The proposed Karjat hydropower project in Raigad is facing a fresh protest threat from Peasants and Workers Party (PWP) workers and environmental activists, who say they will launch a Chipko-style campaign if the government does not scrap the project and address concerns over tree felling, forests and tribal rights.
The 3,000MW project, proposed by Torrent Power at Saidongar in Karjat, could affect trees across 640 hectares of forest land, according to the report. The Karjat Environmental Protection Committee said protesters would hug trees as part of the planned action.
“We have given an ultimatum to govt to scrap the project. Else, our Chipko movement will commence,” PWP spokesperson Chitralekha Patil told the Times of India. The proposed protest takes its name from the Chipko movement, in which people physically embraced trees to oppose their felling.
PWP general secretary Jayant Patil questioned the differing treatment of local residents and a large infrastructure project. He asked why tribal people had faced legal action for cutting a tree while thousands of trees could reportedly be felled for the hydropower project.
The dispute also involves a proposed visit by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that PWP had said would take place on November 3 to lay the foundation stone for the project. The party had threatened to display black flags during the visit unless concerns over forest impacts, water and tribal rights were addressed.
Patil claimed that persistent protests had led to the visit being cancelled and the tree-cutting plan being halted. However, Raigad Superintendent of Police Anchal Dalal told the Times of India that the Prime Minister’s visit had not been scheduled. The conflicting accounts leave the status of the proposed foundation-stone event unclear.
The scale of the potential environmental impact remains another point of dispute. While the report identifies 640 hectares of forest land as potentially affected, the Karjat Pyaaryaan Bachao Samiti claims that the area contains about three lakh trees. The report does not provide an official tree census or an independently verified figure for the number of trees that could be felled.
Patil has demanded that the forest department publish the permits and orders connected to the project, the conditions attached to its environmental clearance and official figures for tree felling. Those documents are central to determining the permissions granted, the conditions imposed on the project and the extent of the proposed clearing.
The threatened protest puts the project at the intersection of renewable-power development, forest administration and the rights of communities living in the affected area. For now, the immediate next step announced by the activists is the proposed Chipko-style mobilisation if their demand to scrap the project is not accepted.
