Agenda No. 5 F. No. 8-85/2014-FC Sub: Diversion of 1502.30 ha of forest land for construction of Siyom Hydro Electric Project (1000 MW) in favour of M/s Siyom Hydro Power Private Limited in West Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh. The proposal was last considered by the FAC in its meeting held on 17th March, 2015 and after detailed discussion and examination of the proposal vis-a-vis final reports on Cumulative Impact Assessment & Carrying Capacity Study of Siang - the Sub basin including Down Stream Impacts prepared by the Central Water Commission, the Committee recommended that the final decision on FC for the project will be taken only after the acceptance of the Cumulative Impact Assessment & Carrying Capacity Study by the MoEF &CC. The Siang basin study has been accepted by MoEF&CC. The proposal will be placed before the FAC as soon as the FRA compliance is submitted by the State Govt. In the meantime the State Govt has been asked to comply with the provisions of FRA. Reply from the State Government is awaited. The detailed proceeding of FAC meeting on 17th March, 2015 is as follows:- “The Committee discussed the above mentioned proposal, heard the views of the User Agency and observed as below:- 1. Proposal envisages construction of Siyom Hydro Electric Project (1000 MW) over river Siyom in West Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh. The proposed project is located downstream of river Siyom near Raying. The Siyom project is Run of the River project with peaking capability and envisage construction of concrete dam 155 m (approx) high above the river bed level, river diversion works comprising of diversion tunnels/culverts with upstream and down stream coffer dam, concrete lined Head Race Tunnel, steel line innercicularpressure shaft, power house complex and Tail Race Tunnel, etc. The project will generate about 3903 GWh design energy at 95% machine availability in a 90% dependable year. The project is located in very remote area at approx. 56 Km from the Along in West Sing District 2. The proposal involves Unclassified State Forests. The proposed project shall affect 1,24,295 trees including poles. The ruling crown density of the area is 0.4 to 0.5. The forest types belongs to the Tropical Semi Evergreen Forest of Eco-Class-I. 3. The site for CA has been identified in the land bank available in Tawang Social Forestry Division (Equivalent i.e. 1502.30 ha or say 1503 ha area of degraded community Forest land in Bleteng village which is mutated in favor of the State Forest Department has been selected for CA). 4. The proposed area does not form part of National Park, Wildlife Sanctuary, Biosphere Reserve, Tiger Reserve, etc. 5. There is no protected archaeological/heritage site/defense establishment in the proposed area 6. Compliance of Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 has not been submitted. 7. The Recommendations and Observations of the Regional office are as below. (i) The Regional Office Shillong in its Site Inspection Report (SIR) has observed as below The clarification sought by Regional office, Shillong, on the exact height of the Dam has been furnished by the User Agency, wherein they have clarified that the project envisages construction of concrete dam 169m (approx) high above river bed level (Corrected copy of From – A: Part – I enclosed). GPS co-ordinates of various project components are also provided by the User Agency. (ii) There are 5 no. of Quarry proposed in the project wherein a total area of 184.7 ha forest land is involved. Out of these 5 no. of quarry, 2 no. (Involving an area of 73.5 ha) are located downstream of the proposed Dam, and the remaining 3 no. (Involving an area of 110.7 ha) are located upstream of the Dam. As the geological formation of the submergence area should not be different from the proposed Quarry, hence efforts should be made by User agency to explore the possibilities of extracting rock materials from the submergence area (1071 ha instead of opening new areas for the Quarry, thereby significant forest land be avoided, (iii)A location of Border Road (Taying to Mechuka) will be coming under the proposed submergence area, for which a proposal for diversion of forest land for re-alignment of the existing road stands submitted by the Border Roads Organisation to the DFO concerned. Hence additional diversion of forest land will be involved for the road. (iv) As per the comments / report of the CCF, Central Arunachal Circle, Pasighat, the distance of Mouling National Park and Dihang Dibang Biosphere from the periphery of the proposed reservoir is stated to be 5 to 7 km in the DPR Vol –I Chapter -13 at Page – 16 of the project. Hence this aerial distance of the nearest Protected areas from the periphery of the reservoir needs to be confirmed, and if it falls within 10 km distance, then approval from the Standing Committee of NBWL has to be obtained. (v) An area of 93.7 ha has been proposed by the User Agency for accommodating Camps & offices, explosive magazine, etc (Refer serial no. 7 under break-up of land requirement at Para2). This area involved being very large, hence efforts should be made by the User Agency to locate these components outside Forest land and to reduce the area requirement to the barest minimum. 