GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION TENKASI DISTRICT Social Impact Assessment Study for Ramanadhi – Jambunadhi River Linking Project, Tenkasi District Social Impact Assessment – Draft Audit Report Ministry of Jal Shakti Department of Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation DECEMBER 2020 Draft SIA/ Audit Report Social Impact Assessment study for Ramanadhi Jambunadhi River Linking Project, Tenkasi District CONTENTS CHAPTER – 1EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CHAPTER – 2DETAILED PROJECT DESCRIPTION 2.1. Introduction 2-1 2.2. Background of the Project 2-1 2.3. Profile of Tampraparani River Basin and Project Area 2-3 2.4. Water Budget 2-6 2.5. Objective of the project 2-7 2.6. Rationale of the study 2-7 2.7. Proposed Project Scheme Details 2-8 2.7.1 Requirement of Land 2-12 2.7.2 Cost Estimate 2-12 2.8. Examination of Alternative Routes 2-12 2.9. Work Force Requirements 2-15 2.10. Applicable Legal and Policy Framework 2-15 2.11. Social Safeguards Framework 2-17 CHAPTER – 3 APPROACH METHODOLOGY AND ASSESSMENT 3.1. Objective of Social Impact Assessment Study 3-1 3.2. Approach and Methodology 3-1 3.3. SIA team 3-2 3.4. Socio economic profile of the project area 3-2 3.5. Stakeholder Analysis 3-5 3.6. Transect walk made along the proposed water supply scheme alignment 3-7 3.7. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) 3-8 3.8. Socio Economic Survey 3-13 CHAPTER – 4 SOCIAL IMPACT MANAGEMENT PLAN 4.1 Social Screening and Categorization 4-1 4.2 Social categorization of projects 4-1 4.3 Impact identification & mitigation measures 4-2 4.4 Public consultation and Disclosure 4-8 4.5 Compensation and settlement for PAPs 4-8 4.6 Institutional Arrangements 4-10 4.7 Gender Issues 4.13 4.8 Grievance Redress Mechanism (GRM) 4-13 ANNEXURE I – Alignment Map ANNEXURE II - Proforma for Socio Economic Survey ANNEXURE III – Focus Group Discussion report ANNEXURE IV – Details of Village wise project affected people WAPCOS Limited i Draft SIA/ Audit Report Social Impact Assessment study for Ramanadhi Jambunadhi River Linking Project, Tenkasi District LIST OF TABLES 2.1. Water Requirement – Based on Tank Capacity 2-6 2.2. Hydraulic Particulars 2-9 2.3. Private / Poromboke Land Requirement for Ramanadhi – 2-12 Jambunathi River Linking Project 2.4. Wet Land (in Hectares) 2-13 2.5. Dry Land (in Hectares) 2-13 2.6. Poromboke Land (in Hectares) 2-13 2.7. Total Difference (in Hectares) 2-14 2.8. List of acts and policies applicable 2-15 3.1 Study Team for SIA 3-2 3.2 The list of stakeholders and how they are associated in the 3-5 project 3.3 Methods used in the study 3-6 3.4 Summary schedule of Transit Walk 3-8 3.5 Village wise % of survey samples 3-14 3.6 Details of household heads 3-14 3.7 Educational Qualification of PAPS 3-16 3.8 Details of Number of Family Members 3-17 3.9 House Type of PAPS 3-18 3.10 Land owning details of PAPs 3-18 3.11 Details of Dry Land holdings 3-19 3.12 Details of Irrigated Land Ownership 3-20 3.13 Annual Income of PAPS 3-21 3.14 List of Tree Species farmers going to lose 3-22 3.15 Standing crops in the field 3-22 3.16 Perception about impact due to land loss 3-23 4.1 Social Categorization of Projects 4-2 4.2 Activities and potential impacts and suggested mitigation 4-3 measures 4.3 Table Details of land loss and number of PAPs 4-4 4.4 Table Details of tree crops and other tree species loss and PAPs 4-7 4.5 Implementation Arrangement – Roles and Responsibilities 4-12 WAPCOS Limited ii Draft SIA/ Audit Report Social Impact Assessment study for Ramanadhi Jambunadhi River Linking Project, Tenkasi District LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 Tamiraparani River Basin 2-4 2.2 Index of Tamiraparani River Basin 2-5 3.1 Village wise total number of Households and Population 3-4 3.2 Constitutional Status of PAPs 3-15 3.3 Age structure of PAPs 3-15 3.4 Primary Occupation of Land Owners 3-17 3.6 Dry Land Holding of PAPs 3-19 3.7 Irrigated Land Ownership of PAPs 3-20 4.1 Organization Chart of PWD 4-11 WAPCOS Limited iii Draft SIA/ Audit Report Social Impact Assessment study for Ramanadhi Jambunadhi River Linking Project, Tenkasi District CHAPTER- 1 Executive summary Detailed Project description Thamirabarani is the main river basin in Tirunelveli District. Ramanadhi and Jambunadhi are Tributories of Thamirabarani. Ramanadhi reservoir located across Ramanadhi River in Melakadayam village of Tenkasi Taluk. Jambunadhi River originates in Western Ghats and joins with Ramanadhi near Therkukadayam village after traversing a distance of 10.40km in plains. During flood season, the surplus water of Ramanadhi reservoir joins with Thamiraparani River and flows into sea as unutilized. There are four anicuts across Jambunadhi. The tanks under these anicuts