The Sikkim Bhutia Lepcha Apex Committee against hydel power project on the Rathung Chu

Gangtok, July 21: The Sikkim Bhutia Lepcha Apex Committee (Siblac) today wrote to Union environment and forest minister Jayanthi Natarajan, objecting to the clearance granted to a 99MW hydel power project on the Rathung Chu, a river considered holy by the Sikkimese.

The committee contends that the clearance was given despite the ministry of environment and forests stating earlier that it had not received any proposal on the project.

Three power projects — Lethang (96MW), Ting Ting (99MW) and Tashiding (97MW) — had been planned over the Rathung Chu, a tributary of the Rangeet river. The Lethang project had been rejected by the standing committee for the National Board for Wildlife in October last year following objections from Siblac, which had pointed out that the proposed project would hurt the “religious sentiments” of Bhutias and Lepchas.

According to documents collected by Siblac, the ministry of environment and forests on July 4 communicated its environmental clearance to a private company that is developing the 99MW Ting Ting project, 140km from Gangtok.

This clearance, Siblac convener Tseten Tashi Bhutia said, was given within two-and-a-half months of then environment minister Jairam Ramesh saying his department was not aware of the Ting Ting project nor the other one proposed over the Rathang Chu.

On March 16, Ramesh had written to the National Commission for Minorities member from the Northeast, Spalze Angmo, saying of the three power projects initially proposed over the Rathung Chu, the 96MW Lethang project had been rejected by the standing committee of National Board for Wildlife. As far as the other two projects are concerned, the proposals had not been received by the ministry, Ramesh had said. Angmo had taken up the matter with the Centre on behalf of Siblac.

“Ramesh had stated categorically that his ministry was not aware of the Ting Ting and Tashiding projects. How come this controversial project got environmental clearance? We request an impartial probe,” said Tseten Tashi in his letter to Union environment and forest minister Jayanti Natarajan.

“We believe there is some communication gap within the ministry but we cannot allow our religious sentiments and history to be wronged by it. While giving the environmental clearance to the Ting Ting project, the ministry stated that there is no national park, sanctuary, biosphere reserve or historical monuments in the vicinity of the project area. But the proposed dam of all the three projects is located within 10km of the Kanchenjungha National Park,” said Tashi.

The Siblac convener has substantiated this claim before Natarajan with an RTI reply. The dam of the proposed 99MW Ting Ting and Tashiding power projects falls within 10km of the boundary of Kanchenjungha National Park, the state forest department had submitted in response to the RTI query