Amid the much-hyped joint statement ‘Fostering Partnership for a Shared Future’ of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Disanayaka, the JVP-led National People’s Power government has decided to appoint a committee to review the Adani Group's energy projects in Sri Lanka which was approved by the previous Ranil Wicramesinge-led government. The joint statement also underscored the importance of timely implementation of ongoing energy cooperation projects between India and Sri Lanka.

Adani’s investment in Sri Lanka is the first major foreign investment since the country declared bankruptcy following the historic economic crisis. India was playing a pivotal role in rescuing the nation during the crisis. Under the ambitious goal of generating 70 percent of Sri Lanka’s total energy from renewable sources and a vision for a low-carbon future, the Board of Investment approved a $422 million project in Mannar and Pooneryn in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province in January 2023. The proposed project is one of the largest green energy projects in Sri Lanka; it is expected to generate a total of 484 megawatts of electricity. 

However, as the 250 MW Mannar project was planned to be implemented, the Bishop of the Diocese of Mannar, Rev. Emmanuel Fernando, and three environmentalists filed a fundamental rights petition in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. The petitioners have questioned the credibility of the environmental assessment report and have stated that the project will cause financial losses to the country.

But according to the Colombo-based Sunday Times, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), including Birds and Bat Studies, it was carried out by the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA), led by Devak Weerakoon, a senior professor at the Department of Zoology and Environment Sciences, University of Colombo. Based on this, doubts about environmental interference in Adani's major investment project in northern Sri Lanka cannot be avoided, as a similar Indian project in the strategically important Trincomalee faced the same interference.

Opposition to Indian projects

Indian projects facing setbacks are nothing new in Sri Lanka—in fact, one could even refer to this as the country's model of blocking Indian investments. It is common for the government to grant approval and then withdraw it citing local opposition. The Gotabaya Rajapaksa government, which signed a tripartite agreement with India to jointly develop the strategic Colombo Port’s Eastern Container Terminal, arbitrarily cancelled the agreement citing opposition from labour unions.

In retrospect, India’s coal-fired power project also faced the same obstacle under the name of environmental concern. Amid the war-torn situation in Sri Lanka, in 2006, the Sri Lankan government and India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to build a 500 megawatt (MW) coal power plant at Trincomalee, Eastern Province. However, 10 years later, with all the initial arrangements completed, the project was cancelled.

A similar intervention is happening now with Adani’s project in northern Sri Lanka. The Environmental Foundation Limited (EFL) filed a fundamental rights case against the Sampur project. Just as the Bishop of the Diocese of Mannar and some other locals in Mannar opposed Adani’s project, the people living in villages near the area chosen for the coal power station in Sampur were also encouraged to oppose it. However, China successfully implemented the 900 MW coal power project in Norochcholai. No environmental organisation in Sri Lanka has tried to sue it. Based on this, doubts about environmental interference in Adani's major investment project in northern Sri Lanka cannot be avoided, as a similar Indian project in the strategically important Trincomalee faced the same interference.

Suspicion of a Chinese hand?

Typically in Sri Lanka, environmental concerns are kosher only when India’s state or private-owned initiatives are planning to launch but do not show the same environmental outcries when it comes to Chinese projects, and even though some objections were voiced in the past there was not much support for them. Similar to the blocking of India's coal power project in Trincomalee, efforts are underway to cancel the privately owned Indian energy project in northern Sri Lanka.

Along with other electricity-generating sources, "coal-fired power plants are known culprits for releasing harmful pollutants" that cause extensive damage to humans, animals, and plants due to habitat destruction and environmental contamination. According to a new study led by George Mason University, The University of Texas at Austin, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, coal-fired power plants (coal PM2.5) are associated with a risk of mortality more than double that of exposure to coal from other sources. While a Chinese-backed coal power project in Sri Lanka is being carried out without opposition, Adani’s eco-friendly energy project, which the world is looking to as the energy of the future, is being opposed.

The North and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka are the focus of all of India's major projects. In 2021, during a visit to Colombo, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar expressed concern that “there is suspicion of a Chinese hand in slowing down or stopping all India-led initiatives, including a longstanding request to develop and operate more oil tanks in the facility in Trincomalee.”. When the Gotabaya Rajapaksa government cancelled the Eastern Terminal deal with India, there were tacit suspicions that Chinese influence might be operating behind the scene. A Western diplomat based in Colombo also shared the same view with the author during a discussion.

In 2021, Chinese firm Sino Soar Hybrid Technology was awarded the contract to install a hybrid renewable energy system in Delft, Nagadeepa, and Analthivu islands, off the coast of Jaffna, northern Sri Lanka. However, China later suspended this project due to security concerns raised by a third party, indirectly blaming India. Given this background, Jaishankar’s earlier concern appears to have some validity in the light of the recent uproar against Adani’s renewable energy project in Sri Lanka.

(The author is Executive Director, Centre for Strategic Studies. Trincomalee (CSST), Sri Lanka. Views expreessed are personal. He can be reached at director@trincocss.org/https://www.trincocss.org)