Environmentalists threaten legal action against Mannar wind power project

By Ifham Nizam

Environmentalists and civic organizations have come together to protest the detrimental effects of wind turbines fixed in the Mannar peninsula, stressing that they would take legal action against the project shortly.

Recently personnel representing both state and private institutions collectively decried alleged adhoc policies of the government in this regard that would lead to man-made disasters, particularly floods, which have been experienced with the turbines coming up.

Environmental Scientist Hemantha Withanage told The Island Financial Review that they would team up with other organizations to put an end to projects that would hamper nature and public welfare.

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for Adani’s 250 MW wind power project in Mannar is now available for public comment.

A study by renowned scientist, Professor Sampath Seneviratne of the University of Colombo, reveals that in total, about 15 million birds (of 250 species) from over 30 countries visit Sri Lanka.

The study also indicates that, however, an estimated 1 million birds from 150 species stay in Mannar during the migration period.

As the proposed 250MW wind farm covers the entire northern half of Mannar island that falls between the Adam’ Bridge Marine NP & its buffer zone & Veditaltivu NR & its buffer zone, the proposed wind farm can severely affect movement.

The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) on the proposed 250MW Wind Power Project (Phase II) grossly devalues the importance of Mannar, a study points out.

Even though the EIA report proposed a narrow ‘Bird Corridor’ at the interior of the island, GPS-tagged birds in the Mannar Island show a wide use of the northern coast, while moving between the Protected Areas in Mannar (Adam’ Bridge Marine National Park, Veditaltivu Nature Reserve and Vankalei Sanctuary).

Some of the main reasons for the EIA to miss this important movement corridor along the north coast could be:

1. Wrong timing – The bird observations were done by observers walking in the forest – on foot – during the daytime from 6 am – 6 pm, while the bulk of the movement between protected areas happens between 6 pm – 6 am (at night).

2. Wrong season – The EIA did not cover the critical Migratory Period of birds during this study. Therefore, the observers failed to see the movement of large numbers of birds, as resident birds typically do not move in large flocks in Mannar.

3. The globally accepted technologies for the study of bird movement (that are available in Mannar) were not used to map the movement tracks.

4. It is surprising that the Central Asian Flyway and the Convention of Migratory Species of the United Nations were not stressed in the report.

5. Even though the EIA report states that a thorough review of information be carried out, the publicly available and widely circulated information on movement patterns of critical species of the Central Asian Flyway in Mannar was not referred to and seems to have been ignored. These satellite-tagged birds fly through the proposed wind farm.

6. The proposed narrow ‘movement corridor’ for millions of migratory birds seems highly arbitrary and lacks support from currently available information in the EIA report (on migratory birds in Mannar). The corridor is proposed conveniently away from the proposed wind farm based on – no study and no data (as stated in the report itself).