Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi

Udupi, Mar 15: In a major blow to Adani's Udupi Power Plant project at Yellur village of Udupi district, the principal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) declared on Thursday March 14 that all the clearances granted to set up the power plant were illegal. It has also ordered the suspension of the environmental clearance dated August 1, 2017 granted to expand the plant by addition of 2x800MW units to raise ultimate capacity to 2800MW.

A press release by Janajagrithi Samithi said the Tribunal invoked the 'Polluter Pays' principle and appointed a committee of experts to ascertain the damages to the crops and the environment in general of the area. It has directed the company to pay Rs 5 crore as an interim environmental compensation to CPCB which will also be the nodal agency to study the damages caused. It has also ordered the company to pay Rs 1 lac as cost to the petitioners.

The Tribunal found that genuinely serious issues raised by the villagers and the applicants had not been given the due attention by all concerned including the government. "The fact that multitudes of disputes and litigations relating to the project had been instituted bears witness to the fact that all was not well. Environmental clearance dated 20.03.1997 had been granted without following the due process statutorily prescribed and mandatorily required to be followed," the press release stated.

The Tribunal further noted that the project had been granted an extension of the validity period of the environment clearance on April 16, 2002 without authority of law, as the project had not been started within the stipulated time. The environment ministry cancelled the clearance on October 5, 2004, but the cancellation was recalled through a personal letter dated January 31, 2005 by the director of the environment ministry under 'questionable circumstances at the request of the project proponent'.

The Tribunal pointed out that the procedures laid down under the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notifications are not mere formalities to be followed but have been prescribed to ensure that the environment is duly protected while taking up a project keeping in view the precautionary principle and the principle of sustainable development. The fact that the procedures prescribed in the notification were not at all followed except a few parts of it, led it to reasonably conclude that there has been damage caused to the environment for which consequences have fallen on the people in terms of health, decline in the agricultural productivity and, therefore, their livelihood, degradation of natural habitat of birds and animals, etc.

The Tribunal took a serious note of the study carried out on environmental profile and people's livelihood aspects in the vicinity of coal-based thermal power plant at Yellur panchayat by a group of scientists as 'CES technical report 126' dated April 2012 published by the Energy & Wetland Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, which has made alarming observations in respect of the project area during field investigations. "It has been observed that mismanagement of the environment was evident from the contamination of the water (surface and ground), soil and air apart from the impaired functional aspects of the biotic elements. This was deduced from the reduced productivity of grains, jasmine flower and horticultural produce, reproductive ability of livestock, poultry animals, etc. There was dust on the leaves during the dry seasons which induced phyto-toxicity leading to poor pollination and hence reduced productivity. There was reduction in the population of pollinators. Stunted growth of saplings and enhanced respiratory diseases, etc were noticed caused by release of saline mist from the cooling towers of the plant which is locally dispersed by the wind even up to 2 km," the release stated as detailed in the CES report.

The Tribunal observed that justifiably, therefore, the directions would be called for to remove the plant and order for restoration of the area and the environment.

It has thus invoked the "Polluter Pays" principle under Section 20 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010 and held Udupi Power Corporation Ltd liable to pay environmental compensation which shall be assessed by a committee of experts. It has constituted a committee comprising of a senior scientist of CPCB, a senior representative from IIT Chennai, and a senior scientist from IIT-Bangalore. The CPCB shall be the nodal agency to coordinate among the members for taking up the task. The committee has been asked to assess the environmental damage on account of the environmental violations and submit its report within three months. While the report is awaited, the Tribunal directed UPCL to pay an interim environmental compensation of Rs 5 crore with the CPCB within a month, which shall be utilized for restitution and remedial works for restitution of the environment including the possible plight of the people affected by the plant.