Residents’ groups in one of the most beautiful and rugged corners of Spain are protesting against plans to build a towering “electricity highway” over their hills, fields and farms, saying it will wreck their way of life.

Activists in the Alpujarra and Lecrín valley areas of south-eastern Andalucía said the proposed 110-mile line between the provinces of Almería and Granada would have devastating consequences for a region that depends heavily on rural tourism and small-scale agriculture.

The project, part of a national strategy to improve Spain’s energy infrastructure, is being overseen by the regional government of Andalucía.

The energy firm Red Eléctrica de España, which is due to build the 220-kilovolt line, said the scheme would help give the area “a modern, secure and reliable electrical network”, as well as bringing €106m of investment and creating more than 700 jobs during the construction phase.

It also said the project would not “substantially alter” the land on which it would sit.

But many locals are bitterly opposed to the line, arguing that the company’s pylons, some of which stand 79 metres (260ft) tall, would ruin livelihoods and damage flora and fauna.

“It would basically destroy the countryside and the way of life of a lot of people here,” said José Manuel Milán, a craftsman and gardener who is part of the Say No to the Pylons group in the Alpujarra. “This is an area that relies on nature tourism – there’s a lot of rural hotels, country cottages and restaurants. They would all suffer if the countryside was destroyed. People who come here for nature tourism aren’t going to want to spend their time here walking under cables.”

Another member of the anti-pylon platform said the scheme would destroy the very thing that has allowed Alpujarra to recover from decades of depopulation.

“This is a region that has managed to revive itself because of its natural beauty, which has brought in quite a lot of new inhabitants from both other parts of Spain and other EU countries,” said Jordi Jutglar, a baker originally from Catalonia. “I’ve spoken to people who were thinking about coming to live here but are now thinking twice about it because of the towers. No one wants to live in these conditions. It would be just devastating.”

A consultation period on the project ended on Thursday, and Red Eléctrica said it would spend the coming months studying residents’ concerns.

The Andalucían government will then decide whether the project should go ahead.

Red Eléctrica said: “In general terms, the line won’t substantially alter the landscape as we’ve already tried to ensure that the route and pylons can be built so as to have the least damaging form.

“But in any case, [we] will study all the objections and comments from neighbours and community groups and weigh up the viability of making changes to the project on environmental and sustainability grounds.”

Among those who have lived in the area for decades are the writer Chris Stewart – who has chronicled life there in a series of books beginning with Driving over Lemons – and the record producer and Killing Joke bassist Youth.

Stewart calls the Alpujarra, much of which lies within the Sierra Nevada national park, one of Europe’s “natural jewels”.

As well as birds, ibex and wild boar, the region is home to dozens of endemic plant species.

“It would be a hideous disruption to an area that really lives by its beauty and its uniqueness,” Stewart said. “The only things that work here in the Alpujarra is small-scale agriculture – which is more or less subsistence agriculture and, increasingly, organic agriculture – and rural tourism. The towers are hideous. You don’t want them in a place like this, you really don’t.”

Both Stewart and Youth suggested the line would cause far less disruption if it were to be run underground.

“[Red Eléctrica] can afford to bury these lines if they want to – they don’t have to build pylons,” said the producer, who has a studio in the Lecrín valley. “The pylons would completely turn an area of outstanding natural beauty into an industrial wasteland. It would be such a violent act upon the nature of the place and it defies belief that it’s even being considered.”