After delinking the environment and forest clearances for highway projects, the environment ministry is mulling over a proposal to relax clearance norms for hydro-power projects.

The ministry is considering a proposal that allows hydro-power projects to initiate the forest clearance process without even completing comprehensive river basin study.

Guwahati: Buddhist monks in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang — which China claims as its own — have risen against construction of dams that they fear may endanger monasteries in the district.

Itanagar: Thousands of people led by the Buddhist monks and nuns descended on the streets of Tawang yesterday demanding scrapping of mega hydro projects and to protest against corrupt dealings in the district.

This was third and the biggest in the series of protests which started in April last year initiated by the members of Save Mon Region Federation and Society for Development of Cultural & Education, Sera Monastic University, Karnataka.

Days ahead of the first meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Investment ( CCI), the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), the statutory body for advising on forest clearances, rushed to clear a little over 20 projects, including those in mining and power.

The CCI, set up to hasten big-ticket infrastructure projects, had its first meeting on January 31. According to sources, as many as 30 projects came for hearing before the seven-member FAC on January 21-22. Of the seven members, only three were present.

With China seemingly on a dam-constructing spree over the Brahmaputra, including one near the point where the river enters India, the government has given the go-ahead for a big hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh to mark India's stake in a river that is in many ways a lifeline of the strategic North-East.

The government has given clearance to the 800 MW Tawang-II hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh this week, paving the way for its implementation, according to officials. The project had been pending clearance a long time.

With China seemingly on a dam–constructing spree over the Brahmaputra, including one near the point where the river enters India, the government has given the go–ahead for a big hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh to mark India’s stake in a river that is in many ways a lifeline of the strategic northeast.

The government has given clearance to the 800 MW Tawang–II hydropower project in Arunachal Pradesh this week, paving the way for its implementation, according to officials. The project had been pending clearance a long time.

Within days of China announcing three new hydroelectric projects on the Brahmaputra river and catching India by surprise, the Centre has set the ball rolling to build the strategic Tawang hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh.

The 800-MW power project proposed to be built on the Tawang Chu river has got forest clearance, with the Environment Ministry waiving the cumulative impact assessment for stage-I clearance that it was earlier insisting.

ITANAGAR: The situation remained grim at Tawang as thousands of people, mostly monks and villagers led by Save Mon Region Federation (SMRF), defied the 144 CrPC and took out a rally from Tawang Monastery to Old market on Monday in protest against construction of dams.

With the voice against construction of hydro-power projects in the district growing louder and louder, mystic Tawang is apparently turning into a battlefield of anti-dam activists.

Guwahati, Sept.

ITANAGAR, Sept 24 – Unusual landslides have threatened the existence of the world famous Tawang Monastery in Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, bordering China.