The Himalayan Mountain system is dotted with 12 rivers, out of 18 major rivers of the country. Hundreds of small rivulets and thousands of streams make the Himalayas as “Water Bank of Asia”. This constitutes 42% pf the total of the country. It is ironical that these rivers have not been of any use to the local resident, except for the minor utilities in the form of watermill, occasional irrigation, not exceeding 2% of the total potential use (Joshi 2004)
The government scheme of water supply has largely failed due to its appropriate nature, poor maintenance and distribution. This has plunged mountain residents to severe water shortage, so much so that women and girl have to walk kilometers for potable water. In Uttranchal, out of total 16000 villages 8800 villages have been placed as water scarce villages. The districts like Almora, Pauri, Tehri, Pithora Garh and Chamoli are facing drinking water crisis (Joshi 2004).
72% women and 14% children have to bear the responsibility of carrying potable water. The average 60% women have to walk ½ km while 10% of them walk 4 km for fetching water. The villagers are not satisfied with the government scheme.
In district Tehri, Smt Bachni Kaunthura has to climb 1.5 km, 5 times to collect water with a back load of 40 litres of jerry cane. Smt Shankara Devi of Village Nagri of district Tehri has to engage herself for water collection from 3 a.m in the morning. There is often quarrel among women on the issue of water. When the quantity being the priority is not met out, quality of water becomes the secondary need.
They believe that traditional methods of water harvesting were the best. By their own efforts, where government has failed, villagers are making at hilltops to charge spring, an ageold practice like in Maikoti (Rudraprayag).
Women are suffering lot in every village where water problem is severe. Natural sources are drying up which adds the kilometers for women everyday to quench the thrust of their family as well as animals.
Women are the major workforces in whole Garhwal region. They work from early morning to late evening to serve the family. They do all household work from cooking to cleaning and washing clothes and soiled utensils as well as look after their children and animals. Women also collect the water required for cooking, cleaning, washing, bathing and drinking both for human beings and animals.
Smt. Kundana Devi of the village Kandakholi, in district Tehri, which is situated above 1800m M.S.L, told with tears in her eyes that there is pipeline from Govt, but water comes weekly or sometimes fortnightly only for one hour. There is no natural source nearby. The govt. water supply is through a pumping system, lifted from Bhilangana river a tributary to Bhagirathi which is at about 700m M.S.L Now they reduced the number of animals only because of water crisis. The only source close to the village is about 1.5 km. The discharge rate is only 1.0 liter per minute. A woman has to wait for minimum of 1 hour to fill a buntha (20 lt.) of water. They get up early in the morning to queue for water and go to bed late around 11.30 after storing enough water for next day work.
Smt. Shashi Devi of Kandakholi says that we take bath one by one and only once in a week because of the water problem. Or they go very early or very late to the spring to take a bath or wash the cloths. They also told us that water is also reducing every year. They are also afraid of drying of the only existence source.
Similar stories were told by the women in other villages also. 269 ladies of 32 villages in two districts of Garhwal Mandal in Uttaranchal were interviewed for water. It was observed that a glass of water is much more precious than Kerosene oil in the villages where people have to travel more than 8 km for one brass pot (Gagar) of water or have to pay to more than Rs. 50 for one 15 liter of tin. Most women walk on an average of 5-10 km per day just to fetch the water. In some villages condition is worse, where women walk between 20-24 kms per day spending 5-9 hrs per day just for water.
Villagers also blamed Govt. for their hand pump scheme everywhere. According to them natural water sources are drying wherever there are hand pumps.
During the survey in Jaunsar area of district Tehri Garhwal, village Nagthat, Duena, Vishoi, Gadol, Jandoh, Chitar, Chichrad and Gangoa were visited. It was observed that water in the region is mostly acidic in nature. Water problem in Chitar and Gangoa villages is very severe, where people carry water on mules from 8 – 10 Km far from the village. Because of the poor water quality, most of the villagers in the regions are suffering from many diseases related to skin and teeth. Natural resources of water in the area are very few and they are also disappearing very fast. During the survey, Smt. Nisha Devi of village explained that they are not getting enough water for their animals so they take their animals to the spring about 2-3 kms away.
