Demwe hydroelectric project put on hold

Subject : Geography

Section: Places in news

Context:

The standing committee of the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) has put the Demwe Lower Hydroelectric Project in Arunachal Pradesh on hold till an expert committee asseses its impact on the flora fauna downstream.

Details:

Located on Lohit river, in Lohit district, Arunachal Pradesh
It will cut around 43,000 trees of Kamlang WLS.
Demwe lower HPP is close to two important wildlife habitats: the chapories (riverine islands) of the Lohit River and the Dibru Saikhowa National Park.
Both are important bird areas and habitat for the Bengal florican, an endangered bird species. It will also impact the dolphins downstream.

Dibru Saikowa National Park:

Located in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts, Assam, India.
It was designated a Biosphere Reserve in July 1997.
The park is bounded by the Brahmaputra and Lohit rivers in the north and Dibru River in the south.
It mainly consists of moist mixed semi-evergreen forests, moist mixed deciduous forests, canebrakes and grasslands.
It is the largest salix swamp forest in north-eastern India, with a tropical monsoon climate with a hot and wet summer and cool and usually dry winter.
Species in the park:
- Species include Bengal tiger, Indian leopard, clouded leopard, jungle cat, sloth bear, dhole, small Indian civet, Malayan giant squirrel, Chinese pangolin, Ganges dolphin, slow loris, pig tailed macaque, Assamese macaque, rhesus macaque, capped langur, Hoolock gibbon, Asian elephant, wild boar, Sambar deer, hog deer, barking deer, Asiatic water buffalo, and feral horse.
- The park is one of the few places in the world which is home to feral horses.

Chapories island:

A riverine island of Lohit river.
It starts from the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border near Sadiya and extends eastwards forming part of the ‘Assam Plains’ Endemic Bird Area.
More than 140 species of birds has been listed, and the total diversity could be more than 300 species including a large number of wintering waterfowl, Bengal Florican Houbaropsis bengalensis, White-winged Duck (Cairina scutulata), Great Cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo, Goosanders Mergus merganser, Ibisbill Ibidorhyncha struthersii, and many species of ducks.
OTHER KEY FAUNA: Among major mammals, there are Tiger Panthera tigris, Asian Elephant Elephas maximus, the rare Asiatic Wild Buffalo Bubalus amee, and Hog deer Axis porcinus.

Source of this article: Down to earth