An Unwanted Development's Report: Yermal

Change is constant. Technology: Omnipotent.

By: Shariq Khan

The Udupi Power Corporation Limited in Mudarangadi (Padubidri) has been operational for more than a year. The land on which it stands now was, six years ago, agricultural land. The air that it exhales smoke into was once cleaner. The farmers are now gone to lands far off. The residents of the villages nearby breathe while reminiscing how it felt fresher only a few years ago. Initially worried about the plant having been built within the Kudremukh Naional Park, the villagers along with certain social workers and NGO’s protested its establishment. The protests they made back when the proposal was laid down have long been suppressed and forgotten, but the problems kept growing.

The Udupi Power Corporation Limited located in Mudrangadi near Yermal, Udupi.

The 3,292 MW of power (as stated on www.udupipower.com) generated by the plant has not changed the power crisis faced by the villagers around it. Many of them are still without an electricity connection. They are facing the same problems they did before the plant was installed and also some newer problems because of the plant’s mismanagement.

Attributing to the low Wind Strength in the area, the smoke and other air pollutants released do not get dispensed and result in increased air pollution at the ground level. The effects are being seen already on the plants and crops. Though no Environmental Survey has been conducted but Villagers have reported decrease in the quality of harvest of Coconut and Arecnut. Shalet D’Souza, a resident of Yellur, whose family has been living in the village for over 80 years recalls how an approximately 50 year old Cheeko tree died a few months ago, also, noting the decrease in the ground water levels. Another resident David showed how his metal sheets were corroding because of the smoke. Ash and other hazardous wastes were being transported without proper precautions in open containers.

The acutest problem is being faced by the residents of Yermal and other villages which were located around the pipeline that carried water from the Arabian Sea to the UPCL for usage in the cooling down of machinery. The pipeline is broken and leaking in many places underground and has increased the salinity of the ground water to levels at which the villagers are no longer able to consume the water for drinking purposes and are forced to fetch water from far-off places. Moreover the water bodies in the area are highly inter-connected, indicating that if one source gets polluted, the other sources will also get affected over the passage of time.

It has been extensively debated that Udupi (Dakshina Kannada), being No. 1 in Human Development Index for Karnataka, does not need this kind of an industry for development. The question is if it is indeed developing Udupi or fulfilling some other connected motives.

The air is polluted and water not drinkable anymore. Ironically, they have a power plant in their backyards, but power-cuts prevail for hours. Such is the way that Technology changed the life of Yermal, Santhu and other villages around the UPCL.