The Sardar Sarovar Dam project in India has caused massive environmental displacement and conflicts over the forced relocation of tens of thousands of people, especially indigenous communities. Local groups like the Narmada Bachao Andolan protested the project due to inadequate compensation for displaced people and environmental concerns. The project was further delayed by legal battles over water rights and rehabilitation. While construction of the dam was completed in 2006, issues around relief, compensation and proper resettlement of all affected families remain ongoing areas of contention.
The Sardar Sarovar Dam project in India has caused massive environmental displacement and conflicts over the forced relocation of tens of thousands of people, especially indigenous communities. Local groups like the Narmada Bachao Andolan protested the project due to inadequate compensation for displaced people and environmental concerns. The project was further delayed by legal battles over water rights and rehabilitation. While construction of the dam was completed in 2006, issues around relief, compensation and proper resettlement of all affected families remain ongoing areas of contention.
The Sardar Sarovar Dam project in India has caused massive environmental displacement and conflicts over the forced relocation of tens of thousands of people, especially indigenous communities. Local groups like the Narmada Bachao Andolan protested the project due to inadequate compensation for displaced people and environmental concerns. The project was further delayed by legal battles over water rights and rehabilitation. While construction of the dam was completed in 2006, issues around relief, compensation and proper resettlement of all affected families remain ongoing areas of contention.
The Sardar Sarovar Dam project in India has caused massive environmental displacement and conflicts over the forced relocation of tens of thousands of people, especially indigenous communities. Local groups like the Narmada Bachao Andolan protested the project due to inadequate compensation for displaced people and environmental concerns. The project was further delayed by legal battles over water rights and rehabilitation. While construction of the dam was completed in 2006, issues around relief, compensation and proper resettlement of all affected families remain ongoing areas of contention.
Introduction Since India's independence in 1947, there has been a surge of economic development activities in the form of massive infrastructure development projects. Proponents of large dams argue that only these types of massive projects can improve India's economy and the lives of millions of people. But the flip side of this sort of development is that it has displaced mo re than 42 million people in the country.
The actual number of people displaced by dams and other development projects has been quite controversial. A review by the World Bank notes that an average of 13000 people is displaced by each new large dam constructed currently. The construction of large dams completely changes the relationship of water and land, destroying the existing ecosystem balance . The poorest and most marginalized people are generally hit the hardest by displacement, most often without adequate compensation.
The Sardar Sarovar Dam is a case of a development project which is both directly and indirectly causing environmental displacement on a massive scale. The Narmada River is India's fifth longest river, starting in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and flowing west through the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat to the Gulf of Khambhat. The Sardar Sarovar Dam is only one of a proposed thirty large dams-ten to be built on the Narmada itself, and the rest on its tributaries.
Background of conflict The plan for harnessing the river for irrigation and power generation in the Narmada basin was initiated in 1946. Seven projects including the Bharuch project were identified during the initial Survey and 4 projects Bharuch (Gujarat), Bargi, Tawa and Punasa in Madhya Pradesh were given top priority for investigation. After the completion of investigation, the proposed dam at Gora in Gujarat with the full reservoir level (FRL) 161 ft (49.08m) was selected and the foundation stone was laid by late Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on 5th April, 1961. However as more detailed, modernized contour sheets from the Survey of India were available thereafter, possibility of raising the height of the dam for optimum utilization of water was considered.
In 1964, to resolve the dispute about sharing of the Narmada Waters between the Governments of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, the Government of India appointed an expert committee under the Chairmanship of late Dr. Khosla which recommended a higher dam with FRL 500 ft (152.44m) in 1965. However, Govt. of M.P. was not agreeable to development of Narmada water as per Khosla Committee report and hence the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT) was constituted by the Government of India in October 1969, under the Inter State River Water Disputes Act, 1956. NWDT gave its final award in December 1979. Nature of conflict The Sardar Sarovar Dam Project finally commenced in 1987, the SSP envisages an irrigation command of 1.8 million ha, installed power generation capacity of 1450 MW, and drinking water supply to 8215 villages and 135 urban areas. The reservoir, when filled to its maximum water level, will cover 410 km2 of land, and its main irrigation canal will be approximately 440 km long. It will bring drinking water to about 40 million people living in the drought-prone regions of Gujarat. As well, it will provide irrigation to vast areas; in addition, the Sardar Sarovar Project will provide much needed hydroelectric power. The Sardar Sarovar Dam is the second largest project in the Narmada Valley in terms of both total area submerged and the numbers of people displaced, which is where the conflict arises.
It will displace at least 100,000 people who reside in approximately 245 villages. Approximately 140,000 additional farmers will be affected by the canal and irrigation system, and an unknown number of people, ranging somewhere in the thousands, will be affected by the disturbance of downstream fisheries.
