Any feeling of relief at the union government's decision to not allow any more dams in the upper reaches of geologically precarious Uttarakhand should be tempered by the likely impacts of existing and ongoing dam projects in the hills. In a move that constitutes an admission of ill-advised dam-building, the government has filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court in a decade-old civil appeal on a hydroelectric project, offering to disallow any new dams. It suggests permitting seven projects that are completed or are in various stages of completion to continue. Four of these have been commissioned, the affidavit says, and the rest require about 30% of work to be done. It is important to note that Uttarakhand’s environmental risks........

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