Solar project development has been halted due to environment concerns: THE GREAT INDIAN BUSTARD AT THE HEART OF DEVELOPMENT V/S ENVIRONMENT ROW

The great Indian Bustard is a critically endangered species that live in the Thar desert of Rajasthan for most cases. The great Indian Bustard in recent years has become prey to the power lines which are running through its moving course because of their poor frontal vision and the habit of scanning the ground while flying across the flat grasslands of the Thar desert. This has led to the death of approximately five of the great Indian Bustard, due to getting electrocuted due to the collision with the power lines.

The Supreme Court of India adjudged a judgment on this case recently wherein they gave a decision which was leaning towards the great Indian Bustard as they ruled that the transmission lines in and around the areas which could be the habitat of the great Indian Bustard must be made underground as they sought to protect the critically endangered species of the Great Indian Bustard. However, this issue is not as simple as pitting development against nature, rather it is further nuanced as even if the costs of setting up underground transmission lines are kept aside it is technically extremely difficult to perform the same and could lead to many other further implications like bringing the renewable industry, especially solar, to a standstill.

Thus, it becomes extremely pivotal for everything to not be classified as black and white but rather give respect to that grey area and understand that although this is not the first case wherein renewable energy, which is being seen as the future source of our energy due to it being a green and clean source of energy, has affected the biodiversity and even though the effect of renewables on the biodiversity is considered to be negligible that is not the case always. The different sources of renewable energy can have a different impact on the biodiversity of the place like the birds and bats colliding with the windmills and then getting electrocuted, the sound being generated from the windmills affects the wildlife fauna around or the marine life is affected by the renewables. But it is equally important to understand that climate change affects the whole world, including the Flora and fauna present on Earth and thus it becomes imperative to move towards clean energy to reduce carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency and conservation. Thus, it is important to strike a balance between the sustainability and conservation of nature.

However, the decision adjudged by the Supreme Court of India fails to strike this balance as the judgment seeks to safeguard the existing population of the great Indian Bustard without exploring the other options like the birds’ distractor that are not being utilized for the most part but studies show that they reduce the bird deaths by 95% if implemented vastly which is a substantial amount of work on a project to lay the transmission lines present only in the moving path of the great Indian Bustard underground rather than having all of them underground which is not a viable solution.

The nature is at the heart of the Earth and the development is the fuel that lights our future, thus, it becomes pivotal that the nature and the development shouldn’t be considered as two separate boxes but rather they should come together and move towards a sustainable future wherein the ever increasing energy demands of the country can be met with minimum impact on the environment. The energy demand in India, which is projected to increase by 50% by 2030, is still being generated through coal which has highly devastating losses for the environment and to reduce this impact on nature by the traditional ways of generating electricity, renewable energy must be promoted as it has the minimum impact on the nature.