Every number on this site comes from a document I can point to:
Official papers first: Terms of Reference, clearance letters, Expert Appraisal and Forest Advisory Committee minutes, EIA reports, forest orders, gazettes and Central Electricity Authority records, mostly from the Parivesh portal.
News second: only from a fixed list of outlets (see About), summarised in my own words.
Every claim is labelled documented, reported, alleged (always with who alleges it) or official claim. The ⓘ beside a number shows the page and sentence it comes from.
Daily updates are added automatically and marked "not yet reviewed" until an editor checks them.
When sources disagree, I show both figures side by side.
Spotted a mistake, or have a document I should see? Write to daredavil239804@gmail.com with the page, the claim and, if you can, a source. I reply within 7 days and note every fix on the page.
Please check the linked source before you forward a figure.
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Each card names a safeguard in environmental or forest law, what happened instead, and the documents that show it.
13 shortcuts
7 shown in official documents
6 projects involved
1
threshold loophole Documented
Resettlement declared 'not applicable'
✅ The safeguard
The 2013 land acquisition law (RFCTLARR) requires a Rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R)What a project must provide to people who lose homes, land or livelihoods.More in glossary → plan for affected families.
⚠️ What happened
Karjat's Environmental impact assessment (EIA)The study a developer must commission on a project's effects on land, water, wildlife and people before it can get an EC.More in glossary → says no R&R plan is needed, citing a 2014 Maharashtra notification that applies R&R only to private purchases of 1,000 haDocumented“…pact Assessment (EIA) report , no Resettlement and Rehabilitation (R&R) Plan is required as the proposed PSP project is less than 1000 ha. As per the Government of Maharashtra s Gazette notification (Maharashtra Gazette notification No. LQN. 12/2013/C.R. 190/A-2 d…”Land Conflict Watch (cites draft EIA and 27 Aug 2014 notification) or more. The project needs 377 haDocumented“377 Ha at Village Potal, Saidongar, Ambot, etc, Sub District Karjat, District Raigarh,”Karjat EC, page1.
Wildlife clearance and stricter scrutiny apply to projects near protected areas.
⚠️ What happened
Karjat is framed as 16 kmDocumented“…3,000-megawatt pumped storage project in Karjat, Maharashtra, against environmental concerns, saying the project is located about 16 km from the Bhimashankar Wildlife Sanctuary and that all its components fall outside the sanctuary and its eco-sensitive zone. T…”ThePrint: Torrent says project outside sanctuary from Bhimashankar and outside its Eco-sensitive zone (ESZ)A notified buffer around a sanctuary or national park where some activities are banned or regulated.More in glossary →, so no wildlife clearance. Yet its own Environmental clearance (EC)The environment ministry's permission for a project, given after the EIA and public hearing, with conditions attached.More in glossary → lists 14Documented“Mammals (14): Indian Jackal, Indian Fox, Indian Wolf, Jungle Cat, Leopard, Indian Porcupine,”Karjat EC, page25Schedule-I speciesAnimals given the highest legal protection under the Wild Life (Protection) Act, such as leopard, sloth bear and pangolin.More in glossary → mammals in the study area and orders a human–animal conflict plan, and the site lies on the Bhimashankar–Malshej Wildlife corridorA strip of habitat that lets animals move between protected areas; usually has no legal protection of its own.More in glossary →.
Rejection by the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC)The central committee of experts that recommends ToR and EC for river valley and hydro projects, including PSPs.More in glossary → should force a lower-impact redesign.
⚠️ What happened
Warasgaon–Warangi was rejected on 27 Sep 2024 after its forest need tripled. A fresh Terms of Reference (ToR)The list of studies an EIA must cover, set by the expert committee. Getting a ToR is the first clearance step, not a permission to build.More in glossary → was granted on 31 Dec 2024.
Cumulative impact assessmentA study of the combined effect of all projects in one river basin or landscape, rather than one project at a time.More in glossary → and carrying-capacity studies show what many projects do to one basin together.
⚠️ What happened
None exists for the Kal, Savitri, Pej, Kalu or Koyna basins. Pane's upper dam is ~3 kmDocumented“· Upper Adani Dam is barely 3 kms from the proposed Upper Dam of 1500 MW Pane Pumped Storage by JSW.”SANDRP: letter to the EAC on the Adani dams · 29 November 2024 from Warasgaon's; residents say more projects are planned within 15–20 km of Karjat.