In the villages where govt. pipeline is available, water quality is quite good but due to the carelessness of extension workers, they don’t get water. Especially during the two months in the summer they face lot of problem. Another problem is of maintenance of the pipeline, whenever it is damaged by one or other reason, repairing is always delayed. Women are not able to do their normal work due to the time spent to fetch the water. Most of the women in water scarce villages suffer from the joint and back pain. Girl child education also got affected in such villages because after mother they have to bring the water. Boys also spent their time for water collection as well as to take the animals to the water sources, which affects their studies. Water mills in most of the villages are either closed or are seasonal, because of reduction in the water in the streams.
Source: Shekhar Singh and Pranab Banerjee (ed., 2002): Large Dams in India: Environmental, Social and Economic Impacts, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.
It needs to be noted that Tehri Dam Project is only one of the over 40 hydel multipurpose projects, which have been constructed, or being constructed/ investigated in the Garhwal region. These projects include big, medium and small projects (Paranjpye, 1988).
The cost benefit ratio
B/C ratio = Annual Benefits/Annual Costs = 21007.47/37539.31 = 0.56
The annual benefit per cost rate is calculated as 56 per cent. In other words, for every rupee put on Tehri project, only 56 paise will be recovered (Paranjpye, 1988).
The project has also not made any provisions for rural electrification schemes in the surrounding areas, even though the dam will submerge about 100 villages in two districts of Tehri Garhwal and Uttarkashi. On the other hand, the project will supply enough to large industries and urban areas in the plains of Uttar Pradesh.
The locals are totally alienated from the project. Hence the authorities have foregone the advantage of having first hand knowledge from the people, say the types of trees most beneficial for water retention, their fuel requirements, etc.
Source: Paranjpye, Vijay (1988): Evaluating the Tehri Dam: An Extended cost Benefit Appraisal, Studies in Ecology and Sustainable Development, Series No. 1, INTACH, New Delhi.
Another controversial aspect is the catchment area management by the Forest Department, which had been entrusted with the planting of trees to build the soil. Though the catchment area is around 7 lakh hectares, the forest department is entrusted with only 52,000 and odd hectares for greening.
There are 12 rare and endangered species of flora and fauna, which may be disturbed by inundation. They are: (Kumar 2001)
1. Cirrhopetalum hookeri
2. Eulephia hormusjie
3. Gastrodia orobunchoides
4. Herbenasia triflora
5. Listera microgolties
6. Saccolabium olistichum
7. Allium rubellun
8. Gagea preudoreticulsta
9. Tulipa clusians
10. Abgcuia tongleusis
11. Poa rhadiana
12. Preudoduntonia himalaica
The construction of the reservoir would push the fauna to the higher slopes in the area. The flora that was thriving on the facile conditions in the valley would face with a tougher life. The fauna already inhabiting the higher slopes would share scarcer resources and smaller habituating area of the land, which they are not accustomed to. In their fight to survive against new odds, we may find ourselves the losers with many species becoming rare.
(Matu people’s organisation 2002)
Partial Submergence: Unrealistic Demarcation,
Eighty-six villages would be partially submerged by the Tehri Dam Project. This includes those villages where 70-75 per cent of families and land are going to be affected. However, eligibility for the status of a fully affected village has been determined as affecting 75 per cent or more families and land. Even those villages, where 25-30 families would remain after submergence, have been affected. Although denomination of villages as partially affected has been done on a mathematical formula (wherever the land of 75 per cent of the families is involved), no estimates have been prepared to take into account the existence of link roads, gazing places, local markets, civic amenities, ‘ghats’ along the banks of the river drains, and the disintegration of social life. If the people were deprived of all the amenities in villages where only 25 to 30 per cent of the people would be left (in some villages the number is as less as 5-10 families), how are these people be expected to retain their existence and identity as part of the village society?
