Context:
The Union government has informed the Supreme Court that it is not in favour of allowing any new hydroelectric projects in the upper Ganga region, especially in the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi river basins of Uttarakhand. The position is linked to ecological fragility, seismic risk, past disasters, and cumulative environmental damage in the Himalayas.
- The upper Ganga basin includes ecologically sensitive Himalayan river systems such as the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi, which later form the Ganga.
- Hydroelectric projects use river flow to generate power, but in mountain regions they may involve dams, tunnels, blasting, diversion of rivers, and slope cutting.
- Uttarakhand lies in a seismically active Himalayan zone, making large infrastructure vulnerable to earthquakes, landslides, flash floods and glacial lake outburst floods.
- The Kedarnath floods of 2013 and Chamoli disaster of 2021 highlighted the risks of unregulated development in fragile mountain ecosystems.
- Environmental concerns include cumulative impact, reduced river flow, biodiversity loss, muck dumping, destabilisation of slopes and damage to pilgrimage ecology.
- The issue reflects the balance between renewable energy, disaster risk reduction, environmental governance and sustainable Himalayan development.
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