Catchment Area Treatment: Catchment Area is that area from which water is directly or indirectly flow into the river, stream etc. Total catchment area of the Tehri Project is 6921.25 Sq. km. This area is divided into 16 sub-watersheds and 149 micro watersheds of which, 3557.99-sqkm are estimated to be snow bound, rocky, precipitious, alpine blanks or within the submergence area. Main purposes of catchments area treatment are to regulate the flow of water, prevention of soil erosion, to maximize the negative impact of the project itself on the catchment and to protect and regenerate vegetation in the catchment area and the water resources. Upon the acceptance of HRC Report the Union Government entrusts the responsibility of treatment of degraded areas of 'high' and 'very high' erodability to the THDC. At the same time the State Government has to formulate separate plans for the treatment of 'medium' and 'low' categories of erosion. On principle the Union accepts to treat the entire degraded catchment of all categories. the treatment of entire catchment pari passu with the construction of the project. It is submitted on behalf of the Respondents that an area of 37589 ha-as been treated till December 2001 and soil conservation measures are being implemented as part of treatment program for upgrading the environment of the entire region. The treatment of remaining area i.e. 3670.60 ha, is proposed to be completed by September 2003. On the question of catchment Area Treatment, it is Stated that treating degraded areas in the Bhagirathi catchment started even as early in 1970, the area coverage under CAT since the inception of the project was 22000 hectares which does not include the areas covered under CAT prior to inception of the project. As per the order of the Government accepting the recommendations of the HRC is that the project authorities should strive to complete as far as possible the treatment of the entire catchment of high and very high erodability classification pari passu with the construction of the project so as to be completed before commissioning of the project and it would be ensured that all direct draining areas of high & very high erodability must be completed before the monsoons and the present status of the coverage under this category is as follows :
Identified high and very high erodability area = 52,204 ha Completion of CAT carried out till date = 40,486 ha Balance area to be treated under CAT = 11,717.6 ha Balance area in Direct Draining [under forest] =3,670.6 ha The target for the area remaining to be treated as per the CAT in high and very high erodability area will be achieved by September 2003 and with the completion of the remaining area treatment of the catchment under Direct. Draining will be completed. As regards low and medium erodability category actions have been initiated by the Government of U.P. and an action plan has been formulated for treating such areas out of 10,000 hectares of forest area and 35,00 hectares of non-forest area. This would be in addition to 52.204 hectares as per the 1998 CAT plan. The project authorities have completed compensatory afforestation on 4516 hectares non-forest land in the districts of Jhansi and Lalitput and the Government of Uttaranchal has proposed to treat the said areas by taking up the catchment areas under densification, fuel wood plantation and restoration of degraded forests. The present status in this regard is that Catchment Area Treatment was under implementation by the State Forest Department in the catchment of high and very high erodability classification based on the earlier CAT plan formulated by the State Forest Department under which an area of 22,746 hectares was treated up to March 1994. Subsequently, it was decided to treat only the direct draining catchment of high & very high erosion class based on the satellite images. According, a CAT Plan, 1994 was formulated and submitted to MoEF for treatment of an additional catchment area of 13500 hectares in addition to area earlier treated, i.e., a total area of [22746 + 13500] equivalent to 36246 hectares. MoEF, However, directed in July 1998 that 52204 hectares of high and very high erosion classification, in the entire catchment, was to be treated at the cost of Tehri Project. This requirement was incorporated by the Government in it's decisions on the HRC recommendations. As decided by the Government, the project is now doing CAT in the entire degraded catchment in area of high and very high erosion class after excluding the areas already treated. An area of 37591.4 hectares has already been treated till December2001. The soil conservation measures are being implemented as part of the CAT Programme for upgrading the environment of the region. The remaining area is proposed to be treated by 2002-2003. The CAT Programme is presently being implemented by the Government of Uttaranchal. |