Source: Paranjpye, Vijay (1988): Evaluating the Tehri Dam: An Extended cost Benefit Appraisal, INTACH
Tehri Hydro-Development Corporation
(THDC) which they say had closed the Tý tunnel in March 2004. This together with the monsoon rains raised the level of water in the reservoir up to 655 metres on the fateful day. The closing of the tunnel violated the supreme court’s order of 2003. The apex court had ordered that no tunnel be closed, or reservoir filled any partner, till rehabilitation was completed (Yadav 2004.)
Disaster struck at the Tehri dam site at 10.15 on August 2, 2004. A huge landslide inside the vertical shaft of a tunnel claimed the lives of 29 workers and left about 12 injured. The victims were working at various levels of 240 metre shaft and in the two horizontal tunnels that it connects. The horizontal tunnel at the top is called the Intermediate level out let (ILO). The ILO and the vertical shaft are meant to drain excess water from the dam reservoir once it is filled to the tunnel, Tç at the bottom of shaft. Draining excess water is important because this dam is on earth and rockfill dam, which can be damaged if water passes over it. But such a dam can withstand seismic vibration to an extent. Since Tehri is an earth quake prone region, so the authorities had settled on an earth and rockfill dam and not on concrete dam.
At the time of the incident, concretes work was going on T3 to strengthen the tunnel. In the ILO, workers were involved in digging and excavating activities.
According to J.P Gaur of Jai Prakash Industries, the contractor is responsible for constructing the dam structure. The dam is strong, but inherently the mountains are weak. The comment begs the question: was such a tragedy foreseen? And if so, what steps had been taken to protect the lives of the workers from the ‘inherent risk’? (Yadav 2004).
The dam authorities and successive governments have repeatedly said that the life span of the dam would be 100 years. But many disagree. Siltation will take place much faster than expected life. Says, “ K.S. Valdiya, former director of the Walia Institute of Himalayan Geology.” Sums up, “ The ghost may not be there but the fear of the ghost makes your life miserable, referring to the earthquake and the possibility’ of dam collapse. (Yadav 2004).
Meanwhile, the anti-dam movement spreaded by Shri lal Bahuguna fizzled out. Rehabilitation issues were somehow lost in all the noise against the project itself. And the protracted construction period meant that the rehabilitation could never be carried out satisfactory.
Lots of stories relating to messy rehabilitation float around Tehri and the surrounding villages. There are examples of people who have taken compensation multiple times, people who were not entitled and still got hefty compensation coupled with houses and shops in New Tehri. Endless tales of corruption do the rounds. But at the other end are those genuine claimants, who did not get anything and still are running from pillar to post. The situation is worse in the villages. For them it is not just relocation but an entirely new socio-cultural environment. (Yadav 2004).
New Tehri:
In order to settle the residents of Tehri, the New Tehri Township is being developed. It is being built above Bauradi village, at 1950 metre above sea level. As compared to Tehri, there is marked difference in the geo-morphological make up, climate and weather conditions.
A. Bhagirathi river projects
1. Bhairon Ghati Hydel Scheme I
2. Bhairon Ghati Scheme II
3. Loharinag Hydel Scheme
4. Pala Maneri Scheme
5. Maneri Bhali Hydel Scheme I
6. Maneri Bhali Hydel Scheme II
7. Tehri Dam Project
8. Koteshwar Dam Project
B. Alaknanda River projects
9. Rishi Ganga Scheme
10. Lata Tapovan Scheme
11. Markur Lata Scheme
12. Tapovan Vishnu Gad Scheme
13. Vishnuprayag Scheme
14. Vishnu Gad Pipalkoti Scheme
15. Bovla Nandprayag Scheme
16. Karnaprayag Dam Project
17. Utyasu Dam Project
18. Srinagar Dam Project
19. Bhagoli Dam Project
20. Padli Dam Project
C. Ganga River Projects
21. Kotlibhel Dam Project
22. Rishikesh Chilla Scheme
D. Projects on Yamuna, Tons and Tributaries
23. Hanuman Chatti – Saina Chatti hydel scheme
24. Saina Chatti – Gangnani Scheme
25. Barkot – Kuwa Hydel Scheme
26. Kuwa Damta Hydel Scheme
27. Lakhwar Dam Project
28. Vyasi Dam Project
29. Kala Pathar Scheme
30. Karkot Tuni Hydel Scheme
31. Hanol Tuni Scheme
32. Tuni Palasu Scheme
33. Kishau Dam Project
34. Devara – Mori Hydel Scheme
35. Sidri Dewara Hydel
36. Taluka Sinkri Scheme
37. Jokhol Sikri Scheme
38. Ichari Dam Project or Yamuna Hydel Scheme II
39. Dakpathar Project or Yamuna Hydel Scheme I
40. Asan Scheme or Yamuna Hydel Scheme Part IV
41. Kahara Hydel Project
1972:
Rs.197.29 crores dam at Tehri to generate 600 mega watts of power mooted. N. D. Tiwari, the then UP Chief Minister, pressurises the Planning Commission and gets the project cleared.
