In Arunachal’s white-bellied heron habitat, Kalai-II project gets nod

A Union Environment Ministry expert panel has recommended environmental clearance (EC) for the 1,200-MW Kalai-II hydroelectric project on Lohit River in Arunachal Pradesh’s Anjaw even as environmentalists and project-affected persons flagged glaring omissions about the presence of the critically-endangered white-bellied heron bird in the Lohit River Basin from the proposal’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) report.

In 2020, the EAC had itself sought a detailed conservation plan for the Heron species while extending clearance for the 1,750 MW Lower Demwe project, also proposed on the Lohit River.

As per official minutes, the Centre’s EAC on river valley and hydroelectric projects recommended environmental clearance for the Kalai-II hydel project in its December 19 meeting. The EIA report was prepared by WAPCOS Ltd, a government enterprise and an accredited EIA consultant.

A day before the EAC’s meeting, Soblam Malo from Anjaw’s Chengung village, and Assam-based environmentalist Bimal Gogoi wrote to the panel highlighting the alleged oversight in the EIA report while seeking a prior assessment of the project’s impact on the bird species.

Gogoi said the EIA report “failed to make even a single mention of the under-threat species” despite the “project-affected area being contiguous habitat with recent records of the bird in the Lohit River basin, including Kamlang Tiger Reserve.” Gogoi added that “surprisingly” Kamlang Tiger Reserve was only recorded as a sanctuary in the EIA report.

The report’s avian-fauna chapter that records a total of 28 species belonging to 19 families in the study area misses out on making any mention of the white-bellied heron, a schedule-I (highest protection) species under the Wildlife Protection Act. The bird is critically endangered, as per the red list of the International Union on Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The bird’s presence has been recorded both, upstream and downstream, of the Kalai-II project, as per independent researchers, and past records of the Arunachal Forest Department.

Rohit Naniwadekar, scientist, Nature Conservation Foundation, who has carried out field research on the species in the Namdapha Tiger Reserve said the white-bellied heron prefers free-flowing riverine habitats with low disturbance, and predominantly depends on fish found in the river rapids. “In Arunachal Pradesh, their population is found in Lohit, Anjaw, and Changlang districts, including in Kamlang and Namdapha tiger reserves. We do not completely understand the causes behind the dip in their population and in Namdapha, despite relatively little disturbance to its habitat,” he said.

“While the IUCN Red list suggests there are less than 250 birds in the wild, experts speculate there might be only about 60 birds left in the wild, with 4-5 breeding pairs in Bhutan and fewer in eastern Arunachal Pradesh,” he added.

IIT-Roorkee Prof Govind Chakrapani, EAC chairperson, and Yogendra Pal Singh, scientist, Union Environment Ministry and the panel’s member secretary did not respond to queries sent on e-mail by The Indian Express regarding the representations sent to them. An email query to WAPCOS, too, did not elicit any response.

A researcher who has worked on the avian species and did not wish to be named said, “Walong is the only nesting site in India other than Namdapha Tiger Reserve. We have records of direct and indirect sightings along the entire stretch of Lohit River from Kaho to Parshuram Kund. In Walong, we have recorded nest abandonment due to anthropogenic disturbances. Currently, hunting and habitat loss are the primary issues in Arunachal Pradesh, while studies from Bhutan show the wider impacts of dams on the species.” Walong is located upstream of the project.

The white-bellied heron nesting sites in Walong and Namdapha are also recorded in the June 2023 edition of Indian Birds, a journal of South Asian Ornithology. The journal article noted the bird count has rapidly declined due to habitat loss, hunting, human disturbances, while older conservation strategy documents have also noted dams and collisions with power lines as threats.

The project, to be developed by THDC India Ltd, at an estimated cost of Rs 14,176.26 crore is planned on Lohit, a tributary of the Brahmaputra in Anjaw’s Hawai village. The project with pondage will involve construction of a 128.5-m concrete gravity dam, and an underground powerhouse.