Wildlife board approved power project in Sharavathi valley, documents show

The National Board for Wildlife has approved a large power project in the ecologically sensitive Sharavathi Valley, according to official documents accessed through RTI. The project involves using over 130 acres of forest land inside a protected wildlife area to build a 2,000 MW pumped storage power plant. Activists say the clearance was first shown as “in-principle” but was later treated as a final approval without proper transparency. Environmentalists and wildlife experts have raised serious concerns, stating that such projects are not allowed in core and eco-sensitive zones and warning about long-term damage to forests and wildlife in the region.