1978:
People of Tehri go to the Petitions Committee of Parliament against the dam. Tehri Bandh Virodhi Sangharsh Samiti formed.
1980:
Mrs. Gandhi asks the Department of Science and Technology to review the project. Mr. Sunil Roy appointed the Chairman.
1986:
Mr. Roy submits report and says that seismic risk too great and Dam should not be constructed. The Environment and Forest Ministry refuses clearance. Yet, the government enlarges the project to Rs.3,000 cores scheme for generating 1,000 mega watts in phase one and another 1,400 mega watts in phase two. Construction continues without clearance. On his visit to India, Mr. Mikhail Gorbachev grants assistance to the fund starved Tehri project, but not before the Committee of Secretaries directs the Central Water Commission to convene a meeting of experts to report on the dam’s safety.
Oct. 1986:
Clearance granted. The report says a dam in this region could withstand an earthquake of magnitude 5.9 and peak ground acceleration of 0.25 g. Environmentalists do not give credence to the report, as it was not based on field studies by seismologists.
August 1989:
Project submitted to Public Investment Board, Planning Commission. The Standing Environment Committee under Dr. D. R. Bhurmal rejects Tehri proposal on all counts. Says there is evidence of an earthquake of over 8 points on the Richter scale in the lifetime of the dam. Subverting this report, the committee of secretaries sets up a high-level panel, headed by Dr. D. Daundyal, to look into the seismicity. Another member, Dr. V. K. Gaur, Secretary, Department of Ocean Development asks for a review.
June 1990:
The Committee defers decision on clearing the project, following objections raised by Dr. Gaur. At the same time, newspapers report the on-schedule completion of preliminary construction of the dam.
July 1990:
The Ministry of Environment clears project while stipulating that the project authorities must get safety aspects approved by an expert committee. Leading environmentalists assail clearance.
Jan. 1991:
The Central Government gives go-ahead signal and says it would not allow further delay in the project’s completion.
July 1991:
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) urges not signing the dam due to possible earthquake of 8.5 magnitude.
August 1991:
The Union Ministry of Environment lays down stringent conditions while issuing clearance, following warning by an experts committee on the “environmental appraisal” of the project that dam site is located in ‘seismic gaps,’ where a major earthquake could be imminent.
Oct. 1991:
Disaster strikes, bringing the simmering controversy to a boil. ‘Greater disaster in store,’ say experts.
Sept. 1996:
A twelve member Expert Committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. Hanumantha Rao was constituted to study the environmental and rehabilitation aspects of the project.
Nov. 1997:
Dr. Hanumantha Rao Committee submits its report to the Central Government.
Dec. 1998:
The Central Government takes decision on the Group of Experts Committee report. The Government accepted the recommendation regarding safety of the dam design, but it rejected two other recommendations.
2001:
A Committee was constituted under the Chairmanship of Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi to study the safety of the dam and the importance of Ganga water in the aftermath of Bhuj earthquake.
Dec. 2001:
Diversion Tunnels T3 and T4 of the dam closed down. Dr. Joshi Committee is yet to submit its report.
