Photo Courtesy: nenow
Itanagar: Developers behind the 1,720 MW Kamala Hydroelectric Project are pushing back against reports claiming 2,340,213 trees will be chopped down. They say the numbers are wrong. A project press release states that the tally erroneously lumped 1,140,000 bamboo stalks and 879,032 small poles in with actual timber. Stripping those out leaves roughly 321,181 stems, which the developers claim will fall significantly as the final count stabilizes.
The project spans the Kamala River across Kamle, Kra Daadi, and Kurung Kumey districts. It operates on a Build-Own-Operate-Transfer model via a joint venture between NHPC Limited, holding 74 percent, and the Arunachal Pradesh government, holding 26 percent. Costs sit at Rs 26,069.50 crore. The facility aims to generate 6,870 million units of power each year. It also seeks to hold back floods in the Brahmaputra valley. Design plans feature a 216-metre concrete gravity dam and two powerhouses: one with eight 210 MW Francis turbines and a 40 MW unit for environmental flows.
The reservoir will cover 26 square kilometres and hold 1,927.60 million cubic metres of water. Engineers added a 15-metre flood cushion to manage water levels. Total land usage covers 38.58 square kilometres, with forest land accounting for 32.78 square kilometres. Developers noted that bamboo was historically classified as a tree under the Indian Forest Act of 1927. While a 2017 amendment changed this for non-forest areas, the plant remains regulated within forest boundaries. The statement argued that "bamboo clumps to be listed separately from trees in felling statements" due to their unique ecological roles.
State officials will receive 12 percent free power plus another 1 percent for local infrastructure. To offset the 3,278 hectares of forest land diverted, developers promised to plant new trees across 7,018 hectares. They claim this effort doubles the impacted area. Officials insist they will limit felling to essential zones for construction, safety, and reservoir access.
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