trees, fields and animals who lived in the areas submerged by these dams. Thousands of trees and animals and acres of fertile fields and people who had been displaced to build these dams were completely ignored. They had no place to go and had been evicted with paltry or no compensation. For most people, this was a small price for the huge benefits that the large dams brought to the people of the country. Soon, people began to question even this, as it turned out if you actually accounted for all the expenditure and all the losses incurred in terms of forests and fields and villages, the investment in the dams did not yield adequate results. This was because the cost of the dams was huge and often it increased due to delays in construction and price rise. Secondly, they seldom irrigated the amount of land initially proposed to be irrigated or produced as much electricity as projected. This was because the actual amount of water that could be stored in the dams was usually less than what the engineers had assumed. All these questions came up when the government proposed to build a series of major and minor dams across the Narmada river in one of the most ambitious river valley projects in India’s history

People who stood to be displaced from the project, demanded a fair compensation not just to those who owned land but all those who lived there. They also demanded proper rehabilitation with land in return for the land lost and also afforestation to compensate for the loss of forests under the dam. Soon, people realised two things: that there was actually no adequate land available to compensate for the loss and that it was really not possible to rehabilitate all the displaced people properly. Secondly, people began to realise that the problem was not the question of compensation or rehabilitation but one of a faulty notion of development. Development which was based on unsustainable use of natural resources only paved the way for setting up of industries and commercial farms at the cost of farming and tribal communities. It only made unskilled manual workers out of the poor farmers and tribals without enhancing the quality of their lives in any way.

The leaders of the movement decided to oppose the very construction of the dams. In chapter 11, you read the letter written by Bava Mahaliya. He was part of the Narmada Bachao Anodolan (NBA) that organised peoples movement in the Narmada Valley against the dam.

Initially, the Sardar Sarovar Project was expected to be built with money borrowed from World Bank. After intense protests, mobilisation, marches, hunger fasts and an international campaign, World Bank decided to withdraw its funding.