The Planning Commission on Monday approved a Rs.8,200-crore Annual Plan for Uttarakhand for 2012-13 which is Rs.400 crore more than last year.

“The Commission is fully aware of the infrastructure deficit in the State and its constraint in meeting the cost of infrastructure development…We will try to give Uttarakhand all help and assistance to ensure its overall growth and development,” said Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia after meeting Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna.

Hundreds of pro-dam activists left Srinagar (Garhwal) in buses on Monday to take part in a one-day dharna by Uttarakhand Minister for Drinking Water & Education Mantri Prasad Naithani at Jantar

“The Prime Minister should consider the development and aspirations of the deprived people of Uttarakhand and not give in to pressure tactics of anti-India forces that staged a drama at Rajghat and Jantar Mantar in New Delhi today,” said Jan Manch convenor Rajendra Todaria.

Senior Uttarakhand State activist and journalist Jai Prakash Uttarakhandi addressing media persons in Mussoorie threatened renewal of “Uttarakhand-type agitation” if the Centre does not immediately order resumption of work on all the suspended power projects.

Corbett National Park (Uttarakhand) Security in the Corbett Tiger Reserve (CTR) was recently breached by gangs of poachers belonging to five different communities.

“This is unprecedented,” said S.K. Datta, chief conservator of forest, wildlife and intelligence in Uttarakhand. “The local Sapera, Kanjar and Bawariya communities joined hands with members of the Bagdi community which hails from Rajasthan, Haryana and Punjab, with the members of the Bagariya tribe which hails from districts in Rajasthan and Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh, to enter the CTR with the intention of poaching.”

A raging controversy has erupted over land acquisition for the proposed widening of the Dehra Dun-Haridwar highway to four lanes on the Kuanwala stretch near here by the National Highways Authority of India with villagers blocking the road seeking enforcement of the national land acquisition norms and compensation as given in the case of a similar dispute in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.

“We don't object to parting with our lands for a national cause. But that does not mean we will let the authorities cheat us,” said residents of the area on Friday.

Corbett Tiger Reserve may boast of the world’s highest density of tigers but it is beset by a host of problems that may soon see it lose its premier status.
CTR’s director Rajan Mishra admits that CTR has witnessed an intensification of man-animal conflict with as many as eight humans being killed by a man-eater in 2010.

One of the main reasons for this conflict is the massive construction of hotels and luxury villas blocking of the entire eastern boundary with only two passages available for wildlife to approach the Kosi river.

Recent govt study proposed exclusion of about 2,900 MW of hydel projects in Uttarakhand as they may impact ecology of the state

Over Rs 17,000 crore worth of investments in Uttarakhand would be impacted if the proposals of a government study to stop work on various hydel projects in the state are implemented. A recent government study has proposed exclusion of about 2,900 MW of hydel projects in Uttarakhand as they may impact the ecology of the state, sources said.

Over Rs 17,000 crore worth of investments in Uttarakhand would be impacted, if the proposals of a Government study to stop work on various hydel projects in the State are implemented.

Does the ministry of water resources plans to construct 680 big and small dams on the Ganga and its tributaries?

An RTI filed by water activist Bharat Jhunjhunwala in 2010 revealed that the Uttarakhand government planned to construct 557 dams across the Ganga and its tributaries. The website of the Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd (UJVNL) reveals plans to construct another 290 dams. While going through these two lists, Dr Ravi Chopra, director of the Dehra Dun-based People’s Science Institute, said, “One hundred and thirteen dams were common in both lists while another 117 dams that were in the pipeline had not been listed in the RTI.”

With the mercury going up in the hills, the momentum of protests are also going in the same direction in Uttarakhand over the issue of hydel projects.

India’s top Public Sector Undertakings and private companies like L&T, Lanco, GMR, GVK, NTPC, THDCIL and UJVN are constructing hydel projects on the Ganga and its tributaries in Garhwal region with potential to generate 10,000 megawatts (mw) of power. These days, there are two different and contradictory protests going on in the hill state — one led by Avdhash Kaushal, a social activist, who wants the early completion of all dams on the Ganga and its tributaries where clearances had already been made.