HYDROPOWER PROJECTS IN THE SUTLEJ RIVER BASIN NORTH WESTERN HIMALAYAS 2014 ENVIRONICS TRUST IN ASSOCIATION WITH HIMALAYA NITI ABHIYAN – HIM JAN LOK JAGRITI MANCH HYDROPOWER PROJECTS IN THE SUTLEJ RIVER BASIN NORTH WESTERN HIMALAYAS REPORT 1: KINNAUR DISTRICT, UPPER SUTLEJ BASIN 2013‐14 ENVIRONICS TRUST IN ASSOCIATION WITH HIMALAYA NITI ABHIYAN – HIM JAN LOK JAGRITI MANCH Commonly Used Abbreviations in the Report 3 ‐1 Cumec – represents flow of water in Cu.m.per second or m s HRT – Head Race Tunnel MSL – Mean Sea level EIA – Environment Impact Assessment EMP – Environment Management Plan CAT – Catchment Area Treatment Cr. – Crores (Rupees) TRT – Tail Race Tunnel FRL – Full Reservoir Level TWL – Tail Water Level HEP or HP – Hydroelectric Projects WLS – Wildlife Sanctuary NDVI – Normalised Difference Vegetation Index LULC – Land Use Land Cover NoC – No Objection Certificate or No Objection NGT – National Green Tribunal FRA – Forest Rights Act UTC – Coordinated Universal Time Contents Executive Summary ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 1. Background ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 2. Hydropower Projects in Upper Sutlej ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 4 3. River Sutlej ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 10 4. Characteristics of Upper Sutlej Basin ................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 12 5. Kinnaur District: Demography, Slope and Aspect and Land Use .......................................................................................................................................................................... 18 5.1 Demography ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 5.2 Slope and Aspect ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 19 5.3 Land Use and Land Cover ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 24 5.4 Major Valleys’ in Kinnaur ‐ River Valleys in Kinnaur And Growing Impacts ................................................................................................................................................ 29 6. Evaluation through DPSIR Framework ................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 39 6.1 Driving Forces ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 39 6.2 Pressures .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 40 6.3 State ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 40 6.4 Impacts ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 40 6.5 Response .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 45 7. Critique of the Draft Cumulative Impact Assessment by ICFRE ........................................................................................................................................................................... 48 7.1 Categorization of Impacts ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 48 8. Vulnerability: Trigger Factors – Seismicity and Extreme Weather Events ............................................................................................................................................................ 57 8.1 Seismicity in the region .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................. 57 8.2 Basin Asymmetry ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 59 8.3 Snow and Rainfall ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 69 8.4 Extreme Weather, Transient Environments and Climatic Controls ............................................................................................................................................................ 71 8.5 Flash Floods, Heavy Downpour, Glacial and Landslide Lake Outburst ....................................................................................................................................................... 76 9. Conclusions .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 77 10. Recommendations .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 80 Executive Summary Rivers as natural watercourses have remained the most efficient systems to sustain lives and livelihoods of millions of people irrespective of whom they are serving but the scenario has been transforming as the pressures on these water systems and attached ecology has seen changes leaving the Rivers to be managed in a way that suits development of varied nature and interests. Rivers are polluted, rivers are being mined, rivers are being trained to respond to changes, rivers are dammed for energy but there is no effective mechanism to increase the knowledge about river and its morphological behaviour in order to best address the user & socio‐cultural interrelationships. Himalayan Rivers have drawn their path while going through immense geological processes and the writing is clear on the wall that Himalayan systems are evolving natural systems and are required to be dealt with careful development planning. While Himalayas have been credited as ‘Water Tower of Asia’ for their immense potential of serving the humanity, increasing challenges of climate change and intensification of hydro potential with micro to macro impacts on forests, land, livelihood, modulating hydrological flow regime suggests rethinking about rationalization of development schemes or planning where changes are irreversible and one approach fits all is not at all a welcome method. The Upper Sutlej catchment is about 19,000 km2. Almost the entire District Kinnaur forms a part of the catchment, except for a small portion in the east. The upper Sutlej portion of the river cuts across the three administrative units along its south‐westerly axis. The gradient from upstream to downstream of the river within Kinnaur is steep, falling about 1830 m over a distance of 130 kms. The distance between confluence of River Sutlej & Spiti and River Sutlej & Baspa is 73 kms., mean altitude of River Sutlej is 1635m, highest being 2950 m upstream of khab. With an estimated hydropower potential in excess of 27,000 MW for Himachal