Uttarakhand Elections: Villagers Affected by Tehri Dam Still Await Justice

The people of many villages affected by Tehri Dam are still waiting for the promised land for their land, but even after so many years (the project’s first phase was completed in 2006) no one is bothered about them.

Tehri Dam is considered to be the highest dam in Asia, its height is more than 835 meters. After so many days of the commencement of this dam, the villages under its submerged area are expecting rehabilitation of the displaced.

While the government has rehabilitated some affected villages and has also compensated farmers of some villages, yet many villagers have been protesting for years, terming the government’s rehabilitation policy as flawed. Villagers feel cheated that the promises made to them while building the dam have not been fulfilled and have been demanding justice.

One such village is Old Tehri is Malla Uppu, which was almost entirely submerged. NewsClick team visited this village and talked to people to know why they are still protesting?

Jai Singh Rana, 66, is a retired PWD employee. A large part of his land was in the submerged area of the dam. His house also was submerged in the lake. He has built a small house on forest land. He owns some land in the forest but it is not cultivable. The government did not resettle his family citing some technical reasons and asked them to take some money in lieu of their land. Rana refused to do so and demanded land instead of land.

Then there is Shambhu Lal, of the same village. He is a mason and the only breadwinner in a family of five. Almost all their cultivable land went under the submergence area. Lal said he is still fighting for his rehabilitation and hopes that he will get justice one day. 

Shambhu said the land that got submerged was very fertile, and used to yield four crops in a year. But, now they do not have any produce and are completely dependent on daily wages, that too only 10-15 days a month. Earlier, along with daily wages, there used to be enough foodgrain for household use, but now the situation has become very dire.

The Dam’s Development

Tehri Dam is built in Tehri district of Uttarakhand. This area is famous for the Chipko movement to save trees and the environment. Along with this, it also has a history of people’s struggle against the king. While India became independent in 1947, this area got its independence in 1948, when the king had to retreat after a valiant struggle by the people.

In 1972, the construction of Tehri Dam was approved and in 1977-78, construction work started. In October 2005, the last tunnel of Tehri Dam was closed and the formation of the lake started. Power generation from Tehri Dam started in July 2006. Along with the electricity, supplying water to several states was also part of the dam’s functions.

A total of 2,400 MW was targeted to be generated from this dam, out of which 1,000 MW is produced now and 400 MW is produced from the Koteshwar dam. There is still more work to be done to generate 1,000 MW, for which work is going on. At the same time, its reservoir is 42 sq km long. Along with irrigation, Tehri Dam also provides drinking water to Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

While the old Tehri City got submerged for this entire project, the total number of affected villages was 125, of which 37 villages got completely submerged, while 88 were partially affected. People living in these areas have been rehabilitated in adjoining areas of New Tehri and Dehradun. Yet, several villagers are still fighting for their rehabilitation.

Bhagwanji Rana, who fought this resettlement battle from the early stages, explained to NewsClick in detail how the government “ignored” the interests of the farmers and did not give what they wrote in their policy for the farmers.

Rana said as per the government policy, two acres of land would be given to farmers whose more than 50% land was in the submerged area, but there were many farmers whose land was not eligible under this policy. These were farmers who were initially nomadic tribes and lived in the mountains, and used to migrate according to the season.

For this reason, these people owned land in many places, but after some development, these mountain farming tribes also settled near their highest yielding land and their practical relationship with their far flung barren lands was broken. Many people do not even remember where their land is, and figured it out only while the government was rehabilitating them. Many people knew the location of their land but did not do any farming there.

Clearly, these farmers had no practical connection with those lands, but the government factored these in because of which many families were deprived of rehabilitation benefits.

Dharmanand Nautiyal, who has retired from the Indian Army, said his agricultural land and house were submerged in the Tehri Lake. He is currently building a house near the forest, a little way from his old village.

Nautiyal showed us a bundle of his correspondence with the government department, in which he has written letters from the local District Magistrate (DM) to the Prime Minister (PM), but has got only assurances. He also awaits justice.

The District Magistrate has himself surveyed the land of many farmers and has submitted a written report to the government that their remaining land is not suitable for cultivation and they are also eligible for rehabilitation. But the government is asking them to take compensation of Rs 5 lakh instead.

He also showed NewsClick a Supreme Court order, in which the court has also accepted his displacement and asked the government to rehabilitate him.

Nautiyal said be it Manmohan Singh or Narendra Modi, their problems remain unresolved.

Rana said when the government took land from farmers, it had assured them that electricity and water would be given to all affected families at a price of Rs.15 a month. But till date none of the families has received anything.

Madan Kaunswal, a resident of Mardara village, who is geologist and was involved in dam construction of this dam, is himself a victim. He said displacement is very bad but people sacrificed their land for the development of the country. “That's why we supported it, but the affected people have not been given what they were promised,” he said, while admitting that there’s a flaw in the government’s rehabilitation policy that needs to be rectified.

Jagdamba Rawat, who was village head of Malla Uppi for 10 years from 2008-2018, said she was a ‘big’ farmer and owned quite a large  land. But the government acquired a large part of her agricultural land, after which her woes began.

Before the acquisition, she had no need to buy ration from the shop because everything was produced on her land. Now, nothing is left in the name of agriculture. “We have to work outside to run our household. My husband works outside and my household is run from the money he sends,” she added.

Also, after the dam’s construction, there are problems like landslides in the surrounding villages, due to which villagers there have also been removed by the government, but they have not been given any benefits that were given at the time of construction. For example, the provision of giving land in exchange for 50% land acquisition is not being implemented, whereas all these landslides are happening because of the lake. In such a situation, people are criticising the government on the question of not rehabilitating them.

This lake was seen as leading to development of the entire area, but that does not seem to be happening. Governments did not pay any attention to creating new employment opportunities. Although water sports do offer some livelihood for the affected families, only the better off people have invested and benefited from it.

With voting here on February 14, the affected families are reiterating their demands in front of all the candidates. They want land for land and are hoping for a government that does justice to them.

(Translated from Hindi by Aditi)