A committee appointed by the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) to study the case visited the site and said the dam would harm the grassland ecosystem, and the Bengal bustard and wild water buffaloe — both highly endangered species — that live in it, as well as fragmenting the habitat of the Gangetic dolphin downstream, and submerging a nearby conservation area of medicinal plants.

However, the State government officials insist that neither the grasslands nor conservation area would be submerged, adding that there are no reports of sighting the Gangetic dolphin near the proposed dam site.