Case study on one river valley and one local area conservation project: Narmada Bachao Andolan and Tehri Dam?

Question

Case study on one river valley and one local area conservation project: Narmada Bachao Andolan and Tehri Dam?

Answer 1

I don't think I can add anything more than what Tanya Kumar has said.  It is quite good.

Answer 2

not jokin man.................. Tanya kumar's answer is really good.......... i'm using it for my own project.. ALL THE BEST

Answer 3

good answer , but much of the info is not required

    thanks fr help dude

             i've also got some info

Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) (Save Narmada Movement) is a non governmental organisation (NGO) that mobilised tribal people, adivasis, farmers, environmentalists and human rights activists against the Sardar Sarovar Dam being built across the Narmada river, Gujarat, India. It originally focused on the environmental issues related to trees that would be submerged under the dam water. Recently it has re-focused with the aim to enable the poor citizens especially the oustees to get the full rehabilitation facilities from the government.

Their mode of campaign includes hunger strikes, mass media publicities, garnering support from noted film and art personalities etc. Narmada Bachao Andolan, together with its leading spokespersons Medha Patkar and Baba Amte, was the 1991 recipient of the Right Livelihood Award.

Answer 4

hey i too got the same project..........................but i have really little information.......

NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN

Background

“Big Dams are to a nation’s ‘development’ what nuclear bombs are to its military arsenal.  They’re both weapons of mass destruction.”

-  Arundhati Roy



The Narmada River, on which the Indian government plans to build some 3,200 dams, flows through three states: Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.  Ninety percent of the river flows through Madhya Pradesh; it skirts the northern border of Maharashtra, then flows through Gujarat for about 180 kilometers before emptying into the Arabian Sea at Bharuch.

Plans for damming the river at Gora in Gujarat surfaced as early as 1946.  In fact, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation for a 49.8-meter-high dam in 1961.  After studying the new maps the dam planners decided that a much larger dam would be more profitable.  The only problem was hammering out an agreement with neighboring states (Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra).  In 1969, after years of negotiations attempting to agree on a feasible water-sharing formula, the Indian government established the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal.  Ten years later, it announced its award.  Ã¢Â€ÂœThe Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal Award states that land should be made available to the oustees at least one year in advance before submergence” (www.narmada.org/sardarsarovar.html).  

Before the Ministry of the Environment even cleared the Narmada Valley Development Projects in 1987, the World Bank sanctioned a loan for $450 million for the largest dam, the Sardar Sarovar, in 1985.  In actuality, construction on the Sardar Sarovar dam site had continued sporadically since 1961, but began in earnest in 1988.  Questions arose concerning the promises about resettlement and rehabilitation programs set up by the government, so by 1986 each state had a people’s organization that addressed these concerns.  Soon, these groups came together to form the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), or, the Save the Narmada Movement.

In 1988, the NBA formally called for all work on the Narmada Valley Development Projects to be stopped.  In September 1989, more than 50,000 people gathered in the valley from all over India to pledge to fight “destructive development.”  A year later thousands of villagers walked and boated to a small town in Madhya Pradesh to reiterate their pledge to drown rather than agree to move from their homes.  Under intense pressure, the World Bank was forced to create an independent review committee, the Morse Commission, which published the Morse Report (a.k.a. Independent Review) in 1992.  The report “endorsed all the main concerns raised by the Andolan [NBA]” (www.narmada.org/sardarsarovar.html).  In author Arundhati Roy’s opinion “It is the most balanced, unbiased, yet damning indictment of the relationship between the Indian State and the World Bank.”  Two months later, the Bank sent out the Pamela Cox Committee.  It suggested exactly what the Morse Report advised against: “a sort of patchwork remedy to try and salvage the operation” (Roy 45-46).  Eventually, due to the international uproar created by the Report, the Bank withdrew from the Sardar Sarovar Project.  In response, the Gujarati government decided to raise $200 million and push ahead with the project.

While the Independent Review was being written and also after it was published confrontations between villagers and authorities continued in the valley.  After continued protests by the NBA the government charged yet another committee, the Five Member Group (FMG), to review the SSP.  The FMG’s report endorsed the Morse Report’s concerns but it made no difference.  Following a writ petition by the NBA in 1994 calling for a comprehensive review of the project, the Supreme Court of India stopped construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam in 1995.  Tension in the area dissipated but soon the NBA’s attention shifted to two other Big Dams in Madhya Pradesh – the Narmada Sagar and the Maheshwar.  Though these dams were nowhere near their projected heights their impacts on the environment and the people of the valley were already apparent.  The government’s resettlement program for the displaced natives “continues to be one of callousness and broken promises” (Roy 51).  In 1999, however, the Supreme Court allowed for the dam’s height to be raised to 88 meters (from 80 meters when building was halted in 1995).  In October 2000, the Supreme Court issued a judgement to allow immediate construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam to 90 meters.  In addition, it allowed for the dam to be built up to its originally planned height of 138 meters.  These decrees have “come from the Court despite major unresolved issues on resettlement, the environment, and the project’s costs and benefits”

Key Actors

“Nobody builds Big Dams to provide drinking water to rural people.  