Nov.2002:
M.M Joshi Committee submits its report. Says the dam is safe to withstand an Earthquake of high magnitude.
Sept 2003:
In a divided verdict, the Supreme Court clears the legal hurdles for dam construction
March 2004:
Tunnel T2 closed water level rises to 648 metres, submerging many parts of old Tehri town.
July 29, 2004:
Water level rises to 655 metres submerging the remaining parts of the Tehri town. Residents flee for their lives.
August 3, 2004:
Internal landslides at the dam site, 29 workers dead.
“social costs of the Tehri Dam Project from a gendered perspective”.
Women, as the knowledge-keepers of a community’s natural resource management, were the main source of information for this paper. As their living relationship with water sources is part of these women’s every day life, it was from their different experiences that I got my vision. Because water management has always been the woman’s duty, community management of its sources has been as well. As community rights on water resources are becoming an increasingly controversial issue in Indian society, thus it has become imperative to realize women’s roles in local self-governance.
The main purpose of this work would be to search for self-empowerment strategies instead of delegating to the institutional representation.
Case studies: Kuttha,
Tehri District
Kuttha is situated on the way from the Dam site and the city of New Tehri. They receive the same unclean water of New Tehri. At the beginning of the eighties, THDC asked them for land in order to lay down the pipelines. They gave their land to the government but they still do not have water. Thanks to the struggle of the local community, the village is not a part of the displacement plan. It is not going to be submerged by Dam, but it has to survive and to struggle to maintain boundaries on its own resources. The villagers had fought to save themselves from the dam and the people succeed. This village and the struggle of the people for their natural rights is an example of self-strengthening within the community. But it is also an example of how the centralization and privatization of natural resources is trying to deprive the rural areas from an equal distribution of water.
The community has been facing many problems since the Dam works began and, although irrigation does still not exist in the village, a big amount of money and energy has been taken by the Dam project. The social impact of the project on the local area is changing the economical environment. Since the dam site started working many people left the villages to work for THDC or for the JP Company, the main contractor. Many, between the younger generations are gone, looking for a job in the cities in order to make money. What is now happening is that self-subsistence agriculture is being replaced by market products.
Kumar is living here with the entire family. Her husband has to work outside, in the state of Haryana, as a truck driver. Here crops are rain fed. No self-subsistence economy is possible here. Not after the village had to give half of the agricultural land to the government to have the pipeline for water. But the water is still not coming and they lost half of their source of living. There are no hand pumps and water from the pipeline is running just for two hours a day.
“There is no source of living in Kuttha. The only crop that grows is Koda, but mostly we have to bring food from the market.”
I ask about how they are managing for water supply. She says: “The water from the pipe line is not pure, my child is getting sick with cough and fever. This is a very big village! Just two hours it is not enough but water does not come from the taps; we have to walk three km to get the water for drinking, for cooking and to feed the animals. For washing clothes we have to go to the spring source that is very far away. In the winter sometimes it is too dark and far to go to take the water. We have to collect water for many days, so we rarely have fresh water to drink. If a woman has small children and the husband is working outside it is a problem to leave the children alone.”
They told me that they asked for help to the Pradhan and he went to the Minister but nothing has changed. Nobody from the State Government has been to Kuttha for checking the problems. They just gave some thousand rupees. The Pradhan sad that we have to wait for one year or maybe more and he just built three taps for the entire village. And they don’t work”
Another lady says: “The problem is not going to the spring source to bring water, I have been carrying the bantha since I was a child, I’m addicted of that. The problem is that most of the young people from here are going outside to earn money because here we do not have any source of living. My sons moved to Delhi, searching for a job. We are living in the village from our ancestor but now the family has increased and jangoora, koda, daal and rajma are not enough for all.”
Pavita Devi and her husband Hari Singh Rawat:
Twenty years ago they started surveying places in order to supply water to the village. It was the Jal Nigam office (Public Work Department). When the Dam project started they asked to have water supply. THDC ask for some land to lift water here from the Ganga. They gave the land but no pipeline was built.
