Environmentalists in Russia are fighting plans for a new pipeline and power plant in the Altay region, a area of Russia they say is prone to earthquakes and floods.

Green campaigners oppose both government plans to build a hydroelectric power station on the Katun river in the Altay region of Eastern Siberia and Gazprom’s intention to lay a strategic pipeline through the region.

Environmentalist Vera Samikova says “the Altay is in a high-risk seismic zone”.

“The pipeline is likely to trigger manmade disasters and explosions. The population here is small and not many will suffer, but the environment will,” Samikova said.

Moreover, Gazprom’s planned pipeline would pass through the Ukok Plato, a UNESCO world heritage site. Damage done to the serene wilderness and unique archaeological sites here would be irreversible, environmentalists claim.

Gazprom rejects this, saying that the risks are minimal.

“Our best response to critics will be the high ecological standard of our work. Gazprom's very presence will be a great economic opportunity for the region. Even now, before the project is running, we're doing a lot to help bring gas to the Altay republic,” Gazprom spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov said.

The battle over Ukok plato gathered most publicity, but what many are forgetting is the people living all along the path of the pipeline, many would have to sell their homes or face the fact their backyard would turn into a building site. There will be roads, builder's housing, and lots of traffic.

“Since ancient times we've been hunting in these forests, if the pipeline comes the animals will leave,” one local man said.

But the Minister of Regional Development of the Altay Republic, Yury Sorokin, insists the pipeline must go through the Altay.

“According to preliminary agreement the pipeline will bring three billion rubles to the budget of our republic. It will provide new jobs and bring gas to villages all around,” he said.

Yet despite this confident attitude, previous eco-disasters which have buffeted the Altai cannot help but spring to mind.

There were decades of nuclear tests at the nearby border with Kazakhstan, broken levees and flooding in 1992 and an earthquake in 2003.

“If something happens we have nowhere else to go, this is our home and we want it safe,” Vera Samikova says.