Environment hasn’t been high on the agenda in India anyways. Now the country’s largest company Reliance Energy is endangering the chikoo belt of India, a part of the fragile ecosystem of North Mahastra. CNN-IBN investigation found the the emissions from Reliance Enerygy has actually created so much heat that the entire climate of the place has changed.

Dahanu: It isn’t sweet in Maharashtra’s chikoo bowl, Dahanu. A CNN-IBN investigation has found that Sulphur dioxide emission from a Reliance Energy-owned thermal power station is endangering chikoo farming. (Watch the CNN-IBN Video )

Chikoos seem to be in abundant supply here, but 45-year-old chikoo planter Noshir Irani says yield has fallen drastically. “I will say the production is 80 per cent less than what it used to be,” says Irani, who planted trees in his farm 30 years ago.

Irani blames the power station for the decline. “It’s because this 500 MW-thermal power station. It is creating so much heat that it is altering the climate of Dahanu,” says Irani.

The power station is situated in a region declared ecologically fragile by the Supreme Court, but environmentalists claim it is responsible for environmental degradation. Black deposits lining the once pristine Dahanu beach prove this, say environmentalists.

“This plant is releasing many things, like flyash emmision, particulate matter, suspended particular matter and even oxides of nitrogen,” says environmentalist Michelle Chawla.

But it’s the Sulphur Dioxide emission that worries Dahanu residents the most. “Acids formed during rains ruin the chikoo flower,” claims Irani. The result is economic devastation.

“In the last four years, we have had to break our fixed deposits to fund my son’s education,” says Phiroza Tafti, a Chikoo planter.

The High Court has asked for a de-sulphurisation plant by October 2007, but Dahanu residents say there is no move to switch to a cleaner fuel.

“What we can’t understand is that though a gas pipeline has been planned through Dahanu there is no move to convert this coal-based plant to gas,” says Chawla.

Environmentalists say switching to gas would be the perfect solution, as it would allow both the power station and Chikoo orchards to co-exist

“Gas-based power stations emit negligible Sulphur Dioxide compared to coal-based power station,” says Dr Rashneh Pardiwala, director, Centre for Environment Research and Education.

Reliance Energy refuses to comment on the issue. Dahanu residents say they would continue to fight against the plant.

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