Page - 658 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

3. KEY ENVIRONMENTAL CHALLENGES FACED BY THE PROJECT  It was challenging to relocate 128 household in terms of their resettlement and prospective litigation  Mira Power became aware of National Park notification after submission of initial environmental due diligence and original Environmental Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and lenders for approval. Upon knowing of the notification regarding National Park further activity on the project was put on hold due to the new situation emerged with the appearance of critically endangered and endangered fish species within a legally notified area. The situation was pretty much alarming for Mira Power and was requiring immediate strategic interventions with reference to following mandatory requirements: 1) As per AJK Wildlife legislation ‘Betterment of the Park’ was mandatory to get approved actions and activities normally prohibited in a National Park 2) ADB and IFC in view of declaration of National Park and presence of Endangered Mahaseer and Critically Endangered Kashmir Catfish demanded ‘net environmental gain’ in biodiversity in Critical Habitant. 4. STRATEGY & IMPLEMENTATION To cope with the challenging problems Mira Power carried out following key studies/assessments to achieve sustainable development of the project:  Review of project design  A critical Habitat assessment study of the entire river in order to establish the actual status of biodiversity and ecological integrity of the river  A cumulative impact assessment of all projects planned on the river establish that if there is any room for considering the proposed project  An integrated ecological flow assessment of Gulpur Hydropower project assessing the upstream and downstream response of the project to establish any potential for achieving a net environmental gain and room for betterment of the park  A Biodiversity Action Plan demonstrating a net environmental gain and a net improvement in the national park In addition to challenge of relocation of 128 households Mira Power anticipated that the likelihood of achieving a net environmental gain with the original design having 6 kilometers of low flow/dry section with peaking scenarios will be difficult 658