http://JUDIS.NIC.IN SUPREME COURT OF INDIA 5. Safeguards against ill effects to the seismicity. 6. Ways of saving translocated wild plants and animals. 7. Proving alternative fules to project labour and ladders for migrant fish to cross over the dam. The Tehri Dam Project has obtaind a clearance and a major portion of the dam has already been constructed. The catchment area has not been filled with water as the two diversion channels having gates have not been closed for filling the dam. This is the right stage when there is necessity of close monitoring, evaluation and reappraisal of work to ascertain compliance of the conditions and check adverse impact on environment as also ensure rehabilitation of the people displaced from the dam area and the old Tehri town. In the instant case, the Corpration claims that it has fulfilled the conditions pari passu with the engineering works. This high claim is with the admission that the time Schedule in the condition of clearance has not been kept up. This is the proper stage when a thorough assessment by a team of experts in relevant branches is required to be undertaken for ascertaining whether the conditions of clearance have been fulfilled pari passu with the engineering works. If this is not done before the dam is allowed to be filled, adverse impact caused on environment would be irreversible and would not be compensated because of the severe scale of the ecological intervention. The mistake that might have been done in the past with regard to other similar large and small dams should not be allowed to be repeated in the Tehri Dam Project which is different from other dam Projects in plains. Tehri dam being located in the Himalayas the adverse environmental impact would both be up-stream and down-stream. Meticulous care and precaution, therefore, is required to be taken for a dam which is being constructed on a high altitude area posing threat to downstream population. If the safety aspects are not fully taken care of and the command area treatment is not done to the desired level or standard, the consequence may be catastrophic and beyond repair. Only two aspects, in my considered opinion, need special attention and consequent directions by this Court to the concerned authorities represented through the respondents in this case. 1. Safety aspect of the Dam: Tehri Dam have been cleared for construction in a seismically, unstable, earthquake prone area in the valley of Himalayas. The project was earlier not cleared on the opinion of the experts as a severe earthquake could burst the dam and destroy several important temples, towns and holy places like Rishikesh and Haridwar. There are other thickly populated towns and villages down stream. The members of the Environmental Appraisal Committee (EAC) which has an expert body within the Ministry of Environmental amd Forest had earlier unanimously concluded that the Tehri project did not merit environment clearance and should be abandoned. Thereafter, a Committee of Secretaries of concerned Departments was constituted which did not agree with the EAC’s recommendations. A dissenting note was submitted by expert Dr. V.K. Gaur to the Committee of Secretaries. The Committee then assigned reassessment of the task of safety to the department of mines. Professor Jai Krishna an earthquake engineer but not a seismologist opined in favour of the project. The foreign expert Professor James D. Brune was a seismologist who did not favour the project due to safety aspect involved. On safety aspects the matter was brought to this Court in case reported in Tehri Bandh Virodhi Sangarsh Samiti and Ors. v. State of U.P. & Ors., [1992] (supp) 1 SCC 44 by environmentalists. This Court while refusing to interfere with the matter went by the opinion of Earthquake Engineer Professor Jai Krishna. In his own language, "The design of the Tehri Dam as Page 32 of 37