The project involves the construction of a composite dam of a total length of 1,720 m. The main dam would be 855 m. long and 90 m. high, with additional dams of 500 m. and 365 m. length on the left and right flanks respectively. The project would power four generating units of 125 MW each.

Bodhghat’s total land requirement is some 13,783 ha., of which 5,704 ha. is forest land. In its original avatar, the project would have displaced nearly 10,000 tribal people from 42 villages. This figure must now be significantly higher. The tribals of the Bastar region, mostly Gonds and Madias, live a largely sustainable life relying on the forest and a little agriculture to survive. The projects planned along the Indravati would completely devastate these fragile cultures, pushing them into ecological poverty and destitution, as the forests they rely on are destroyed. This will, in turn, force them to move to the few remaining unpopulated forest areas, setting off a vicious cycle of destruction. One estimate puts the total loss to wildlife habitats at 20,000 ha!

Discharges from the Bodhghat turbines, several times the normal summer flow, would flood vital grassland habitats in the Bhairamgarh Sanctuary, about 60 km. downstream. Bhairamgarh was until recently wild buffalo habitat, and it continues to be potential buffalo habitat, aside from hosting a variety of other fauna.

The most dangerous aspect of the Bodhghat dam is the fact that its functional effectiveness is directly linked to six more projects proposed downstream: Kutru I and II, Nugur I and II, Bhopalpatnam and Inchampalli (see Sanctuary Vol. XXIII No.4, August 2003). It is feared that clearance to the Bodhghat project will inevitably lead to other downstream projects being pushed through the clearance process. Together, these projects would effectively wipe out what is arguably the most pristine riverine stretch in central and peninsular India.
The ecology of the Indravati Tiger Reserve and Bhairamgarh Sanctuary in Chattisgarh and the proposed Kopela-Kolamarkha Sanctuary in Maharashtra and other surrounding tiger and wild buffalo habitats will be lost.

The series of dams on the river are planned such that the discharge level from the tail race of the upstream project would be nearly at the same level as the Full Reservoir Level of the next project downstream. Almost the entire length of the Indravati river would become one large reservoir, completely isolating the forests on either side of the river. Prime habitat would be lost and wildlife movement between the two regions would be completely ended. And the wild buffalo, which prefers the cool habitats along the river, will soon vanish.

A WII report in 1989-90 had strongly advised against the project, on account of the vast repercussions it would have on the Indravati river, the tiger reserve, the region’s tribal population and especially the endangered wild buffalo. The wild buffaloes of Bastar are considered to be the purest wild genetic stock and their conservation is therefore critical. As a result of this report, forest clearance to the project was denied in 1994 and the environmental clearance was subsequently revoked as well.

Since then, however, the National Environmental Engineering Institute was engaged to prepare a report, which we must presume recommended that the project go ahead. On the basis of this report, the proposal was re-submitted to the Centre in April 2003. In early 2004, with national elections looming, Ramesh Bais, then Minister of Environment and Forests announced a package of measures, a thinly veiled vote-grabbing move aimed mainly at the forested states of Madhya Pradesh and his native Chattisgarh. Part of the package was the announcement of in-principle clearance for the diversion of 5,700 ha. of forest land for the Bodhghat project.

Given that clearance to the project was clearly politically motivated and irrefutable evidence of the ecological and social upheaval that the project will cause, the central government must be asked to immediately revoke all clearances granted to the

Please take a few minutes to understand and then lend your name to the Sanctuary campaign to stop the construction of the Bodhghat Hydroelectric Project. You can take the first step by writing a polite letter along the lines suggested and posting it to the parties concerned.