Eco-sensitive zones, the 10 km buffer around protected areas, and Western Ghats / SahyadriThe 1,600 km mountain chain along India's west coast: older than the Himalaya, a UNESCO World Heritage site and a global biodiversity hotspot.More in glossary → conditions limit where projects can go.
⚠️ What happened
CEA concurrenceTechnical-economic approval of a hydro DPR by the Central Electricity Authority, needed above a cost threshold.More in glossary →'s Jan 2026 roadmap proposes allowing Pumped storage project (PSP)Two reservoirs at different heights: water is pumped up when power is cheap and released through turbines when power is needed.More in glossary → in un-notified ESZs and within 10 kmDocumented“In a policy roadmap released on Tuesday, the authority recommended permitting pumped-storage projects inside eco-sensitive zones and within a 10-Km aerial distance of protected areas where such zones have not yet been formally notified.”Swarajya of protected areas, a lighter 'Red categoryPollution boards' highest-pollution class of industries; hydel projects over 50 MW are red, which restricts them in some ESZs.More in glossary →' for off-stream PSPs, afforestation on degraded forest land, excluding land above tunnels from diversion, and relaxing Western Ghats conditions.
Any non-forest use of forest land needs prior clearance under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980The 1980 forest law (renamed in 2023) that requires central approval before forest land is diverted.More in glossary →.
⚠️ What happened
The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC)The central committee that recommends whether forest land may be diverted for a project.More in glossary → (Jul 2024) recommended exempting exploratory drilling for hydro and PSPs, with felling of up to 100 treesDocumented“…vironmental compliance burden for pumped hydro and other development projects. The exemption will allow for the felling of up to 100 trees for exploratory drilling in forest areas and consider it “forest activity,” so as to keep it outside the purview of the For…”Mongabay India. Notification status unconfirmed.
Fast-track promised before the projects are assessed
✅ The safeguard
Environmental and water approvals are meant to be independent assessments.
⚠️ What happened
The CM announced a 'fast-track mechanism' for time-bound clearances, including environmental approvals (Nov 2025), and ordered time-bound rollout of all 55Official claim“Maharashtra Pumped Storage Power Projects: 55 MoUs Fast-Tracked”Electrical MirrorMemorandum of understanding (MoU)A non-binding agreement between the state and a developer to study and build a project at a site, with a water allocation.More in glossary → (Mar 2026).
Green incentives should reward net environmental benefit.
⚠️ What happened
PSPs are classified as renewable, earning green certificates, priority lending, transmission waivers and proposed REC multipliers, without netting out forest carbon or checking what power charges them.
No construction before environmental and Forest clearance (Stage-I / Stage-II)Central permission to use forest land for a project. Stage-I is in-principle approval with conditions; Stage-II is final approval.More in glossary → and a Public hearingA meeting near the project site, run by the state pollution control board, where affected people can object on record.More in glossary →.
⚠️ What happened
Activists say a Dec 2023 EAC site visitAn inspection by EAC members. Since Sep 2024 the EAC wants one for every Western Ghats PSP before EC.More in glossary → found surveys and civil works at Patgaon, and that no public hearing preceded permission.
An EIA must survey the actual site's species and river.
⚠️ What happened
The Bhorande EIA used fish data from a dammed river of the same name in Ahmednagar, not the free-flowing Kalu, and is called 'vague' on endemic plants.
Tree enumeration fixes the compensation and the scale of felling.
⚠️ What happened
For Karjat: Torrent's own draft EIA estimates about 48,000 treesReported“…down. Using modern machinery, trees are being cut in two to five minutes," More alleged, adding that on paper it is claimed that 48,000 trees will be cut for the project, but the company is actually chopping around 2.5 lakh trees. More claimed that the villages ar…”ThePrint on 233 haReported“…te Change to review the project’s environmental implications. The organisation has raised concerns over the proposed diversion of 233 hectares of forest land, warning of potential impacts on the Saidongar area’s natural resources, wildlife and local communities.…”FPJ, the Oct 2026 felling permission is reported at 32,490Reported“…Pawar Oppose Cutting Of 32,490 Trees For Karjat Power Project A forest order dated October 14, 2026, reportedly permits felling 32,490 trees in Karjat forests for Torrent Power’s proposed 3,000 MW Saidongar-I project. Commenting on the opposition criticism, state…”FPJ, and activists allege far more are being cut. The same EIA describes the forest as shrub and grass dominated with very sparse small trees.
The EAC should independently test projects, including whether they are needed.
⚠️ What happened
Experts say the EAC's rejection rate is practically zero, that it does no options assessment, and ignores CEA's own estimate of needed PSP capacity (~5× more in clearance than needed).
