Assignment -2 VEM

Introduction

The government was faced with the dilemma of whether to move forward and ​construct the
Sardar Sarovar Dam and displace more than 41000 families from their native place.

Critical analysis of arguments:

In order to analyse the above argument both pros and cons of the above arguments are listed as
follows:

Evaluating arguments of constructing Narmada Dam project

Main benefits of this project include irrigation and electrical power supply to four Indian states
namely Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra and Rajasthan.

Irrigation

Narmada dam project will provide irrigation facilities to 18.45 lac ha. ,2.46 lac Ha and 3.75 lac
Ha of land in drought prone areas of Gujarat , Rajasthan and maharastra respectively.

Power

House with an installed capacity of 1200 MW and 250 MW the two power houses viz. River
Bed Power House and Canal Head Power respectively will provide power to - Madhya Pradesh -
57%, Maharashtra - 27% and Gujarat 16%.

Flood Protection

The dam will provide flood protection to riverine reaches measuring 30,000 ha (74,000 acres)
covering 210 villages and Bharuch city and a population of 400,000 in Gujarat

Drinking Water Supply

A special allocation of 0.86 MAF of water has been made to provide drinking water to 131
urban centres and 9633 villages (53% of total 18144 villages of Gujarat) within and out-side
command in Gujarat.

Water supply requirement of several industries will also be met from the project giving a boost
to all-round production

On the banks of river narmada resides various Wild life sanctuaries viz. Wild Ass Sanctuary in
little Rann of Kachchh, ,Shoolpaneshewar wild life sanctuary , Nal Sarovar Bird Sanctuary,
Great Indian Bustard Sanctuary in Kachchh , Black Buck National Park at Velavadar and Alia
Bet at the mouth of River will be benefited.

This project gives various benefits of fisheries development, recreational facilities, water supply
for industries, agro industrial development, protection of conserved forest from grazers and

This will in turn lead to secondary benefits viz employment generation, increase in vegetal cover
in 3.4 M. Ha. of GCA, and gains due to compensatory forest, tree plantation and Carbon Dioxide
(CO2) fixation.

Counter arguments of the narmada valley project are :

large lakes are created near the catchment area of these dams also the size of these catchment
area will increase with increase in dam height.

This project would lead to submergence of the tribal around 245 tribal villages situated near the
dam area. As the lake size increase many revenue and tribal villages and their lands submerge.
about 2,00,000 people (approximately) will be facing exodus form their ancestral homes,
because of backwater effect of the dam .

Natural river flow is affected due to creation of dams. This would lead to poor sedimentation of
rivers in these areas.

At the bottom of the reservoir the Excessive sedimentation would result in rockier stream beds
which will make it more difficult for tribals to continue cultivation.

Also it was found that there were issues in identifying the beneficiaries for tribal rehabilitation
due to which these tribals not only lost their natural habitat but also did not receive the promised
compensation amount by the GOI.

It will increase the deforestation issue and it will create displacement of people on a large scale.

Development is coming at the cost of land alienation, livelihood displacement and exploitation of
poor and powerless tribals.

This Project will submerge about 10,000 ha of forest land.

These project will also flood a large amount of high yielding agricultural and grazing land of the
agricultural land, situated close to the banks of river Narmada

Displacement of tribals from their natural surroundings. In the socio- cultural and economic life
of tribals, the forest and the river play a central role but since they are forced to displace
themselves to resettlement sites neither will be present there this would deeply affect their way
of living.
GOI has designed a rehabilitation scheme for the people whose are facing negative side effects
but Many activists allege that the rehabilitation scheme is neither holistic nor effective.

Form the positives and negative points mentioned above by evaluating the arguments we can see
that there is a ​issue of unfulfilled promises ​to the tribals .
I.e. They have made certain promises, about what narmada dam will show or accomplish. But
these promises are not fulfilled at the ground level and due to this the tribals are facing worse
consequences.