From River to Reservoir: Hydropower Development and Biodiversity Loss in Kinnaurs HighAltitude Landscapes.
Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Hydropower development along the Sutlej basin has transformed Kinnaur in Himachal Pradesh into a major electricity corridor, with multiple large and medium projects cutting across a fragile, high-altitude landscape. This article undertakes a socio-legal examination of how these projects infringing the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (BDA), focusing on biodiversity loss, particularly of the near-threatened chilgoza pine (Pinus gerardiana) and functioning of statutory biodiversity institutions in a Scheduled Tribal district. After outlining the key provisions and institutional design of the Biological Diversity Act,2002especially Sections 36, 37 and 41, the article situates Kinnaur’s hydropower expansion within a broader pattern of forest diversion, river regulation and high-mountain habitat fragmentation. It then analyses the implementation gap in the constitution and use of Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) and People’s Biodiversity Registers (PBRs), drawing on National Green Tribunal (NGT) orders that have treated nationwide non-compliance with the Act as a serious governance failure. NGT interventions in hydropower-related conflicts in Kinnaur, such as the Kashang Integrated Hydro Electric Project, are used to illustrate emerging standards on community participation, cumulative impact assessment and procedural justice. The article concludes that Kinnaur offers a critical test case for the BDA as a living instrument of environmental governance: while the statutory framework is capable of foregrounding biodiversity and community rights in hydropower decisions, in practice it has been marginal in a district where forests, rivers and tribal livelihoods are undergoing rapid and often irreversible change.
Institution: Himachal Pradesh University
Language: English
Topic: Environmental law and policy
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7172504371