Adani Pump Storage Dams: Defiling sacred pools and fish sanctuaries in the Western Ghats https://sandrp.in/2024/09/25/adani-energy-dams-defiling-sacred-pools-and-fish-sanctuaries-in-western-ghats/
September 25, 2024 SANDRP
Tekpowale Fish Sanctuary: This small, remote settlement protects a pool and fish dear to a particularly fierce forest deity, Vardayini (Bestower of Boons). The pool is surrounded by a dark sacred grove which is the open-to-sky shrine to the goddess... Forest-dwelling communities here do not cast a net on the pool even when the drought is bad, and food is scarce. Water is not drawn from the pool, there are no pumps and pipes dipping in the pool, otherwise ubiquitous all over.
Adani Green Energy: 1500 MW Warasgaon-Warangi Pumped Storage Project: Adani Energy has proposed 1500 MW Warasgaon Warangi Pumped storage Project which consists of interbasin transfers of water from Krishna basin to the flood-prone, west flowing Savitri Basin and back.
How can such a project be proposed in a biodiversity-rich, highly dammed area with sacred space of worship, dense forests, a conservation reserve and a Wildlife Sanctuary?
Alternative analysis of the project locations done in the Pre-feasibility report is a purely desktop exercise which considers only the economic cost of the alternatives. The consultants (Tata Consultancy has worked on the PFR) simply put 4 options on paper and have paid zero attention to the siting and its impact on ecology of the Global Biodiversity Hotspot of Western Ghats.
https://www.adaniwatch.org/pumped_hydro_adani_s_2_billion_pumped_hydro_projects_to_impact_biodiversity_hotspot Campaigners,,, say these ‘pumped hydro storage’ projects will damage the biodiversity of the Western Ghat range. A tiger reserve and a wildlife sanctuary are adjacent to the proposed dams, which occur inside a sensitive seismic zone. Experts say that the environmental-impact study for parts of the project flagrantly ignores the environmental importance of this globally significant hotspot for biodiversity.