The peace and tranquility of my morning walk is shattered by the noise of a huge truck roaring up the mountain road. Every time I see them, they seem to get big in size and their load even bigger. Dozens pass by every day and I know where these monsters are heading. Deep into the mountains to drop their load at sites where numerous hydro power projects are coming up.
As our hunger for energy grows, every little stream is being seen as a potential site for hydro power projects. The more the merrier, and the bigger the better, seems to be the guiding principle. Armed with modern heavy machinery-JCBs, earth movers, drilling machines- and tons of explosives we have embarked on an ambitious mission to triumph over the world’s highest mountain chain and deface it forever.
One only has to visit a hydro power project site to see how lethal and devastating our modern equipment is and what it is capable of doing. The scars can be seen for miles around. Roads and tunnels are blasted through the mountain with relative ease. The surrounding slopes are dumped with mud and stewed with debris, which will eventually be washed down by the rain into the streams and rivers. Natural courses of streams are being diverted and there is no accounting for the loss of plants and aquatic life. The din and clamor of construction activity and frequent blasting has robbed the hill folks of their peaceful mountain life. It’s a war zone up there.
But all this is vital for the nations progress and to keep the economic wheel moving even if it comes at the cost of the environment.
Who cares for the environment anyway?