Clearing Western Ghats Forest for Hydropower Project Threatens Local Livelihoods and Downwind Rain

Nearly 1,100 trees have been felled on Saidongar hill in Maharashtra's Raigad district to clear land for a 3,000-MW pumped-storage hydropower plant. The project is being built by Torrent Power at a cost of Rs 13,505 crore and is scheduled to be operational by 2029. It requires 377 hectares along the Sahyadri range, including 233 hectares belonging to the forest department and 144 hectares spread across six hamlets where about 150 families, mostly from the Katkari tribal community, live.

Livelihoods and the Forest Rights Act

Tree-felling was halted last week following protests by villagers and visits by opposition leaders and activists. For generations, local families have depended on the forest for firewood, honey, and seasonal produce such as mahua, jamun, and guava, earning Rs 150 to 200 a day from selling firewood. They also rely on medicinal plants like neem, gulvel, and adulsa instead of doctors, and fish in the dry Pej river during the monsoon. Under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, communities have the right to claim land where they traditionally collect produce, and forest land is not meant to be handed over until these rights are settled. Forest officials state that the Pali Gram Sabha never submitted records of dependent families, so the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change cleared the project on the assumption that no families required rehabilitation or compensation.

Wildlife and Wider Ecological Impacts

The project's study area lists 26 species under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, including leopards, sloth bears, Indian wolves, and pythons, though a state forest official noted these were recorded across a broader study area rather than just the 377 project hectares. A 2018 study by researchers from IIT Bombay and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research found that evapotranspiration from Western Ghats forests supplies moisture that feeds rainfall in Tamil Nadu and the Cauvery basin. The study warns that removing this vegetation could reduce downwind rainfall and raise average surface temperatures in Tamil Nadu by 0.25 degrees Celsius. Range Forest Officer Sameer Shinde stated that the felling was stopped temporarily to maintain law and order, and no decision has been made on when it will resume.

Context

Pumped-storage hydropower plants act as giant water batteries, storing solar and wind energy by pumping water uphill when power is cheap and releasing it through turbines during peak demand hours. This infrastructure model is increasingly used across India to balance intermittent renewable energy on the power grid. However, balancing clean energy transitions with local forest conservation and tribal land rights remains a complex challenge in ecologically sensitive zones like the Western Ghats.