From esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in Wed Sep 13 20:49:28 2000
Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2000 10:16:00 +0500
From: Environment Support Group 
To: Natural History of South Asia - General discussion and research
    
Subject: "Ernst & Young rewriting report"

FYI
 
TOI - Sunday, 3rd September 2000

Ernst & Young rewriting dam report 
BANGALORE: Ernst & Young, a top international accounting firm, said it was
rewriting an environmental impact report on a hydel project after
allegations that it plagiarised a report on a different project 145 km away.

The Ernst & Young report involves the construction of two dams close to the
Dandeli Wildlife Reserve and the Ulvi Bird Sanctuary in Karnataka. When two
saddle dams are completed, 87 hectares of moist deciduous and evergreen
forest would be submerged in the Western Ghats mountain range.

The global environmental group Conservation International has identified
the Western Ghats as one of the world's 20-25 treasure troves of biodiversity.

Ernst & Young was appointed by Murdeshwar Power to prepare a report for the
$40-million Dandeli mini-hydel project on the Kali river in order to get
government clearance, which occurred on June 5.

Local environmental groups were the first to charge that Ernst & Young had
copied "word for word" an environmental impact report prepared by another
consulting group last September for a different hydel project 145 km away,
affecting a different type of forest.

"We are investigating how this happened. The report was written and
submitted in haste," Kashi Nath Memani, the Ernst & Young director in New
Delhi, told The Associated Press on Friday. "It's a major embarrassment for
us. We will be preparing another report and submitting it afresh."

Memani added, however, "I'm neither denying nor acknowledging these
allegations." He said the report was prepared by one employee and was not
checked by a supervisor.

The Bangalore-based Institute for Catchment Studies and Environmental
Management had prepared the other ecological assessment for the Tattihalla
Augmentation Scheme, which would involve submerging 564 hectares of dry and
moist deciduous forest on the Bedthi River.

"Two completely different rivers. Two completely different types of dams.
Two completely different forest types to be submerged. Two different
locations," said Leo F. Saldanha of Bangalore's Environment Support Group.
"Yet the environmental impact assessment report for both projects are
identical. Word for word, para to para, section to section."

Except for a few minor differences, he said, "the villages, the species,
the climatalogical data, the water and soil analysis, the sampling
stations, are all absolutely the same. Ernst & Young have cared to change
only the name of the dam."

Anand Rao, the scientist who wrote the Bedthi River report, told the AP
that the Ernst & Young report was almost a copy of his work.

"How can you produce the same report when the physical features of the area
are different?" Rao said. "It is a fraudulent report. Ernst and Young
should accept their mistake and prepare a fresh report and submit it for
environmental clearance from the authorities."(AP)


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