‘Regulator’s proposal on Rajasthan power lines flouts SC orders, threatens bustard’
The population of the critically endangered species has dipped to less than 150. File Photo
JACOB KOSHY
NEW DELHI
In a move that helps solar power projects in Rajasthan but may hinder efforts to make the region safe for the endangered Great Indian Bustard, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) has proposed that only power lines below 33kV need to go underground and the rest be fitted with bird-diverters.
Conservationists have objected to the move as they say it could lead to the “extinction” of the bird.
The proposal was part of draft regulations issued on February 1 and open to public comment until March 3. It came against the background of an ongoing case involving the threat to the bustard and other birds from power lines. High-tension power lines in Rajasthan and Gujarat from solar plants often lie on the flight path of the birds. The matter is of particular concern to the future of the bustard as fewer than 150 of them remain, and existing conservation methods fall short of replenishing their numbers.
In 2019, environmentalists approached the Supreme Court, which in 2021 directed all ‘low-voltage’ power lines, in areas demarcated as “priority and potential habitats of the Great Indian Bustard” in Thar and Kutch deserts, be pushed underground.
Solar projects
A majority of the power lines from Rajasthan’s solar projects have a rating above 33kV and several such proposed ones are expected to pass through the ‘priority’ areas. The court order would have required several existing and proposed lines to move underground, hiking the cost of supplying solar power.
“These draft regulations appear to be a way to circumvent the orders of the Supreme Court,” said M.K. Ranjitsingh, lead petitioner and conservationist.
“The 11kV lines are relatively low [in height] and have already been exempted. It was the high-tension lines that were the problem and with these regulations, virtually all high-power lines get the pass-through,” he said.
“If the regulations come into effect, this would lead to the extinction of a critically endangered species, which is the State Bird of Rajasthan. If this happens, it would be the second major species after the [Asiatic] cheetah to go extinct in post-Independent India,” the petitioners noted.
