To
Ms Leena Nandan
Secretary
Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & ClimateChange (MEFCC)
Dear Ms Nandan,
I understand that your Ministry has denied clearance for a 1,500MW Pumped Storage Hydroelectric project proposed by the Adani Group in the Western Ghats portion of Maharashtra, in view of the disastrous landslide that occurred recently in Wayanad in the stretch of Western Ghats in Kerala (https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/india/govt-halts-adani-project-in-western-ghats/)
I welcome the decision, as such projects have wide ranging adverse implications on the local environment and communities.
The AP government has similarly sanctioned the setting up of several pumped storage schemes in the Eastern Ghats in north Andhra Pradesh and the Adani Group has been permitted to set up some such projects.
As the Eastern Ghats are as ecologically sensitive as the Western Ghats are, I request your Ministry to intervene urgently and revoke clearance for all such projects, before they lead to ecological disasters. All those projects will drain the locally available scarce water resources on which tribal communities critically depend and to allow such projects to come up would adversely affect their lives.
In an undue haste to hand over sensitive locations to the Adani Group and others, the earlier government in AP violated two important Central laws, namely, PESA and FRA, by not consulting the local tribal Gram Sabhas.
May I request for your urgent intervention?
Regards,
Yourssincerely,
EAS Sarma
Former Secretary to the Government of India
Visakhapatnam
