Hydropower proliferation in the name of ‘clean energy’ has severely impacted existing land-use, disturbed forest biodiversity and fragmented the forest landscape in the remote, ecologically vulnerable Kinnaur Division of Himachal Pradesh in the fragile Western Himalayas.
The findings are part of the study titled “Mitigation or Myth? Impacts of Hydropower Development and Compensatory Afforestation on forest ecosystems in the high Himalayas”. The study, conducted between 2012 and 2016 and its findings appearing in the latest issue of ‘Land Use Policy’ journal, also found fault with the related compensatory afforestation plantations.
Environmentalists Manshi Asher and Prakash Bhandari, associated with the Himdhara Environment Research and Action Collective, in their study said that they found that of the area of ‘forest land’ diverted to non-forest activities between 1980 and 2014, 90 per cent was transferred for hydro-electric projects (HEP)
