virajpet claims 21,000 across Kodagu District

• PGCIL claims 100 trees per hectare – 2000 trees in forest and 6000 in Private land

• PGCIL and 3 member committee claims 100 trees per hectare and DFO of Virajpet claims 350 trees per hectares

• According to the ROW document of PGCIL, the extent of Coffee plantations in the route is 30Kms and Paddy fields is 20Kms ( Till 2012) . After local agitations, PGCIL claims it is 12 km Coffee and 20 Km paddy in order to undermine the extend of trees.

• PGCIL states that over 16000 trees will be felled if the power line goes through the D-Line and 13000 trees if the line is routed through the existing 220KV line. This appears to be an attempt to dissuade usage of the alternative routes.

• The 3 member Committee has dwelled in length as to why alternative routes / means suggested by locals cannot be acceptable. It has not addressed the issue of fragmentation of the forests, potential man-elephant conflict, deleterious impact on the catchment area of river Cauvery, and impacts on local agriculture and life style. The Committee’s mandate should have been to focus on avoiding the felling of so many trees and the consequent impact on the environment of Western Ghats.

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References

• Report of Technical Committee setup by Govt of Karnataka to review suggestions on alternate routes for Mysore- Kozhikode 400 Kv DC line

• Modelling Hydrologic regime of Lakshmanatirtha watershed, Cauvery riverRamachandra T V , Nupur Nagar , Vinay S , Bharath H AithalEnergy & Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences [CES]Centre for Sustainable Technologies (astra)Centre for infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning [CiSTUP]Department of Civil Engineering ,NITK SurathkalIndian Institute of Science, Bangalore, Karnataka, 560 012, India

• An analysis of the alternatives to the proposed 400 kV D/C transmission line between Mysore and Kozikode by PGCILShankar SharmaPower Policy Analystshankar.sharma2005@gmail.com

• Power Line memorandum to Dr Shivakumar Aradhya, Director , CPRICol Muthanna , President, Coorg Wildlife Society , colmuthanna@gmail.com

• Media reports