8. Recommendations of Regional Chief Conservator of Forest along with details reasons. i. Arunachal Pradesh is having a very dense forest cover of 13,182 sq. km, moderate dense forest 2074 sq. km and open forest of 9698 sq. km i.e. 43,554 sq. km within the Green – Wash (the extent of wooded area generally shown in light green colour on SOI- toposheet). a. The forest cover outside the Green – Wash is very dense forest which is 7646 sq. km, moderate dense forest 10740 sq. km and open forest of 5381 sq. km. i.e. 23,767 sq. km. The total forest cover in the State within the Green – Wash and outside the Green – Wash is 67,321 sq. km (FSI report 2013). These forest areas in the State of Arunachal Pradesh are considered as a hot spot of Bio-Diversity ii. The Siyom HEP is proposed to be setup in West Siang District of the State. As per the FSI report 2013, the District is having 2473 sq. km. very dense forest, 2717 sq. km. moderate dense forest and 1578 sq. km open forest i.e. 6768 forest area out of 7813 sq, km. of the District Geographical area. The percentage of forest area in the District is 86.2% (FSI report 2013). iii. State Forest Department has stated that the proposed Siyom HEP is approximately 23 kms from Dihang Dibang Biosphere Reserve, 30 Kms from yarde Rabe Supse Wildlife Sanctuary and 5 to 7 km from Mouling National Park. iv. The Wildlife animal species present in these Wildlife Sanctuary and Un-classed Forest. The movement of these animals is not restricted to National Park/Wildlife Sanctuary but is crossed the adjacent forest area in the District. v. The Forest Department has not conducted any survey to assess the effect of the Siyom HEP on the movement of the Wild animals in these forest area and the impact of the dam on the habitat of these animals. vi. Removal of trees, shrubs and ground vegetation will affect the surrounding eco-system of the forest area. The construction of the dam will also affect the micro climate of the forest area surrounding it. vii. There will be a rise in water temperature in the submergence area which will affect the aqua and micro aqua species in the river. viii. The lower downstream water level will be gradually reduced by the construction of the dam which will affect aqua and micro aqua species. The water level in the downstream of the Siyom river will have to be maintained for the ecological balance of the aquatic fauna. ix. The trees, shrubs, trees stumps etc in the submergence area will have to be removed completely so that it will not be left to decompose which will gradually leads to the accumulation of methane gas causing Green House Effect. x. Disaster Management plan is essential for this project as area of Arunachal Pradesh is categorized under Sensitive seismic Zoon. xi. The User Agency and the Forest Department has recommended 93.7 ha of forest land for office building, residential building etc. the construction of residential building attracts para 4.5 of the FC Act, 1980, therefore the construction of such residential building will have to be in a non-forest land. The construction of buildings for maintenance of the HEP Project will have to be on need basis and it should be double or triple storied to minimize the use of the forest in the compact area so as to avoid isolated camps across the project area. xii. The proposed forest area of 93.7 ha cannot be recommended for the use of building construction and the forest Department will have to reduce and revise the area required. 9. The Cumulative impact assessment study /River basin study of Siang basin is yet to be accepted by the MoEF&CC. After detailed discussion the FAC recommended that the proposal will be considered after acceptance of the Cumulative Environment Impact Assessment Study (River Basin study) and its acceptance by the Ministry. In the meantime the State Government may take following actions. (i) Examine the observations made by the Regional Office in its SIR and, if required, may modify and re-submit the proposal after addressing the issues raised by the Regional Office in its report.