V. Durai, a farmer in Bembatti near Kanneri Mandhanai, around 20 km outside Udhagamandalam town, points in awe to a red-and-white marker flag, placed high on a hilltop surrounding his one-acre agricultural field. “If the dam is constructed, they say that the water will submerge all of our agricultural fields and also the surrounding forests,” he says, standing over a patchwork of small agricultural fields, belonging to hundreds of local farmers who have been growing potatoes, garlic and carrots here for over two decades.

Durai is among thousands of farmers from more than 15 villages, including Kallakorai, Bembatti, Thulithalai, Kanneri, Thangadu, Oranalli, Meekeri, Muthorai Palada and Balocola, who fear that their agricultural lands will be submerged by the Sillahalla Pumped Storage Hydro-Electric Project project, which experts claim, ambitiously aims to add 1,000 megawatts to the power grid for use during peak hours.

Local residents allege that the project is being pushed through by the government without any public consultation. According to reports, a Central government-appointed sub-committee that had visited the project site had recommended to the Union Environment Ministry to grant environmental clearances without holding any public hearings. This has predictably caused much concern among local residents, who fear that the project will be forced through by the government without addressing any of their concerns.

The Sillahalla Pumped Storage Hydro-Electric Project envisages the construction of an upper reservoir measuring more than 260 feet in height in Bembatti village along the Sillahalla stream, a tributary of the Kundah River. A lower reservoir, which will be more than 350 feet in height, will be built further downstream, past the existing Kundah Palam dam. The two dams would be connected by a tunnel and water from the lower dam will be pumped to the upper dam, and used to generate electricity. According to officials, the project will also apparently submerge more than 315 hectares of forest, private and government lands when the reservoirs are fully constructed.

V. Lakshmanan, a farmer residing in Bembatti Hada, with a small landholding of around an acre in the proposed project site, said that no information about the project has been shared with local residents and farmers. “There is very little clarity about how many farmers will lose their lands to the project, and whether we will be compensated,” said Mr. Lakshmanan, who said that a significant number of farmers who grow crops in the proposed project area do not have documents to prove land ownership.

“We have been farming here for the last 20 years and purchased these lands from people whom we worked for, usually just entering into a verbal agreement with the landowners. Very few of us have documents proving transfer of land ownership, so we fear we might never be compensated for our losses,” said Mr. Lakshmanan.

Farmers and local residents who live along the course of the Sillahalla stream, which originates in Udhagamandalam town, and flows through the major agricultural belts of the Nilgiris, have begun organising themselves to protest against the mammoth project, which has an estimated cost of ₹4,952 crore.

M. Sivalingam, who is leading the opposition to the project, said that the Sillahalla Social and Cultural Protection Committee estimates that more than 10,000 people live along the course of the Sillahalla stream will be either directly or indirectly affected by the project.

“The stream is already extremely polluted due to the water from more than 10 carrot-cleaning machines, as well as sewage from Udhagamandalam town and a number of villages being let into the stream,” said Mr. Sivalingam. “The entire drainage and grey water of the Ooty municipality, neighbouring villages and institutions like public schools, resorts and encroachments outside the town flow into the stream which is to be dammed. Ooty already attracts about 3 lakh visitors every year. This is likely to increase to 5 lakh in the next five years. The waste water generated by this huge floating population has already created serious pollution problems. If the water in the Sillahalla stream is dammed and left stagnant for the most part of the year it is bound to become a major health hazard,” said Mr. Sivalingam, adding that the Sillahalla watershed has also been prone to numerous landslips from 1978 onwards, and numerous villages surrounding the stream have been declared to be prone to landslips by the district administration.

Venugopal Dharmalingam, honorary director of the Nilgiri Documentation Centre, has also voiced his opposition to the project, stating that the project will destroy the Kundah region. “The projects were proposed in 2007 but were not taken up because of their doubtful technical feasibility…while the projects are now being pushed through without the mandatory environmental assessment and public hearings, which is illegal,” he said.

