Indiscriminate grazing is also harmful to the forests.Īs most dams are constructed in upper reaches of a river, submergence of forests and wasteland cannot be avoided. In fact, a large number of trees are cut every year to meet the needs of packaging industries, timber for building construction, furniture and transport sector, etc. The availability of cheap electrical energy by hydroelectric projects will help in reduction of deforestation because some fuel requirements can be met by electricity. Poor people in many countries depend on wood for domestic fuel requirements. For example, even if all the envisaged dams in the Ganga basin are constructed, the submerged area of the forest will be less than 2%. While large dams lead to submergence of the land area, they are not a major cause of deforestation. This issue is discussed in detail later in Section 7.10. It may be noted that generally the displaced population is about 2-4% of the population benefited by the project. Although no hard and fast rule can be laid down, such submergence should not be more than 20% of the extent of the benefited area, because with larger submergence, problems of resettlement and rehabilitation become intractable.
Usually, submergence is less than 10% of the benefited area.
Usually, the dam site is selected to keep the submergence as small as possible, subject to the project objectives, and technical requirements of the dam foundation, abutment, and the reservoir.
Submergence of lands behind a reservoir cannot be avoided. Singh, in Developments in Water Science, 2003 Submergence of Land
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