ANOTHER power project has caught the eye of the greens. This time, it is the us power giant Cogentrix's plans to set up a 1,000 mw plant in the forests of the Western Ghats near Mangalore in Karnataka. Environmentalists contend that the Rs 4,387 crore plant could cause acid rain over the forests as the discharge from the 4 units of the plant can spread far and wide assisted by strong winds. According to them, the decision of the plant to use only imported coal instead of the Indian variety could prove costly for the ecology as imported coal has a higher sulphur content.

Raghavendra Gadagkar of the Centre for Ecological Studies, Indian Insttute of Sciences, Bangalore feels that the exact nature of the impact of the plant needs to be investigated thoroughly.