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What do you expect will be the environmental impact of the dam?
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Medha Patkar
Founder of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, a movement that opposes the construction of mega-dams on the Narmada River.
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S.K. Mohapatra
Managing Director of the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Ltd, the state corporation charged with building the Sardar Sarovar dam.
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The environmental impact assessment was not done when the dam was given a conditional clearance and has not been done to date. The Ministry of Environment and Forests stalled the project from 1983-87 on these grounds. However, in 1987 a conditional clearance was given. Non-compliance with those conditions nullified the clearance in 1991 and since then the dam has gone ahead without an environmental clearance. This was stated by the minority judgment of Supreme Court.
A proper impact assessment has to be done before any more construction and only that will help to know the magnitude of the dam's impacts. Only that can facilitate identifying the means and ways to mitigate them.
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The impact on the environment of any such project has to be mixed. But in the case of Sardar Sarovar project, it is likely to be more on the positive side. As against only about 91,430 acres of land that may go under submergence, an area of about 4.9 million acres of land will get the benefit of irrigation. On the forest side, the kind of forest submerged was mainly of inferior type, whereas the compensatory afforestation which has been undertaken will create a thick forest of superior type not only in the surrounding area of the dam, but along the 500-km-long [311-mile-long] canal bank. The main canal, which will be like a perennial river flowing through the length of Gujarat, will be able to recharge along its course a number of small rivers, which were earlier water deficient. The main canal to the extent completed has already led to a marked increase in the ground water table and a decline in salinity. This has also improved the environment of existing sanctuaries for birds and animals. The project is going to transform the landscape in the arid and semi-arid regions. The stark and barren land in these regions is going to be covered with green vegetation.
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The views expressed in this debate are solely those of the participants.
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