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The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) has recommended in-principle approval for the diversion of 197 hectares of forest land for the 820 MW Kirthai-II Hydroelectric Project on the Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir. The project, to be developed by Chenab Valley Power Projects Limited in Kishtwar district, had earlier secured environmental clearance recommendations subject to forest approval. The run-of-the-river scheme will require the felling of 8,723 trees and forms part of a broader hydropower development programme in the Chenab basin.
The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has recommended in-principle approval for the diversion of 197 hectares of forest land for the proposed 820 MW Kirthai-II Hydroelectric Project on the Chenab River in Jammu and Kashmir. The recommendation was made during the committee’s meeting held earlier this month and is a key step in the project’s regulatory approval process.
The Kirthai-II project is planned in Padder tehsil of Kishtwar district and will be developed by Chenab Valley Power Projects Limited, a joint venture between the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation and Jammu and Kashmir State Power Development Corporation Limited. According to project documents reviewed by the FAC, the scheme will operate as a run-of-the-river hydropower project and will involve the construction of a 121-metre-high concrete gravity dam on the Chenab River.
The project had earlier been recommended for environmental clearance in 2021. However, the clearance was made conditional upon obtaining in-principle forest approval because the project area falls within a moderate-to-dense high-altitude forest landscape. The latest recommendation addresses that requirement and allows the proposal to move further through the approval process.
FAC records indicate that the project’s installed capacity has been revised from the originally proposed 930 MW to 820 MW. The Kirthai-II development is positioned between the Kirthai-I project upstream and the Kiru Hydroelectric Project downstream, forming part of a wider cascade of hydropower projects planned along the Chenab basin.
The diversion proposal involves forest land containing pine, silver fir, oak and other temperate broadleaf species. Project documentation submitted to the committee shows that 8,723 trees are proposed to be felled for project construction and associated infrastructure. The FAC has directed that a wildlife biodiversity management plan and habitat management measures be implemented, including provisions for animal movement passages in the project area.
Kirthai-II is the latest among a series of hydropower projects on the Chenab River that have progressed through environmental and forest clearance procedures in recent months. Government agencies have been advancing multiple projects across the Indus basin, including Sawalkote, Dulhasti-II, Ratle, Pakal Dul, Kwar, Kiru and Kirthai Stage I and II. Officials have stated that these projects form part of efforts to utilise the hydropower potential of the western river system.
The Jammu and Kashmir administration has also dispensed with the requirement for cumulative impact assessment and carrying-capacity studies for projects on the Indus, Chenab and Jhelum river systems, citing their strategic significance and the objective of maximising utilisation of available water resources.
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