Abstract
India is one of the few developing countries in the world with a sizeable number of dams. The building of dams is still ongoing in as much as the storage per capita is far below requirements, especially when we consider the temporal and spatial variations in the pattern of rainfall, and the arid and semi-arid areas of large parts of India. The per capita energy availability is also far below the minimum need. Thus, notwithstanding the new emphasis on ‘management’ and ‘efficiency improvement’ of existing assets, the creation of additional and new storage through dams is an absolute necessity.
The views and opinions expressed in this chapter do not necessarily reflect, nor are to be construed as, those of the organisations with which the author is associated, either at present or in the past.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Water Spread Area is also used synonymously for ‘area inundated’ by the reservoirs created by dams or barrages in the official documents of India.
- 2.
See the chapter on Sardar Sarovar Project in this book.
- 3.
‘Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes’ are Indian population groupings that are explicitly recognised by the Constitution of India, previously called the ‘depressed classes’ by the British, and otherwise known as untouchables. Together, they comprise over 24% of India’s population, with Scheduled Castes at over 16% and Scheduled Tribes over 8% as per the 2001 Census. Their proportion in the population of India has steadily risen since independence in 1947.
- 4.
See Tehri Hydro Development Corporation ( 2007 ).
- 5.
In case reservoirs coming under submergence due to dams, the population affected belongs to two categories: urban (like Old Tehri Town which had a sizeable population before coming under water) and sporadic settlements (also affected with the reservoir creation). Sporadic settlements fall in a different group and are covered under ‘rural rehabilitation’. The differences in compensation inherent to the particular category could then be better addressed.
- 6.
Panchayat Ghar is the village level headquarters, a terminology in Hindi and used as such in English. The village level decision-making office (a mini scale parliament or white house that decides what is best for their village community) seats here.
- 7.
- 8.
Water-Bound Macadam road is a cheaper road construction methodology for village roads. The Water-Bound Macadam roads, in case of more frequent use, are protected with a spray of asphalt and then called ‘black topped’ road. Asphaltic road is superior and is not meant in the instant cases. Asphaltic concrete will require following a superior construction technology like coarse and fine aggregates of good-quality stones as per standards and mixing them with quality asphalt laid in layers and compacted with rollers. All these are not done in black topped roads: just a spraying of tar with spraying of fine sand on it so that the tar acts as binder and black topped smooth surface road is made available for users.
- 9.
See the India Country Report in the World Commission on Dams Knowledge Base available at http://www.dams.org/docs/kbase/studies/csinmain.pdf.
- 10.
See the paragraph preceding the penultimate one on the acknowledgement in the Preface in the India Country Report.
- 11.
See the Final Summing Up in Chap. 7 ‘Some agreed conclusions’, and paragraph 2 in the penultimate page of the Indian Country Report.
- 12.
As can be seen from the World Commission on Dams web site covering the Knowledge Base in which the India Country Study Report has been brought out, the Annex 7 details the comments from the Government of India whom the author represented as the Forum member and supplied the comments. That an important observation from the major stakeholder of a country of population of over a billion people (in 2000) stood relegated, is thus obvious.
- 13.
The reference is quoted in chapter 4, p. 104 of the main report of the WCD (2000).
- 14.
The distress migration is like the ones at the time of partition of India into Pakistan and India in 1947, where 7 million Muslim fled to Pakistan while 8.5 million Hindus fled to India. Many more instances are the ones like what was seen in Vietnam, labour migration from Africa to Europe and elsewhere all in twentieth century.
- 15.
Bhakra Dam command lies in Punjab (India), Haryana and Rajasthan. These lie to the west and northwest of the country. Bihar is an Indian state in the east of the country where a large number of labour moves to the Bhakra irrigated areas in Punjab seasonally.
References
Gopalakrishnan M (2000a) Dams and development – the final report of the World Commission of Dams – impressions and comments. Deutsches Talsperren Komitee (DTK), ICOLD Annual Meeting, Dresden
Gopalakrishnan M (2000b) Comments on India Country Report on behalf of Government of India. A Demi Official (personal) Communication to WCD (Dr. Achim Steiner) from Central Water Commission, Government of India, New Delhi
Gopalakrishnan M (2001) Impressions and comments on dams and development. Final report of the World Commission on Dams. Conference on Water Resources Development – Irrigation & Hydropower, jointly organised by ICID, IHA, ICOLD and CPU, New Delhi
Gopalakrishnan M (2002) Independent review of WCD — comments of Government of India in Central Water Commission. World Resources Institute, Washington DC
Ministry of Rural Development (2004) National Policy on Resettlement and Rehabilitation for Project Affected Families, Department of Land Resources, Government of India, New Delhi. Published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary Part-I, Section 1, No. 46, 17 February 2004
Ministry of Rural Development (2007) Comparative Statement of National Policy for Resettlement and Rehabilitation of Project Affected Families (NPRR-2003) and National Rehabilitation Policy (NRP-2006). Department of Land Resources, Government of India, New Delhi
Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corporation (NHDC) (2005) A special issue on Indira Sagar Project (Narmada Dam-Madhya Pradesh). Water and Energy International 62(4). Central Board of Irrigation and Power, New Delhi
Rangachari R, Sengupta N, Iyer RR, Banerji P, Singh S (2000) Large dams: India’s experience. A report for the World Commission on Dams. (Mimeograph for restricted circulation)
Sharma JP (2005) Rehabilitation and resettlement of project affected families in Indira Sagar Project of Madhya Pradesh on Narmada River. Water and Energy International 62(4):281–285. Central Board of Irrigation and Power, New Delhi
Tehri Hydro Development Corporation (THDC) (2007) Special issue on Tehri Hydro Project, Water and Energy International 64(1). Central Board of Irrigation and Power, New Delhi
Verghese BG (2006) Dams, development, displacement, tribals. Why water lies at root of everything? Chimanbhai Patel Memorial Lecture, Ahmedabad
Water for Welfare Secretariat (2008) Impact of Tehri Dam. Lessons learnt. Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee
World Commission on Dams (2000a) India Country Report. World Commission on Dams Knowledge Base. http://www.dams.org/docs/kbase/studies/csinmain.pdf
World Commission on Dams (2000b) Dams and development: a new framework for decision-making, Report of the World Commission on Dams. Earthscan, London
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Gopalakrishnan, M. (2012). Resettlement and Rehabilitation: Lessons from India. In: Tortajada, C., Altinbilek, D., Biswas, A. (eds) Impacts of Large Dams: A Global Assessment. Water Resources Development and Management. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23571-9_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23571-9_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-23570-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-23571-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)