Nobody can afford to.”

-  Arundhati Roy



Native people

Dalits are the “Untouchables” of the caste system.  Translated literally the Dalits are the “oppressed” or “ground-down.”

Adivasi is the term used to designate the original inhabitants (indigenous people) of a region.



The State

The government of India supports the building of over 3,000 dams on the Narmada River.  What the State fails to take into account are the infinite costs of what it terms National Development; the millions of lives affected by the devastating environmental impacts of building dams.



Narmada Bachao Andolan, The Save the Narmada Movement

The NBA is a people’s movement formed from local people’s movements in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Gujarat.  Through peaceful means, the NBA has brought much media attention to the plight of the native people along the river.  Medha Patkar is a prominent leader of the group.



World Bank

The World Bank had originally supported the Sardar Sarovar with a $450 million loan.  However, after appointing an independent panel to review the impacts of the project the Bank withdrew support.  The panel expressed much concern that the environmental and social impacts of the project had not been properly considered.



The Supreme Court

The Court is one of the most formidable opponents of the NBA.  It has exercised its power over the people through judgements to continue with building of dams along the river, disregarding concerns about the dams’ environmental and social impacts.



______________________________________...

Strategies

“This July will bring the last monsoon of the twentieth century.  The ragged army in the Narmada valley has declared that it will not move when the waters of the Sardar Sarovar reservoir rise to claim its lands and homes.” - Arundhati Roy



http://www.goldmanprize.org/search/searc...



With activist Medha Patkar to lead them, the Narmada Bachao Andolan began mobilizing massive marches and rallies against the Narmada Valley Development Project, and especially the largest, the Sardar Sarovar, in 1985.  Although the protests were peaceful, Patkar and others were often beaten and arrested by police.  Following the formation of the NBA in 1986, fifty thousand people gathered in the valley from all over India to pledge to fight “destructive development” in 1989.  In 1990, thousands of villagers made their way by boat and foot to a small town in Madhya Pradesh in defense of their pledge to drown in the reservoir waters rather than move from their homes.  Later that year on Christmas day an army of six thousand men and women accompanied a seven-member sacrificial squad in walking more than a hundred kilometers.  The sacrificial squad had resolved to lay down its lives for the river.  A little over a week later the squad announced an indefinite hunger strike.  This was the first of three fasts and lasted twenty-two days.  It almost killed Ms. Patkar, along with many others.  

The NBA has also taken a more diplomatic approach to getting through to the government.  They have submitted written representations (complaints) to government officials such as the Grievance Redressal Committee, the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam, the President, and the Minister of Social Justice and Environment Maneka Gandhi.  More often than not, their voice goes unheard and unacknowledged

solution

No one has ever managed to make the World Bank step back from a project before.  Least of all a ragtag army of the

poorest people in one of the world’s poorest countries.” -   Arundhati Roy



The demonstrations, protests, rallies, hunger strikes, blockades, and written representations by Narmada Bachao Andolan have all made an impact on the direction of the movement to stop the building of large and small dams along the Narmada.  Media attention from these events has taken the issues from a local level to a more national scale.  The NBA was an integral force in forcing the World Bank to withdraw its loan from the projects by pressuring the Bank with negative media attention.

history

A first study about a " Narmada Valley Development Project" started in 1947. The aim was to provide large amounts of water and electricity that "are desperately required for the purposes of development".

The resistance against the dam in the form of the ‘Narmada Bachao Andolan’ started with the beginning of the works in 1987. The main issue for critics and debate is the "Rehabilitation and Resettlement"- (R&R) policy. According to the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT), every project-affected family (PAF) should be given land one year prior to the submergence of their land and be rehabilitated completely. The Narmada Valley is a long hill range in the state of Madhya Pradesh and forms downstream the border between Gujarat and Maharashtra. The Narmada River flows westwards into the Arabic Sea. A first study about a " Narmada Valley Development Project" started in 1947. The aim was to provide large amounts of water and electricity that "are desperately required for the purposes of development". It has grown to a project comprising 30 large dams, 135 medium and 3000 small dams. According to a first plan from 1959 the biggest dam should be the "Sardar Sarovar Project" (SSP). But full-scale construction of this dam did not start before 1987.

Rehabilitation

The main issue for critics and debate is the "Rehabilitation and Resettlement"- (R&R) policy. According to the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal (NWDT), every project-affected family (PAF) should be given land one year prior to the submergence of their land and be rehabilitated completely. The latest official estimates from the three states add up to 41,500 PAFs, or 207,500 people, around 80% of them in Madhya Pradesh. Almost all the PAPs in Gujarat and Maharashtra and perhaps half of those in Madhya Pradesh are adivasis, or indigenous peoples. Large numbers of poor and underprivileged communities are being dispossessed of their livelihood to make way for dams being built on the basis of dubious claims of common benefit and "national interest". For no large dam in India has it been shown that the resettled people have been provided with just compensation and rehabilitation.