Vishnukant Tiwari
BBC Hindi
Bbc
The demonstrators say that the project will destroy their houses and its living
Thousands of Villagers of the Central Indian State of Madhya Pradesh protest against a several million dollars river connection project which, they say, will deprive them of their houses and their livelihoods.
The Ken-Betwa project, with a budget of 440 billion rupees (5.06 billion dollars; 4.05 billion pounds sterling), will channel the excess of the Ken river in Madhya Pradesh until the Betwa river in the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh through a network of tunnels, canals and canals and canals Uttar Pradesh through a network of tunnels, canals and a dam.
This is the first of the 16 type river liaison projects reserved for India’s national perspective plan for the development of water resources in the 1980s. The plan was confronted with several delays – mainly Due to environmental concerns and political disputes – before the government erased it in 2021.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi threw the foundation stone for its construction in December of last year.
The project is supposed to help the Bundelkhand region subject to drought – which includes parts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh – where an arid climate and unpredictable precipitation schemes have led to decades of poverty and underdevelopment .
The government says that once finished in 2030, it will help irrigate 1.06 million hectares of land, provide drinking water to 6.2 million people and generate 130 MW of hydroelectric and solar energy .
But at least 10 villages, including large stretches of precious forest land, will be overwhelmed to build the dam tank and 11 additional villages will be moved to build the channel, affecting more than 7,000 families, according to district officials.
“Our livelihoods are linked to this land – we no longer know what the future has in store for us,” said Tulsi Adivasi, who is part of the thousands of protesting villagers against the project.
Most of them belong to the Aboriginal tribes of Gond and Kol, who live along the forests and depend on agriculture to earn a living.
At least 21 villages, mainly inhabited by the tribes, will be overwhelmed by the project
Environmental experts warn that the project will overcome almost 98 km2 (38 miles m²) of the Panna Tiger reserve, a 543 km2 sanctuary which successfully brought back the local extinction tigers in 2009.
This could cancel years of conservation efforts. “It is unprecedented. We have never seen a central area of a national park used for a large -scale infrastructure project before,” explains the environmentalist Amit Bhatnagar.
In 2019, a panel of experts made up of the India’s cutting edge court also raised concerns about the project, calling into question its economic viability and its impact on the wildlife. The government, he said, should explore other irrigation methods in the river basin.
Independent studies on river liaison projects in India have made similar observations.
A 2023 study published in the journal Nature Communications stipulates that such efforts “can worsen water stress across the country, which makes these projects ineffective or perhaps even counterproductive”.
Baleshwar Thakur, who heads the National Water Development Agency, however defended the project, claiming that the authorities had carried out in -depth research and acquired all the environmental authorizations of the project.
“We have also appointed additional land to compensate for the loss of tiger habitats and will also rehabilitate the other species affected by the project,” he said.
The government official admitted that there would be a potential “challenge” to the region’s biodiversity, but said that “the benefits of the project prevail over the negative impacts”.
Thousands of villagers protest against the project since December
Insurance did not do much to comfort the villagers.
In the heart of Daudhan, Mahesh Adivasi, 48, sat with a group of men, who expressed their dissent in the form of a protest song.
“The Ken-Betwa dam is built by the government, it gives others water but drowns us,” they sang, the words capturing their anxiety.
The village is one of the poorest areas in the region, devoid of basic installations such as drinking water and electricity.
The bitter irony of the river project is not lost for its inhabitants – they ask why they are asked to abandon their house to provide electricity in 13 other districts when their own village has never had power.
“We have seen generations pass without progress. Now we are asked to sacrifice our lives for the progress of others. And we?” Mahesh Adivasi said.
The government has offered the villagers an optional remuneration plan, where they can either opt for land with 750,000 rupees ($ 8,655; £ 6,842), a single payment of 1,250,000 rupees. For those who have land, an additional amount based on the value of the land will also be given.
Anxious inhabitants say they live in perpetual uncertainty on the moment when they are asked to move
Mr. Thakur said that around 90% of people had chosen to take the lump sum. “In the meantime, the government has started to seek alternative government lands to reinstall the villagers,” he added.
But the inhabitants say that the amount offered is insufficient. Tulsi Adivasi showed the BBC Hindi an opinion from the government which estimated its house at 46,000 rupees.
“Can a house be built with so much money?” He asked.
Others complain of not having been informed when they have to evacuate or where they would be resettled, fueling anxieties about their future.
“The project should have been a blessing for our village, but the truth is that it will immerse us more in the dark,” said Lakshmi Adivasi, 20.
Questions have also been raised against the assertion that the project aims to channel the excess water of the Ken river.
Critics point out that the government relied on obsolete data from 2003, without independent verification, to calculate the annual yield of the river.
Thakur denied allegation and said the authorities “had all the data to continue the project”.
Mr. Bhatnagar, the environmentalist, said that by going forward with the project, the government created “a dangerous precedent” for similar development programs to be carried out in other geologically sensitive areas.
“And for people affected, this underlines once again how development in India is often done at the price of the most marginalized,” he added.
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