Sardar Sarovar is a classic example of a development project which is deemed to be "in the national interest”. The justification given for this dam project is that it will bring enormous benefits to millions, whilst displacing relatively few people. The majority of people to be displaced by this project are tribal people whose lands are said to consist of steep, rock y ground and degraded forests. These displaced people include the following categories:
1. There are the "outsees," i.e., those who are being outright evicted to make way for the dam project. Formally recognized as "Project Affected Persons," since they are being evicted to make way for the canal system, rather than the reservoir. 2. There are those who are being displaced as a result of losing a part of the environmental resources upon which they depend for their livelihood. 3. Lastly, there are those whose environment alters to the point of putting their economic livelihoods in jeopardy, including downstream fishery-dependent people and people who customarily occupy or utilize public land in areas which are targeted for rehabilitation sites. Source- https://the.bing.com
Viewpoint of the Stakeholders
No other river project in the world has ever before been held up for decades and locked in such ardent controversy as the Narmada which is because locals, mostly Adivasis, were ousted from their lands when hundreds of villages were inundated due to the project, causing lakhs of people to lose their livelihoods. The sufferers were afflicted with sorrow, grief and distress at the prospect of losing their jobs.
Later after 1980s the project was widely protested and one such protest took the shape of a spanner film documentary-Drowned out (2002), which follows one tribal family who decide to stay at home and drown rather than make way for the Narmada Dam. As the people of the valley were largely excluded in the initial decision-making process, affected people formed a powerful opposition movement, the Narmada Bachao Andolan, to voice their demands. The Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), led by activist Medha Patkar, soon launched an anti-dam agitation and took the matter to the Supreme Court over environmental concerns and the rehabilitation of tribal from their dwellings as their lands were likely to be submerged in the dam water. While her motive was the complete stoppage of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, Patkar’s first target was the financing acquired by the project from the World Bank. She was later joined by others like Baba Amte, Arundhati Roy and Aamir Khan.
Progress on the Issue
The construction of the dam was completed in 2006; about two decades after construction began. The project has been mired in controversy since it was conceived in the 1960s, with protracted battles over water sharing, evictions and compensation. Both environmentalists and social activists have raised serious questions about the projects. Environment Planning and Coordination Organization (EPCO), in Bhopal, carried out a study to assess the environmental impact of the NSP. This study is an almost worthless exercise; it is based on secondary data, which were at times found to be contradictory. Such a report can hardly be passed off as legitimate environmental research.
The people Maharashtra and Gujarat have been able to organize themselves to demand better rehabilitation with the help of Narmada Dharangrasht Samiti/SETU and Chattra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini. Two local organizations in the state - Narmada Ghati Sangharsh Samiti, Harsude and Narmada Ghati Nav Nirman Samiti, Tavlai - are working in these areas, but the existing socio-political situation has not allowed these samitis to organize the potential outsees.
Issues of Relief, Compensation and Rehabilitation
The NBA has said the dam displaced 3, 20,000 people - many of them poor tribal farmers who were not properly resettled on fertile land and disrupted the lives of tens of thousands more. Thousands have still not been compensated, the NBA said. The families who have won compensation had remained on their land, refusing to accept the state’s terms. The court also ordered the state to pay 1.5 million rupees each to 1,358 families who had earlier agreed the compensation, and asked the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra to prepare a plan for relief and rehabilitation for others displaced there.
While Madhya Pradesh has more families that have received plots of land on which to build new houses and cash compensation, it also has the most families (among the three affected states, the other two being Gujarat and Maharashtra) that haven’t received either farmland or alternate livelihoods. This has particularly affected landless people such as agricultural labourers, fishers, boat operators and potters, among others.
The Legal Mechanism
Efforts to harness the Narmada waters were initiated in the 1940s. Seven projects were identified and four of these including Bharuch in Gujarat and Bargi, Tawa, and Punasa in Madhya Pradesh were given priority. But inter-state disputes between Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat over sharing water hinder the progress of the dam. To resolve the dispute The Khosla Committee was formed in 1956, but its recommendations were not implemented. Then in 1969 The Khosla Committee was replaced by the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal, under the Inter State Water Dispute Act 1956.
The NWDT gave its final award in 1979 and decisions of tribunal were binding. The award given by NWDT has been considered as a remarkable one. The tribunal instead of confining its adjudication to sharing of water and hydropower benefit has taken special care to provide for the resettlement of the people affected. It prescribed a liberal package of land and civic amenities for the resettlement of oustees.
In 1992, the Sardar Sarovar Punarvasvat Agency was formed for implemen ting the Resettlement and Rehabilitation activities of the Sardar Sarovar Affected Families (PAFs) in Gujarat. The Government of India, Ministry of Rural Development Department of Land Resources has formulated a National Policy on Resettlement and Rehabilitation for project Affected Families -2003. Narmada Control Board in its 29th meeting held on 9 March 2006 took a decision to follow the provision of NPRR - 2003 for Narmada Valley Project.
Research Title: Development-Induced Displacement: A Case Study of Sardar Sarovar Project and Tribal Rehabilitation of Nandurbar District of Maharashtra
Research Title: Development-Induced Displacement: A Case Study of Sardar Sarovar Project and Tribal Rehabilitation of Nandurbar District of Maharashtra
