Drvfmv Site Specific Wildlife Management Plan of North Koel Reservoir Project (Mandal Dam) District- Latehar & Garhwa, Jharkhand Feb, 2017 N A T U R E C O N S E R V A T I O N S O C I E T Y O L D I T O R O A D , R E D M A , T O P - 2 , D A L T O N G A N J , 8 2 2 1 0 1 , J H Site Specific Wildlife Management Plan of North Koel Reservoir Project (Mandal Dam) District- Latehar, Garhwa Jharkhand Feb, 2017 Prepared by Nature Conservation Society Old ITO Road, Redma, TOP- 2, Daltonganj, PIN- 822101, Jharkhand. Email- [email protected]: [email protected] Contact- Dr. D. S. Srivastava, Secretary Email- [email protected] +91 943 113 8638 Acknowledgement We are thankful to PCCF and HoFF, Jharkhand, PCCF (wildlife) and CWLW, Jharkhand, CCF and Field Director, Palamau Tiger Reserve (PTR), DFOs of Core Area and Buffer Area Forest Divisions of Palamau Tiger Reserve, Range officer of forests of Kutku, Chhipadohar West, Baresanr and Garu West Ranges of PTR and all forest staff of these ranges for their help and support during the survey and preparation of this document. We are thankful to village surveyors and villagers of submergence area and impact zone villages for their support in survey and gathering of information on various issues related to Mandal Dam and forest around. We are thankful to Department of Forest & Environment, Government of Jharkhand, Water Resource Department, Government of Jharkhand, District Administration, Latehar and Garhwa and Panchayat Representatives of Barwadih, Garu, Baresanr, Kutku, Bhandaria and Madgari for use of documents and records under this study. We are highly obliged and offer our sincere thanks to Palamau Tiger Reserve management for the use of facilities during survey, use of camera trap photographs and permission for conduction of this study. Dr. D. S. Srivastava, Secretary, Nature Conservation Society, Daltonganj i Preface Dams and reservoirs have played a key role in economic development, serving a variety of purposes, including electricity generation, flood control, and irrigation. However, large dams have been a subject of growing international debate and controversy. Disagreements and confusion over what happened in the past has splintered the debate, with polarization between people grouped in stark terms as proponents and opponents of dams. Rivers, watersheds, and aquatic ecosystems are the biological engines of the planet. They are the basis for life and the livelihoods of local communities. Understanding, protecting, and restoring ecosystems at river basin level is essential to foster equitable human development and the welfare of all species. Dams transform landscapes and create risks of irreversible impacts. Clashes of ideas between dam proponents and critics have brought the large dams issue into focus as one of the most intensely debated issues in sustainable development in the world. As applied to dam projects, the core idea of sustainability and development is that all resource management decisions must give adequate weight to accommodating both consumption and conservation as well as to the legitimate role of equity. Dam promoters face the challenge of devising sustainable strategies that both accommodate societal demands and maintain the essential geomorphic and ecological functions of hydrologic systems while simultaneously pursuing the attainment of economic prosperity, environmental quality and social equity. Large dams have been the subject of growing international debate and controversy. They have played a key role in economic development, serving a variety of purposes, including electricity generation, flood control, and irrigation. Dams provide about 20% of the world‟s electric power. They also provide flood control services and water supplies for agriculture. There are about forty-five thousand large dams in the world. About half of the world‟s dams are in China and India. Yet concern about their adverse environmental, social, and even economic impacts is growing. (Manatunga, Nakayama and Priyadarshan, Impact of reservoirs- 2000) ii The opposition to the dam and reservoir construction comes mainly from Social and environmental NGOs platform who fear about large scale displacement of local tribal population and loss of natural forest and wildlife which is vital for ecology and climate change. The fact is that both proponent and opposition pursue their ideas independently and both suffer with loss. The government planning is never on sustainability parameters and never considers the stake holder as parameters, hence all trouble. The projects take long time to complete and real purpose of the project is defeated. The North Koel Reservoir Project is no different than other major hydro- electric project conceived from time- to- time in India. This project also started in 1970s and still facing various difficulties in