do not get assured supply of irrigation water through the existing irrigation channels due to the scarcity of water. Based on the representations received from the ayacutdhars under Jambhunadhi system of tanks and the Member of Legislative Assembly of Tenkasi Constituency, the Ramanadhi -Jambhunadhi link canal scheme is formulated and the implementation of the scheme has been announced by the Hon‟ble Chief Minister on the floor of assembly during Budget session on 25.09.2015 under Tamil Nadu legislative Assembly Rule 110. During the flood season when the Ramanadhi Reservoir surpluses, it is proposed to divert 200 cusecs of surplus water for 10 days from Ramanadhi Reservoir‟s water spread area to Jambunadhi system tanks. The estimate has been priced to schedule of rate for the year2018-2019 of Tirunelveli District and the total cost works out to Rs.4150 lakhs without escalation and Rs.4565 lakhs with escalation. Since, land is the basic capital for the establishment of the project, the criteria and basic considerations to select the route for the project and to undertake land acquisition was decided based on the field Inspection done for checking Feasibility of alternative alignment and the present alignment has been finalized. WAPCOS Limited 1 - 1 Draft SIA/ Audit Report Social Impact Assessment study for Ramanadhi Jambunadhi River Linking Project, Tenkasi District Study and Methods The main objective of the Social Impact Assessment (SIA) study is to understand the adverse impact of the project to the population affected by the project implementation and to address the impacts. Also it helps to explore various options and to consider the best and acceptable option which has minimum or no impact. In the SIA process, consultation with major stakeholders and the local farming communities was undertaken. The project area covers three revenue villages, two from Tenkasi taluk and one from Alangulam taluk. Stakeholder consultations were conducted at two levels, at the first level with the communities and local leaders during the field visits and at the second level meetings with the officials of the revenue department and PWD to discuss about the project objectives, implementation plan, activities each department will carry out, time line and the outputs. The project team made several field visits, during the first visit had meetings with the different stakeholders discussed and collected the details about the project, in the first visit conducted the transect walk along the alignment and in the subsequent visits the team members conducted three FGDs and house hold survey (15% of the total PAPs) and also finalized the Project affected persons list in each revenue village in consultation with the officials of revenue and survey departments. Results of Focus Group Discussions For majority of the families the primary occupation is agriculture, these families are doing agriculture traditionally over generations. Families without land are involved in daily wage; go to work as labourers in the neighbouring agricultural farms, brick kilns or construction works. Farmers cultivate only for a single season in the irrigated land but in the Kadayamaperumpathu village they cultivate two crops. Regarding the crops list, paddy (varieties: Ambai 16 and Andhra Ponni) is the main crop cultivated in the irrigated land, ground nut, cotton are other crops cultivated. WAPCOS Limited 1 - 2 Draft SIA/ Audit Report Social Impact Assessment study for Ramanadhi Jambunadhi River Linking Project, Tenkasi District All members gathered for the FGD informed that they are aware of the proposed river linking project through different sources. Farmers are also aware of the land acquisition for digging canal and some of the farmers will lose their lands roughly along the alignment boundaries. The amount of land each farmer loses may vary; and the farmers are unaware of the quantity of land to be lost. The farmers gathered believe that some of the owners whose lands are inside the alignment are not residing in the villages, they are living in other districts and a few are in other states. Suggested that they need to be informed. It was found out in the discussion there are women farmers who are now the household heads also lose their lands. About whether the project will affect any residential structures, it was mentioned a house which was under construction now stopped, it is located inside the alignment; the house construction is completed up to basement level. The owner is demanding compensation both for the land and amount spent for construct till now. Farmers agreed to provide the land for the proposed river linking project; in deed they are happy that the project would help them to get water for irrigation, the resource which is scare in the region.