At that point it started as a big conflict between the village and THDC. The entire community protested for the government criminal behavior. Many people from the village were beaten and put together in jail. Women did support the struggle, putting their efforts to keep the community together. After a while, the pipeline in Kuttha came. Kuttha was going to be displaced because of the Dam, but a delegation of represents from the village raised their voice to the Indian Parliament (at that time Indira Gandhi was Prime Minister) and they saved the village. It was only when women were supporting the struggle that it has been successfull. The Government has never proposed many schemes for development, even when however; the village needed water, hospitals, and schools. When they went to Public Work Department office to have water taps facilities in the houses, the govt. sad there was not enough money for the purpose. They had to bring electricity on payment in the village. It was thirty-two years back they had to pay 150 rupees for each member. Although they had to pay a big amount to bring electricity, power is climited to just a few hours a day.
When I asked rawat’wife if she finds no difference from the times when water was lifted to the village in comparison to the present situation she says that it did not change so much because they have water only two hours a day. Water for irrigation is not coming anyway, so crops are still rain fed.
Depki Rawat is seventeen; she is studying in New Tehri. Before leaving, in the morning, she goes to the spring source to collect water. This is her duty. First thing she will do after finishing school is to go outside, maybe to Delhi, to find a job. Why? “Because we are poor!” She and her mother are living in Kuttha in a typical rural house. Depki’s feelings about her life are reflecting the social and economical impact of the Dam project. After the Dam site began and the city of New Tehri was built natural resources rights were exploited. The social relations are changing following the economical changing. Pushing people to leave the rural areas and the villages to settle dawn in a city and run a commercial activity has a social impact. The selfimage of this girl as a “poor”may be related to the changes in the environment around her.
Manju Chamuli
is the Pradhan in Athurwala but she is from another village, Coty, now Coty Colony, in Tehri. She came here with her family in 1980, and with them came people from fourteen different villages. When they came here from Tehri they were represented from seven Gram Sabhas, now reduced to one. She is now around thirty-five but she’s been elected among the rehabilitated people first time in 1996.
After the elections in 1996, there were no new elections until 2003, after six and a half years, although elections are supposed to be every five years. In 2003 she won a second time. When she left Tehri, Coty was a village; THDC moved the people from their houses, destroyed the village and built cement flats for the workers of the Dam site and for their families.
The compensation packet they have got was land, but agriculture was very difficult from the beginning because no irrigation were possible. As she says, it was very hard, because they didn’t have any money and the environment was completely different from their home. In fact, Athurwala is in the flat area of Haridwar District. The landscape, the soil and the trees are completely different from the Gahrwal hills. However, the jungle that surrounds the village gave them the fodder, so that they could start with buffalos.
The Rehabilitation Plan rules provided the people with very different kind of land. The rules over the distribution of land were unequal. The quality and the quantity of land were distributed with no planning and without knowing the single-family situation.
“There were also two different kinds of compensations. One for people who had a father and one for the family without a patriarch.”
Families with pater familias received ten bigas, families with pater familias received ten bigas for every son. So, this people, coming from the hills of the Bhagirathi had to face an adaptation process in terms of land and in terms of social organization. They were coming from a self-subsistence economy but here: The quality and the productivity of the land were also very different. For some people it was impossible to grow enough to live, for some other it was easy to convert they land in cash crops land.”
Water supply is still depending on tube wells, but the women of the village are asking for nahar from a long time. Right now there are nine tube wells in the village. When I ask about the role of women in water resources management she says:
“Women are the only that can manage water, for both uses, domestic and irrigation. In Athurwala there has never been a scheme for water supply. Women are asking from many years to have open running channels (nahar) for domestic and agricultural use, instead of those tube wells. Tube wells can be out of order very easily. The water is safe but they can brake off very easily and it takes almost one month to repair a tube well”.
When they came in 1980, the Rehabilitation Plan was supposed to provide them taps and pipe lines, but there is still non pipe line working here. When I asked her how she started working with the community she tells me that when she was elected she was ignorant about rights and responsibilities. It was an NGO (RLEK) that called her up and told her about her duties.