“The Tamil Nadu government had taken a decision long back that no more hydroelectric dams will be built in the Nilgiris. In 1995, the late Chief Minister, Jayalaithaa cancelled plans for the construction of a hydroelectric dam near Kotagiri because of its harmful side effects. She stated in a press release that ‘no projects or schemes should be undertaken at the cost of and detrimental to the existing ecosystem.’ It is a tragedy that the present government which is sworn to implement the late Chief Minister’s dreams is destroying the very place she dearly loved,” he said.

S. Maaratha, a resident of Shree Ram Nagar, said that the more than 40 families residing in the area had already been asked to move out, both because of the project and as a result of the danger posed to the settlement because of landslips. “This is a landslip-prone area, so we are unsure how it can be a place fit for the construction of such a large dam,” she said. “A lot of us have farmlands here, and this place has been home to us for many years. If the dam is built, not only will many people lose their livelihoods, but will also have to relocate to other parts of the Nilgiris,” she said.

Environmental concerns

Conservationists have also voiced their concerns over the project and its implications for wildlife in the region. According to Tangedco (Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation) officials themselves, the project site is located less than 4 km from the Mukurthi National Park and the Mudumalai-Mukurthi Tiger Corridor.

Environmentalists and local residents worry that the construction of the dam will also lead to an influx of migrant workers, who will have to be housed in settlements surrounding Kundah, leading to a significant rise in the population in the area.

N. Mohanraj, a Nilgiris-based conservationist said that the Kundah river already had a limited flow of water due to the existing Kundah Dam during the summer season. With the construction of two additional dams along the Sillahalla stream, which drains into the Kundah River, there will be further reduction of water entering the river, meaning wildlife further downstream, as far as Pillur, will be affected, he said. “What we could see is that with lesser availability of water, elephants and other wildlife will start moving further up the slopes to the areas surrounding Manjoor, exacerbating human-animal conflict,” said Mr. Mohanraj, adding that the areas surrounding Geddai were already prone to droughts, and that another hydroelectric project could have significant ramifications for wildlife and ecology in the Pillur Valley.

Extreme weather events, like the floods in the Nilgiris last year, could lead to more landslips and slope destabilization, said restoration ecologist, Godwin Vasanth Bosco. “The extreme precipitation event (2400 mm of rainfall over 4 days) in August 2019, caused hundreds of landslips in the same Kundha watershed. It is disastrous to continue work on constructing underground tunnels that stretch for kilometres (in the case of the Kundah Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Project, which is already under construction) and two more dams, in addition to the 10 that already occur in the Kundha-Bhavani system. While the two dams are being proposed on tributaries that now have significantly lessened water flow, it is imperative that we understand that this reduction is influenced by marked changes caused to the ecology and hydrology of the watersheds. Diverting water from catchments that still receive high rainfall, and changing the course of water flow, will escalate the ecological and hydrological impacts that are already present,” he said.

A senior official from Tangedco said that ecological fears of conservationists are unfounded. “The project will not lead to submergence of any native forests,” said the official.

“The project should in fact be welcomed by environmentalists, as hydroelectric projects are a source of renewable energy. The dam is part of a concerted government effort to switch to renewable forms of energy across the State, including having a healthy energy mix of hydroelectricity, solar, wind, natural gas and thermal energy, with a view of almost completely eliminating the generation of electricity using pollution-generating thermal power stations by 2050,” said the official.

The official said that the construction of dams in the Nilgiris, such as the Parsons Valley Dam, Pykara and Emerald has helped stave off water crises in the Nilgiris and surrounding districts. “Initially, these dams were built solely for power generation, but water is now being drawn from Parsons Valley Dam to supply drinking water to Udhagamandalam town, while water from Pykara is being supplied to Kadanad panchayat and Coonoor is going to get water from the Emerald Dam,” he said.

“As all the penstock, or intake structures, as well as power houses are all going to be stationed underground, there will be no disturbance to movement of wildlife either,” he added.

Local residents however are not convinced, with plans being formulated to voice their opposition to the project by writing to the Chief Minister and also agitations against the project.

Nilgiris district collector, J. Innocent Divya, said that the implementation of the project had not matured to the stage that required public consultations. “The district administration has also not been so far been briefed about the project by Tangedco, so we will hold a meeting with concerned officials to gain more clarity,” she said.