Nuclear Energy

2007” released by MoEF in May this year (2010) says that about 38% of the total GHG emissions
in our country is associated with electricity power sector. dcxxvi
To Conclude: Clearly, even assuming that the government manages to find the coal to fuel
its projection of 270-400 GW of coal based thermal power in 2032, these plants would destroy the
environment and health of the people of the country.
(ii) Costs of Large Hydro Power Plants
Large hydroelectric dams, like coal fired power plants, also wreak havoc on the ecosystems
and communities where they are located. The biggest problem with these plants is that the giant size
dams displace huge populations of people, leaving them homeless and destitute. The figures of
those displaced so far by large dams are mind-boggling. Arundhati Roy, in her wonderful article
“The Greater Common Good” quotes N.C. Saxena, Secretary to the Planning Commission, as
saying that nearly 4 crore people have been displaced by dams in the country since
independence. dcxxvii That’s more than three times the number of refugees created by the Partition in
India! What about rehabilitation? The government of India does not have a National Rehabilitation
Policy. What happened to these 4 crore people, where did they go, where are they now, how do they
earn a living now that their lands are gone, no one knows. And now, the government is proposing to
set up new hydro power plants to quadruple our present installed capacity!
The second and equally severe problem is environmental: dams submerge millions of
hectares of lush forests and large chunks of fertile river valley agricultural lands. The other
ecological problems caused by dams are less well known. The World Commission on Dams
(WCD), formed in April 1997 to research the environmental, social and economic impacts of the
development of large dams globally, found that “large dams generally have a range of extensive
impacts on rivers, watersheds and aquatic ecosystems” and “have led to irreversible loss of species
and ecosystems”. Damming of rivers impacts the quantity, quality and pattern of water flow in
them, and has caused a huge loss of freshwater diversity: up to 35 per cent of freshwater fish
species are estimated to be extinct, endangered or vulnerable. dcxxviii
Large dams contribute to global warming
Another myth with regards to large hydro power plants is that they are green, that is, they do
not contribute to global warming. Large dams emit greenhouse gases like methane, carbon dioxide
and nitrous oxide. The “fuel” for these gases is the rotting of the vegetation and soils flooded by
reservoirs, and of the organic matter (plants, plankton, algae, etc) that flows into dams. According
to a study by researchers from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research (INPE), the world's
large dams emit 104 million metric tons of methane annually, implying that dam methane emissions
are responsible for at least 4% of the total global warming impact of human activities. dcxxix The
study also found that more than one fourth of these emissions, 28% to be more precise, were due to
India’s large dams! Large dams are in fact responsible for some 20% of India’s global warming
impact! dcxxx
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