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The total land requirement of the project is about 120 hectares. Out of which, about 40ha is agriculture land and about 80 hectares is government forest land. The project is being developed by the Respondent No. 2. Respondent No. 3 had sent proposal for diversion of forest land vide their letter no. 65/IG-2521(Chamoli) dated 2nd September 2009. The said proposal was considered by the Forest Advisory Committee (for short FAC) of Respondent No. 1 on 30th/31st May 2011. While that being so, the matter of diversion of forest land for Kotlibhel 1A and Kotlibhel 1B hydroelectric Projects appears to have come up before the Hon'ble Supreme Court and the Respondent No. 1 herein was directed to conduct a detailed study with defined scope of work. The grant of FC in the present case was substantially based on the study made by Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (for short IITR) and Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun (for short WII). As per the scope of work, "effectiveness of mitigative measures and compliance of stipulated conditions on which various projects earlier have been examined", was to be completed, however, no such study was conducted. Thus, the recommendation of the FAC was based on non-existent study and as such is arbitrary and whimsical. Further, even the environmental flows study recommendations by IITR were also not done scientifically. The environmental flow requirement suggested by the IITR has not taken the ecological functions of flood flows into account. The cost benefit analysis was not evaluated properly and the negative aspects were not taken into account.

(v) rarely correspond to political or administrative boundaries;

(vi) may result from the accumulation of similar effects or the synergistic interaction of different effects;

(vii) may last for many years beyond the life of the project that caused the effects; and

(viii) should be assessed in terms of the capacity of the affected resource, ecosystem, and/or human community to accommodate additional effects.

The process of analysing cumulative effects is an enhancement of the traditional EIA components: (i) scoping, (ii) describing the affected environment, and (iii) determining the environmental consequences. The CIA studies in the instant case were awarded to IITR & WII separately with elaborate TOR and time bound deliverables as evidenced from the material placed on record. The TOR not only covered the physical, biological and social aspects but also highlighted the grey areas where specific inputs were sought such as determination of environmental flow, etc. The TOR clearly envisaged capitalizing on the available expertise of the expert institutions in their respective subject area. The scope of work also included integration of specific inputs/outputs by the two institutions leading to a comprehensive document to be able to provide direction to Respondent No. 1 in taking a final decision.

A number of case studies suggest that it is possible to improve the environmental performance of existing hydropower projects in a cost- effective manner, and sometimes with little or no social or economic disruption. This can be accomplished by implementing various water or energy management techniques that increase the flexibility of reservoir storage and releases such that environmental flows can be released into the downstream channel and floodplain. However, it is always easier and more cost-effective to integrate environmental flow considerations into the planning and design of hydropower projects than to modify or retrofit the design and operation of existing schemes.

In this context, the respondents invariably stated that the cost-benefit analysis has been carried out adopting detailed guidelines issued for the purpose by Respondent No. 1 (which has been submitted on records). It is further argued by all the respondents that the cost-benefit analysis prepared in accordance with these guidelines is to be furnished along with the proposals seeking prior approval of central government under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for diversion of forest land required for such projects. The respondents have further advanced the argument that the case studies of cost-benefit analysis submitted by the Appellants is not in accordance with the guidelines of Respondent No. 1 and details of unit rates, their basis and method, etc. have not been provided and more importantly parallels cannot be drawn to the case study of other project with the project under reference.