Police fired on protesters rallying against the setting up of the Karcham Wangtu hydro electric project in Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh. Same action, another location.

The jugernaut of 'development' has taken us to a stand off on another ongoing conflict in Himachal with government institutions again taking the way of force rather than engaging with the concerns of local communities.  

Among one of the many new hydel projects planned by the government in Himachal, the Karcham Wangtoo project has faced resistance from local communities.

This district has a large number of dams and hydel projects. Local communities have seen a drastic drop in water levels and reduced access to water. In addition, there also have been collapse of land causing dmage and injury. Communities thus oppose the Wangtoo project and are resisting the government.

The contract for this project was given to Jaiprakash Hydropower Limited. The local community has made allegations of criminal neglect against the company. Tribune News Service reported that earlier this year, a community group and delegation from the state CPM unit met with the government holding the company responsible for releasing water from the reservoir of the Baspa project without warning resulting in damage to property downstream. 

A report published by South Asia Network of Dams, Rivers and People has pointed to people being against the project since its conception. It reports:

Karcham Wangtoo is a 1000 MW Private hydro project (the largest private hydro project so far in India) of Jaypee Karcham Hydro Corp Ltd proposed to come up on Sutlej River in Kinnaur dist in HP. The Process in KWP has violated practically each of these norms of Environment Impact Assessment and Environment Management Plan. The EIA and EMP for this project has been done by National Environmental Engineering Research Institute and is a very shoddy piece of work,
mostly done sitting in a office, it seems.  There was no participation of the people in the preparation of EIA. A detailed report by SANDRP is presented here.

Local 'Devtas' have a significant presence in these communities and present a nuance that affects the social dynamics. These 'Devtas' are supposed to speak through oracles and supposedly the represent the wish of the people. The local devta has opposed this project and had recently asked the people of the valley to build a temple at the site to oppose this project. This weekend, over 20000 people started out in a procession to do just that. When police opposed them, the standoff turned violent.

2 people have been wounded in the firing and various reports say that between 7 to 14 leaders of the campaign against the project have been arrested.

In this context it is important to note that the government has opposed as unfeasible a proposal to set up community run small micro-hydel projects. In China however, over 20000 such projects in the mountains feed into their power grid.

With this firing, the standoff has reached an unprecendented point - the government in HP has not fired on protesters before. For the protesters, it may be a high point of direct action. Various groups opposing the project from across the state are meeting in Shimla on 11th December to decide the future course of action.

- This note was put together based on conversations with Navrachna - a Himachal based coalition of organizations.