Vinod Nautiyal
sad about rehabilitation: “It was told in the ’80 that we have to leave, but we do not want to go to another place. Now we received a legal order from the government. I put the foundation of my house in Banjarawala only four months ago. Government is not following the rehabilitation law. Some are getting the entire compensation; some are getting nothing. Many times villagers have protested but the government took no reaction. The government is not speaking clearly about when to leave. They are not informing us and the water level can increase very quickly.”
Rukma Pavar
left four months ago to Banjarawala, where her family received the land, as compensation. I met her in her native land and this is not the firs time she came back in the Bhagirathi valley. After she left to the new settlement she is coming back very often, she is facing problems with the community and the facilities. A village is like a small unit were people live in a collaborative way to solve problems. In Banjarawala people are strangers one to each other, the houses are spread on the land, there are no trees and the soil is quite unfertile. She does not like the place at all, that is why she was back in the village for some days.
About community problems she says that there are people around that she knows but the environment is completely different. It is flat and there is no forest. Drinking water is available two ours in the morning and two ours in the evening, although in Maldeval water is running from the taps whenever they need.
‘There water for drinking is not good as it was in Maldeval. But the biggest problem with water is irrigation because water for irrigation is not available.” “Agriculture is our source of living in Maldeval”. It was enough for her family and they could have a self subsistence economy. In Banjarawala they are growing crops but they have to buy products from the market. “We are buying mostly food from the market because there water is not enough for the crops. Now we are using the money from the compensation, but when the money will stop I do not know how we can manage. My husband does not have a job yet”. The rehabilitation project speaks about irrigation facilities and drinking water from tanks but: “Facilities are not available as it was sad from the THDC office. Hospital, shops and schools are very far.” She feels not safe; there is no security.
“Here I never lock the door, but in Banjarawala, many people is passing throw, I do not know my neighbors and thieves are a problem.” “I have a high-tension poll in her plot. It is dangerous! I have two children and they can be hurt. I appealed to the office shift to another peace of land and THDC office ask her extra money to move to another plot.”
Banjarawala, Dehradun District Banjarawala it’s nothing like a village, it is like a suburb of Dehradun. Only three km are from here and the city, for this reason people that are moving here from Tehri received less land. People that are shifting to Banjarawala received 2,5 bigas plus some money to build the house. In the rehabilitation packet people were also supposed to get a job once shifted to the new settlements, but nobody of the people from Tehri has a job here. S. Saklani and her husband moved here from Sirain with a family of eight members. Her younger brother is working in Tehri for the J.P. Company. They have a house in the THDC Colony, an area of Banjarawala for the people from Their.
“We could choose from 10 bigas in Patri, in a very isolated area to 2,5 bigas in Banjarawala plus some money to built the house. When we came here, one year back, my husband was expecting to have a job from the government, but it didn’t happened.” I asked them which kind of accountability did they have from the Government and who was assuring on the rehabilitation project. But from what I hear no kind of accountability was given by the government. “In 1982 THD started distributing compensations and pushing the people to move. In the meanwhile Panchayat dissolved, so nobody was taking care of the rehabilitation program, nobody was representing us.”
As all the displaced people they have to leave a subsistence economy to become part of the consumers: “Agricolture in Sirain was enough for the family, but here we do not have land. Water is coming from a tube well, but it is at least enough for drinking”. As all the people from Tehri she does not feel confident in this place: “It was very difficult for me at the beginning, I did not fell part of a community, I felt not safe and very isolated.” As most of the newly built suburbs Banjarawala is a place with no history and there is no relation between the people and the land. Here the land, the water, the soil are just goods, in order to satisfy needs. Land to build a house, water for drinking and washing. The living relationship between a traditional community of Gahrwal and the environment is based on sustainability. The principle is not the ownership; the principle is regeneration of nature. Within the human beings, the forest, the soil, the water and the animals are part of a cycle of creation and destruction.