Tehri Dam Conflict

Throughout the 90s and early 2000s, few projects generated as much controversy as India’s proposed Tehri Dam. The hydroelectric power plant would supply irrigation, drinking water, and an annual 1000 MW of renewable power. It would also alter the ecology of Uttarakhand and force up to ten thousand people to leave their homes.

The government announced plans to dam the Bhagirathi River in 1990. Right away, several groups raised concerns. Flooding from the dam would reach the town of Tehri, displace local residents, and destroy areas of forest that had been protected since the Chipko movement. The dam’s location near a seismic fault could also put it in the path of earthquakes. Furthermore, the Bhagirathi is a holy river to Hindus, and many viewed the dam as a desecration.

Tehri Bandh Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti, or the Anti-Tehri Dam Struggle Committee, brought a petition to the national Environmental Appraisal Committee to halt construction of the dam. The case went on to reach India’s Supreme Court, where it continued for ten years.

Sunderlal Bahuguna, who had been active in the Chipko movement, protested construction through a series of hunger strikes. He also moved to a house by the edge of the river, which would be destroyed if the dam were completed.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the dam in 2000. In December, thousands of people organized peacefully to oppose resuming work on the project. They sat outside the construction site and stayed there. After about a month, police broke up the protests, both by arresting demonstrators and beating them.

Throughout the next four years, the people of Tehri launched several protests, occasionally repressed by police. One poignant demonstration recreated the Chipko protests in a forest that had been touched by the movement 20 years prior. Those trees were now slated for destruction to make room for transmission lines.

None of these protests succeeded in stopping construction. In 2004, the government completed the first phase of the project, and the dam became fully operational in 2006. It is now a familiar aspect of the landscape and a popular tourist attraction.