completion. The hard-public money is being wasted till now for no fruitful result. The submergence area has tribal villages including most primitive tribes who will be displaced. The forest and wildlife will also be impacted and dam may change the ecology of entire area also. The impacts on precious forest, rare wildlife and local indigenous people would be seen in this project also. The following are the main points regarding the events leading to present stage: The North Koel Reservoir Project was conceived at village Mandal, Block-Barwadih in 1970-71 by Irrigation Department, the then Govt. of Bihar. The dam was conceived at 364.82 m height from which water will be released for feeding Mohammadganj and Indrapuri Barrage. The hydro- electricity generation of 24MW is also in the planning. The work started and almost every structure was created except the installation of sluice gate and spillway. The construction of dam started well before the promulgation of Forest Conservation Act, 1980. The forest department initiated action under this Act, when installation of sluice gate was started in 1993. The matter was reported to Govt. of India of the status. The project received clearance from Project Tiger, Govt. Of India vide letter No. 11025/75-FRY (PT), dated 16 Nov, 1978 which included 5 conditions for compliance. The process of forest diversion was started in 1982 for the forest measuring 4,170.48 ha. The Govt. of India asked for certain clarification in 1982 which was not submitted. 3 Govt. of IndiaVide Letter No. 03/89/80-HCT/EH-5 dated 02 January, 1984 provided Environmental clearance of the dam and gave 8 conditions for compliances. The Govt. of India again asked clarification on 14 points vide its letter no. 8-178/82-FC dated 30.07.1986. The irrigation department tried to install the gate in 1993 but was not allowed by Palamau Tiger Reserve management. The matter was reported to Govt. of Bihar and Govt. of India by Palamau Tiger Reserve (PTR). Govt. of India vide its letter No. DO No. 4-24/93-PT dated 14.07.1993 ordered for stoppage of construction activity of the dam and asked for fixing of responsibility for violation. After the formation of New state of Jharkhand, the water resource department, Jharkhand furnished the information on 14 points sought by Govt. of India vide its letter No. 8-178/82-FC dated 30.07.1986. This submission involved 6,023.53 ha of forest land for diversion which was different from the earlier proposal of 4,170.48 ha which was against the guideline of forest conservation act, 1980. As the proposal involved huge area of PTR, the PCCF, Jharkhand referred to the judgement to the H‟ble Supreme Court that any forest land diversion in tiger reserve should have prior approval of NBWL and H‟ble Supreme Court. The Govt. of India asked the regional office, Bhubaneswar to carry out site inspection but it was not done because state govt. has not submitted the forest diversion proposal. A meeting was called by Govt. of India on 09.01.2015 under the chairmanship of DG (forests), GoI which was attended by MPs, NTCA officers of Bihar and Jharkhand. It was resolved that approval of NTCA, NBWL and H‟ble Supreme Court must be obtained before submission of proposal under Forest Conservation Act. A meeting held on 07.05.2015 in Parliament House resolved to initiate the proposal for seeking wildlife and forest clearances under the forest Conservation Act, Environment Protection Act and Wildlife Protection Act. A meeting again held under the chairmanship of H‟ble Minister- Environment & forest, GoI and decided to nominate Mr. Aftab Alam and Md. Ezaj Ahmed as Nodal Officer for this project. 4 The Executive Engineer, Water Resource Department, Medininagar informed Govt. of Bihar on dated 06.05.2015 on the consent to decrease FRL from 367.25 m to 362.28 m. So, submergence area will be reduced from 5113.36 ha to 4253.68 ha. A letter from National Tiger Conservation Authority, New Delhi vide letter No. F. No.-9-1/2016-NTCA dated- 08.09.2016 was received by Chief Wildlife Warden, Govt. of Jharkhand with a minute of the meeting on North Koel Project held on 11.08.2016 under the Chairmanship of Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister. The letter communicated the decisions taken during the meeting as following: I. It is in principle decided to take up completion of the project. II. The ponding level with be kept at 341 m (MDDL). III. For this ponding the Govt. of Jharkhand will estimate and submit to the Central Water Commission, the following: Submergence with ground truthing. Project design and Execution plan IV. The Govt. of Jharkhand will submit offline application for forest clearance. The application will also mention the issue of 1164.53 ha of forest submergence for compensatory afforestation. V. The state Govt., in consultation with Govt.