Thursday, May 27, 2021

IMPACT OF PARBATI HYDROELECTRIC POWER PROJECTS

By Ramaswami Ashok Kumar, B.E.,M.E.,Negentropist, Bombay Sarvodaya Mandal, 299, Tardeo Road, Nana Chowk, Mumbai-400007.

Revision 1 31-05-2021

© 2021 Ramaswami Ashok Kumar

Re: Tanveer Kaur, and Rajeev Kumar, “Impact of Parbati Hydroelectric Power Project Stage-II on the Interdependence of Ethno-Botanical Resources and the Inhabitants of the Parbati Valley in Kullu District of Himachal Pradesh.” Applied Ecology and Environmental Sciences, vol. 7, no. 4 (2019): 117-127. doi: 10.12691/aees-7-4-1.

1.  The authors may share the exact numbers of each species for all the species enumerated  in the study area during the period of data collection along with the date on which enumeration was done. This will help determine the number of threatened species and their IUCN  rank. Some species are common, others are less common and many are rare, may be a couple of plants only in the area for the rare ones.  So this data will be a ready reckoner to monitor the species diversity from time to time. Note that Parbati III is working even though Parbati II is under construction.

2. The authors have an assessment of the nallas drying up and this is critical for the ecology of the region. Also the impact on the communities in the region by depriving them of the natural commons wealth by identifying the species scarcity affecting the people is very useful for further work.

3. An assessment of the fundamental physiological services rendered by the plants and the fauna and their interconnections is needed and compared with that provided by the projects.

4. An impact study of the world’s dams on the projects shows that the root cause of the regular tunnel collapses in the area and elsewhere is the dynamics of the world’s dams in tune with the hydrological cycle.  

5.  The altering of the ecology of the world’s regions by dams.  Dams divide the area into upstream and downstream areas and inflict on the area suddenly changing water regimes from instant to instant.  Feeder tunnels stop the natural regime in its tracks. This ubiquitous man-made changes to nature disturbs the species balance- both fauna and flora and exposes the human beings to pandemics like the present COVID19. An audit for example of the Kullu tunnel collapse area shows that the power flow through the forest area of Himachal Pradesh far exceeds(ball park estimate: an order of magnitude more) the power generated by the  hydroelectric plants. The multi natural input multi natural output nature is infinitely superior in meeting man’s needs for a long long time by automatic reproduction into evolved forms(Table 1a). 


Figure P1: Study area of Kullu



Figure P2: The contrasting ecological diversity of the area


Figure P3: The contrasting ecological diversity of Kullu area studied


Figure P4: Himalayas: Kullu and Uttarkhand disasters due to the World's Dams



6. The exercise of providing the world demand of water for power and other demands by reservoirs by damming rivers and tunneling off the water from tributaries is causing climate change by direct heating up of the earth causing earthquakes, cyclones, flash floods, cloud bursts, avalanches and is now actively engaged in the flattening of the Himalayas(Witness just this year’s Chamoli disasters, the tunnel collapses in the Himalayas, avalanches, extreme rains and droughts, forest fires, buildings and cars ablaze, ships catching fire, nuclear disasters from Chernobyl to Kashiwasaki Kariwa,Fukushima and even Narora).

Check out the facts at Ramaswami Ashok Kumar. PERFECT DESIGNS. Blogspot for STARTERS. Then study my complete profile there for some vital answers regarding the ills of modern civilization.

Re:

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/rising-global-temperatures-inexorably-closer-to-climate-tipping-point-un/article34655845.ece?homepage=true#comments_34655845

What is missing from UN report? The contribution of dams to the quick full suicide of modern civilization. Did you know that NHPC is even today CLEAR FELLING CLIMAX FORESTS?    

Dam caused earthquakes, as they move from one earthquake to another, resulted in the destruction of tunnels by rockburst because of millions of Kelvin temperature shock input to masses of rock in Kullu every second!  See the COVID19 signal from nature because of man-made climate change(Figure 1).

Figure 1. World Dam Dynamics as it played out on 21-05-2021 at 1730 h IST.








The Parbati Hydro Projets have the potential for permanently  unstoppable geomorphic changes

The amount of Himalayan Rock that could be potentially moved by dam content changes like just this one exceeds by three orders of magnitude the geomorphic mass that could be moved by 1000 one megaton thermonuclear bombs(1). Further, such hydro projects may possess capacity for instantaneous geomorphic change concentrated in specific places, a frightening aspect of human geomorphic potential and the proliferation of such projects should be avoided at all costs. The total movement of earth material by this process is roughly equivalent to the total combined movement of material by mining, agricultural, road building, and other human activities each year. An estimated 3.8×109 tons of material are moved by mining each year in the US alone (Hooke, 1994; see Chapter 13.6).(1). However, many nuclear devices and/or   the combined effect of the world’s dams could disrupt geomorphic systems in ways that could initiate on-going geomorphic changes. Thus the effect of the world’s dams, and destabilization of vegetation and ground cover, could initiate catastrophic geomorphic responses beyond the work of the initial explosions. Study Table 1 which is self explanatory. Exactly at the time of the earthquake on 21-05-2021 at 12hrs UTC the tunnel collapse commenced. Lives were lost.







References

1.  https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/thermonuclear-explosion

2Earthquake data from USGS Earthquake Search website and EMSC-CSEM.

3Ramaswami Ashok Kumar. Blogspot. My Complete Profile.