Guwahati, Oct. 12: The National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) has prepared an environmental management plan to restore the Lower Subansiri area’s forest cover.

The 2000-MW Lower Subansiri hydroelectric project, on the river Subansiri, is being executed by the NHPC. The project site straddles Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh and Dhemaji district of Assam.

The land required for the project is 4,111 hectares, of which 4039.9 hectares are stretches of forest.

NHPC chairman Yogendra Prasad, who was here to inaugurate the organisation’s stall at the National Expo 2003, said all possible steps were being taken to restore the forest cover of the Lower Subansiri area.“Apart from “compensatory afforestation, a resettlement and rehabilitation plan has been chalked out,” he added.

According to a survey, 36 families in the two villages of Gengi and Siberite will be partially affected by the hydroelectric project.The affected families will be rehabilitated in accordance with the resettlement and rehabilitation strategy proposed in the environmental management plan.

A committee has been set up to monitor implementation of the relief and rehabilitation plan Prasad said the corporation had undertaken seven projects in the Northeast with a generation capacity of 25,000 mw.

He said law and order problems in the region did not bother the corporation and it would go ahead with these projects with help from the state governments.

The ministry of environment and forests recently asked the NHPC to undertake a study on biodiversity and habitat conservation.“Efforts should also be made to identify the migratory routes of wildlife in the vicinity. The project authority should submit the report within one year to this ministry for approval,” it said.