A Lakshmana temple in Nashik holds significance as the site where Lakshmana severed Surpanakha s nose, precipitating the Lanka war. It s also known as Tapovan, where Lakshmana meditated to gain strength against Ravana s son to eventually kill him. While other temples dedicated to Lakshmana exist in Khajuraho and Chhattisgarh, the Nashik temple uniquely marks his presence, meditation, and decisive action against Surpanakha.
Permanent rehabilitation and compensation on the lines of Badrinath and the scrapping of the NTPC project for good are some of the issues which remain unresolved, Joshimath Bachao Sangharsh Samiti spokesperson Kamal Raturi said.The protesters raised slogans as they took out the rally from the Tapovan taxi stand, crossed through the main road and gathered at the Ved Vedang ground in Singhdhar ward.Local people allege that the digging of a 12-km tunnel for the National Thermal Power Corporations 520 MW Tapovan Vishnugad hydroelectric project exacerbated the subsidence in Joshimath.
The glacial disaster in Chamoli district on February 7 last year had brought about an avalanche in the Rishiganga and Dhauliganga rivers, killing hundreds of people at Raini and Tapovan, including many who happened to be at work at Rishiganga and Tapovan-Vishnugad hydroelectricity project sites.
A year after the disaster struck, body of yet another Rishiganga tragedy victim has been recovered from a tunnel at the NTPCs hydel project site in Tapovan, an official said on Wednesday. Bodies were found in the tunnel on February 15 and February 21 also.Altogether, over 200 people from Rishiganga project site at Raini and Tapovan-Vishnugad project site at Tapovan had gone missing in the tragedy.