An expert panel of the Union Ministry of Environment has been slated to consider next week’s environmental withdrawal, which officially works on China’s Yarlung Zongabo Rail upstream after working on the world’s largest hydroelectric project (60 gigawatts) officially for the 3,087-Megawat Atlin Hydel Project in Arunachal Pradesh.
On 20 June, the Ministry provided approval for the furnace of 1,175 hectare Prime Forest Land in Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh in Arunachal Pradesh for the Atlin Project. The forest region is classified as subtropical cedar forests, wet evergreen, semi-prepared, Monten Weight Temperate and Nam Alpine Scrub. The region is also home to widespread biodiversity of wildlife and plants. The forest area used is largely owned by the community, and 2.7 lakh trees will be axed.
Atlin has been proposed as a run-of-the-winter project on DRI and Tello rivers, including construction of concrete gravity dams to remove water through two different waterways systems. A run-of-the-supervision project does not include negligible or any water storage.
Dri and Talo rivers are tributaries of the Dibang River, which feed in the water of Brahmaputra. The Chinese project has expressed concern that it will affect the rule and security of water in the Brahmaputra basin.
The Central Electricity Authority has prepared a total plan of 13,798 MW on April 3 as per the Lok Sabha reply to 13,798 MW on 13,798 MW on 13 hydroelectric projects in Arunachal Pradesh.
Project Developer, Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) Limited, has proposed the project for evacuation before the Expert Assessment Committee (EAC) of the Ministry of Environment on the river valley and hydroelectric region. EAC recommended the project for environmental withdrawal in 2017.
Forest approval and environmental impact assessment
However, as the in-Principal One clearance was received only last month, the committee will again evaluate the project. It is based on clarifications issued by the Ministry in three office memorandum, if the procedure is followed, if a proposal was recommended at the beginning of a proposal for environmental withdrawal.
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The memorandum of the Ministry office states that if the data collected for the preparation of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report is more than three years old, the proposal will have to be sent back to the EAC for a relay.
An EIA report is an elaborate pre-pronounced study that assesses the impact of a project on the possibility of being affected on environment, wildlife, ecology and communities. The EIA report of the Atlin Project is from 2015.
“In such a situation, the EAC can be collected fresh data and after its own and after proper hard work, either its earlier recommendations can be repeated or decide to re -implement the project proposal on valid grounds, as the case may be,” according to the three previous office memorandum of the Environment Ministry. As far as a fresh public hearing is concerned, the expert panel of the ministry can conduct a fresh conduct and seek additional documents and information. In 2022, the Forest Advisory Committee of the Ministry of Environment rejected forest approval for the Atlin Project and asked for a new proposal due to wildlife and biodiversity concerns.
‘To affect18 villages and 216 houses’
SJVN has submitted baseline data for winter season since December 2024 and from April 2025 for a period of pre-monsoon, documents presented at the Ministry Show. The company said in documents filed with the ministry, “To ensure that the old baseline data does not obstruct the EAC to repeat its recommendation, fresh baseline data for two sessions has been collected and compared with data collected in 2012.”
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SJVN has presented an appendix in the 2015 EIA Report and Environment Management Scheme for the consideration of the committee. According to this new submission, eighteen villages and 216 houses will be affected due to land acquisition for the project.
If approved, the Atlin project will be the largest run-of-the-winter hydroelectric project in India. Even though the upper Siang storage-based hydel project will be more largely with a proposed capacity of 10,000 MW, but it has not stopped yet with pre-vigilance report under preparation amidst strong local protests on displacement concerns.
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