At 260 meters height, the Tehri Dam will be one of the highest in the world, and will displace over 100,000 people and flood 27,000 hectares of land. Its peak capacity will be 2400 MW. Most of the generated electricity will supply the central grid.

Despite all the propaganda about "progress" and "development", much skepticism has remained over the benefits of the Tehri Dam. It is important to ask, benefits for whom? Who should control and benefit from the resources of a region? Opposition to the dam over its severe environmental impact, economic merit, and adequate compensation, have largely been glossed over in the national press, although in groundbreaking studies in scientific and environmental journals, the Tehri Dam has not fared as well. However, when the bureaucratic gears are set in motion, the machine is hard to stop, although political parties have exploited the issue on both sides! (Both the United Front and BJP originally came out against the dam right before elections, only to reverse their policies once in office. Same as in the Narmada situation). Opposition was once fierce, but the full weight of the bureaucracy and its propaganda arm have all but crushed the movement. Time will tell whether the Himalayas and Ganges survive this sledgehammer.

Here are some significant reasons why the Tehri Dam is not all that it's cracked up to be:

• The dam is being build over the confluence of the Bhilangana and Bhagirathi in a serious earthquake prone seismic zone that looks to become more active in the near future (Two major earthquakes in the 1990s -- 1991 Uttar Kashi, 1999 Chamoli). Any earthquake of over 8.0 in magnitude, incidently predicted in the next century by seismologists, could collapse the dam, or at least cause reservoir levels over the height, leading to a flooding disaster.
  
  
• Constructed on a feeder river to the Ganges, the project has elicited opposition from Hindu leaders including the VHP and Rishikesh-based Sants who see the dam as a sacrilegious violation of the river's right to flow unimpeded.
  
  
• Enormous water resources will be devoted to filling the hydro-electric reservoir, thus depriving the parched Tehri and Dehra Dun districts of more drinking water that has become critically scarce in recent years.
  
  
• Deforestation, leading to soil erosion in surrounding slopes, is predicted to cause heavy siltation, clogging the turbines and reducing the expected power generation significantly. The desilting process is also expected to be very expensive and would gobble up much of the generated electricity.
  
  
• The development has opened up a huge scar in the landscape, as the roads needed to supply the project have brought both pollution and geological disturbances.
  
  
• Cracks have already developed, much to the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation's embarrassment, in two sections near the control shaft gate (May 1998), portending further problems with the enormous edifice.
  
  
• Electricity generated by the plant will almost exclusively be supplied to Delhi and the plains, thus deriving little benefit for local communities.
  
  
• The U.P. Electricity Board workers' strike in early 2000 focused attention on the colossal amount of electricity theft from the power grid that continues unchallenged. What guarantees are there that the electricity generated at Tehri won't be similarly dissipated?
  
  
• Once an argument for the Dam, the amount of money and effort expended on the mega-project has proved to be a never ending boondoggle (although a bonanza for contractors mostly drawn from outside the region). Recent independent studies have claimed that the Dam will only operate for 40 years as opposed to the 100 promised by planners.

And after more than 30 years of blundering progress, the dam is still under construction…

- RR (4.7.00)