Narmada Bachao Andolan

Narmada Bachao Andolan
Name	Narmada Bachao Andolan
Formation	1985
Founders	Medha Patkar; Keshubhai Patel; Suresh Jadhav; Arvind Kejriwal; Rajendra Singh
Location	Narmada River valley, Madhya Pradesh; Gujarat; Maharashtra
Methods	Nonviolent protest; public interest litigation; civil disobedience; hunger strike
Key people	Medha Patkar; Arundhati Roy; Jairam Ramesh; Eknath Thakur; Baba Amte

Narmada Bachao Andolan

Narmada Bachao Andolan is a social movement that emerged in the mid-1980s opposing large dam projects on the Narmada River, notably the Sardar Sarovar Project on the Narmada River and associated reservoir schemes. It mobilized tribal and rural communities across Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and Maharashtra and involved prominent activists, writers, and legal advocates in sustained protests, litigation, and international advocacy. The movement intertwined issues of displacement, rehabilitation, environmental assessment, and human rights, drawing attention from national media, judicial bodies, and international funding agencies.

Background and Origins

The movement arose amid debate over the Sardar Sarovar Project and related proposals by the Narmada Valley Development Project and the Narmada Hydroelectric Development Corporation in the 1980s. Local opposition by communities in Dindori district, Barwani district, and Surat district coalesced with support from activists linked to National Alliance of People’s Movements and Friends of the Earth International. Influential reports by researchers associated with T.N. Seshan-era regulatory scrutiny and environmental assessments commissioned by the World Bank and the International Development Association intensified scrutiny. Early mobilization intersected with campaigns led by organizations such as Swaraj collectives and the Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra.

Leadership and Organizational Structure

Leadership combined grassroots leaders from tribal communities with urban intellectuals and legal experts. Medha Patkar emerged as a chief spokesperson, collaborating with activists from Bharatiya Nagrik Sewa groups, writers like Arundhati Roy, and lawyers from People’s Union for Civil Liberties and the Narmada Samagra legal team. The organizational structure was convener-based, with locality committees in districts such as Dhar, Khandwa, and Narmadapuram coordinating protests, while national coordination involved networks linked to Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan and student groups from universities like Jawaharlal Nehru University and University of Mumbai. Funding and international links were facilitated through connections to Amnesty International and environmental NGOs including Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund India.

Protests and Methods of Resistance

The movement employed nonviolent direct action tactics including satyagraha, sit-ins at dam sites, mass rallies in cities like Vadodara and Bhopal, and high-profile hunger strikes. Activists organized marches along the Narmada River and staged symbolic tree-planting and river-walking events, drawing celebrities and intellectuals such as Shabana Azmi and Gulzar into solidarity actions. Methods combined blockades of construction access roads, public hearings protests during meetings of the Central Water Commission and the Ministry of Water Resources, and international lobbying targeting financiers like the World Bank and bilateral agencies such as Overseas Development Administration (UK).

Legal Battles and Supreme Court Cases

Litigation was central, with multiple public interest litigations filed before the Supreme Court of India and High Courts in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Key cases challenged clearance processes under the Environmental Impact Assessment regime and statutory instruments overseen by the Central Electricity Authority and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes. The Supreme Court hearings involved evidence from experts connected to Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, and international consultants who had worked with the World Bank. Judgments on rehabilitation benchmarks, submergence maps, and height-related clearances shaped project phasing and triggered remedial orders from bodies including the National Human Rights Commission (India).

Social and Environmental Impact

The movement highlighted impacts on adivasi communities including displacement from villages such as Jobat and Shirpur, loss of agricultural land in riverine belts of Khandwa district, and effects on riverine biodiversity including species studied by researchers at Zoological Survey of India and Botanical Survey of India. Reports by scholars affiliated with Centre for Science and Environment and activists from Friends of the Earth documented greenhouse gas implications of reservoir submergence and cultural heritage loss near sites associated with Maheshwar and pilgrimage routes. The campaign also influenced scholarship at institutes like Centre for Policy Research and Indian Institute of Public Administration on resettlement policy and social impact assessment.

Government Response and Project Developments

State administrations in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh pursued phased construction, invoking statutes administered by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and allocation mechanisms of the Inter-State River Water Disputes Act. Conditional clearances, revised resettlement packages, and technical modifications—including dam-height sequencing—were outcomes of judicial directives and negotiation with authorities including the Narmada Control Authority and Sardar Sarovar Nigam Limited. International financier withdrawal and subsequent domestic financing shifts involved institutions such as the State Bank of India and public works departments in the respective states.

Legacy and Influence on Indian Activism

The movement influenced later campaigns on large infrastructure and indigenous rights, informing strategies used by activists in movements related to the Tehri Dam, Polavaram Project, and campaigns led by Ekta Parishad. It shaped legal doctrine on environmental adjudication in the Supreme Court of India and contributed to policy debates in the Parliament of India about rehabilitation law and statutory safeguards for Scheduled Tribes represented by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Its archive has been studied by scholars at University of Oxford, Harvard University, and Indian institutions including Mumbai University for lessons on participatory environmental governance and rights-based advocacy.

Category:Environmental movements in India