As welders piece together iron rods on topmost portion of Sardar Sarovar Dam, a group of farmers clang cymbals as part of a protest at the base of the reservoir.
KEVADIA (Gujarat): As welders piece together iron rods on topmost portion of Sardar Sarovar Dam, a group of farmers clang cymbals as part of a protest at the base of the reservoir built by displacing thousands of tribals, farmers and submerging hundreds of villages in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Barely a kilometre from the mammoth structure, the second biggest concrete gravity dam in the world, the banners put up by the protestors outside the office of the local officer read 'we are not against the Sardar Sarovar Dam but we want our land'.
Anti-dam activist Medha Patkar may not have been there but protests against the project has continued through the decades since 1961.
"I am a third generation protestor seeking compensation for my anscestral farming land that has been submerged in the Narmada dam project", says Vikram Tadvi, a tribal of Limdi village and a protestor from the six villages that fall in Gujarat who have not yet got any alternative land.
His grandfather was part of the first outburst of protest that began in 1961 when farming land of several local tribals was submerged and they were given compensation packages, which they say is not even a fraction of what their land value was.
"There are at least 1,000 farmers of these six villages who have been protesting for 45 years and the government has no time to hear us out. Alternative land has been given to several Madhya Pradesh farmers (Narmada dam project affected persons) but we have not got even an acre", says Shankarbhai Tadvi, another aged protestor and a resident of this district flanked by Vindhyachal and Satpura mountain ranges.
The dam, the largest among the 30 planned on the Narmada river, has been built at a cost of USD 7.7 billion with the vision to provide drinking water, irrigation, hydro power to the three states besides Rajasthan.
Construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, now at a height of 121 metres, had begun in the late 1970's and has been marred by protests, riots and hunger strikes.
"We approached the deputy collector recently with a representation but he told us bluntly that only Chief Minister Narendra Modi can help us. How can poor farmers like us reach up the Chief Minister?" said Bhuvanbhai, a farmer-turned- labourer who has not given up his struggle for land even though it means a 15-km walk daily to the protest site.
The dam is regarded as one the biggest engineering marvels in India that will generate 1450 MW (installed capacity) of hydro-electricity and is aimed at channelising water to traditionally dry regions of Kutch and Saurashtra in Gujarat apart from several cities.
The project raised the hackles of environmentalists and Medha Patkar formed Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) to spearhead a global campaign to prevent the building of the dam while also championing for the cause of those displaced by the project.
"We do not have anybody like Medha Patkar on our side. Our struggle has been limited to the villagers only. If it goes on like this, my school-going son may also grow up and be part of the protest" Vikram says.
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