During lockdown, MoEFCC panels cleared or went over 30 projects in biodiverse forests

The Imu-Aamra story on the strong cultural connection in between humans and tigers, for instance, is shown in the recent eco-friendly finding of there being more tigers in Dibang Valley than other tiger reserves in Arunachal Pradesh. As a wildlife biologist, I likewise found research that reveals how the Idu Mishmi land period system and nature-based practices might well have developed several habitat mosaics that enable different species to prosper in these community-owned forest lands.

This environmentally and culturally abundant valley is also the site of a proposed 3,097 MW Etalin dam, among the nation’s biggest proposed hydropower tasks. The job was raised for green clearance throughout a virtual conference held on April 23 by the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), confoundingly, in the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown. Views of the area’s locals are split, however the ecological expenses of this job will involve the building of 2 big gravity dams, diversion tunnels, penstock pipes, an underground powerhouse, and a roadway network of over 50 km, includes the felling of 2.8 lakh trees, some almost 8 metres in girth, and submerging over 1,178 ha of land. The stage, which will last a minimum of 7 years, will include mining, quarrying, slope undercutting, and muck disposal.

Conserving Dibang

This rush to clear the task throughout the pandemic is a departure from what the FAC itself specified in 2017: that “the land in which the task is proposed remains in pristine forests with riverine growth that once cut can not be changed.”

The news of the virtual clearance has actually unleashed public outrage. There are online projects with hashtags #StopEtalinSaveDibang and #SaveArunachalBiodiversity; tunes, poems, letters and short films with voices from the Idu Mishmi community have been shared on social media; several researchers have composed to FAC opposing the task. As this goes to press, FAC has actually requested for remarks from the Ministry of Power, the National Tiger Preservation Authority, and the wildlife division of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Environment Modification.

Virtual issue

The Etalin dam is just one