Tehri:An Overview........

Peoples are not happy with the rehabilation,there is resentment among the peoples.

Life became difficult for the people who resides on the other side of the hill, previously the market was accessable to them,but know the huge reservior beacame a obstacle, also Old Tehri have been shifted 27 km far from the original location,atleast the bridge have given some relief to the locals.

Only the I phase with capacity of 1000 MW is approved presently.There are four power house with capacity of 250 MW each,which are underground.

Old Tehri was situated at 755 m altitude in the fertile valley of Bhagirathi & Bhilangana rivers, where as New Tehri is situated at 1600m.

The old Tehri was established in 1805 by Maharaja Sudarshan Shah.

Tehri Dam: An Overview

India have confronted many big dam controversies.The controversies are mainly pertinent due to displacement of people, submergence of huge tracts of lands anf forests, loss of biodiversity & sesmic risks in the area concerned. The list of controversial projects is quite long, it goes from the Tehri Dam controversy in the North to the silent valley project in the south and from the Narmada Valley controversy in the West to the Koel-Karo in the East.

Luckily, last week i get chance to visit Tehri. My visit will show some light on the present status of Tehri town & the Dam........

Tehri is the eight tallest dam in the world, with height of 855 m. The grandiose structure of dam is amrk of victory of science & human over nature for one group of people & at the same time, it is symbol of misery and plight of thousand of peoples for others.

The main dam was at the confluence of Bhagirathi & Bhilangana river. The reservoir comprises an area of 42 sq km.

to be continued................

Beauty of "Dev-Bhumi" (Uttarakhand)

Triyuginarayan Temple, according to hindu mythology....this is place where the place Shiva wedded Parvati duing the Satyug. The divine fire was burning from the last many centuries uninteruptedly....

Majestic view of Chaukhamba Peak, located at an altitude of 7138 m in the Garhwal region of Uttaranchal. The fourth cone of the peak is not visible...

Terrace farming in Kedarnath region.............

Scenic view of Mandakini river...............

The confluence of Mandakini & Vasuki ganga. The tributries of Ganga in Rudraprayag...

How environment friendly is eco-tourism?

Eco-tourism now became a buzz word. Any thing which relates itself with forest or wildlife or artificially managed greenery associate it self or to be called as Eco - tourism...or eco- friendly...which is not always the case....this short shightedness of people & govts. is causing great damage to many ecosytems....some famous e.g are The Galapagos island, The trek for Sagarmatha (Mount Everest). The damge caused by the uncountabel number of people visiting in these palces, many a times are irreversible.....

People & governments always attach the "ECO" word with any kind of tourism & just thought that it is eco - tourism...no body bother to think about the ecologial foot steps of the people coming to those places....there is no any carrying capacity study conducted by the government, before giving the tag of eco - tourism...there is always a limit for intake of tourist at any place...at the same time there shoud also be consideration for the locals...the program which is to be started is really beneficial for the locals or not ? ...if it is not sharing the benefit with the locals residents then it could not be eco-friendly...people always form integral part of these kind of things.....

So, there should be proper study of any palce, before giving it the tag of Eco friendly tourist place...there should be also some kind of check toward tourist inflow...for sustainable future it should be manged in a proper way....Then only we can say that it is really a eco friendly program.....