Narma Bachavo Andolan India

The Narmada Bachavo Andolan in India

The Narmada is one of India's most sacred rivers. Holier than even the Ganges. In its vast basin live a phenomenal twenty million Indians; nearly half of them protected tribal or schedule castes. In the forests along the river banks is a huge wildlife population. For centuries, the river, flowing majestically westwards into the Arabian Sea, has nourished the people on its banks, both materially and spiritually.

The Narmada Valley Development Project is the single largest river development scheme in India. It is one of the largest hydroelectric projects in the world and will displace approximately 1.5 million people from their land in three states (Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Madhya Pradesh).The environmental costs of such a project, which involves the construction of more than 3,000 large and small dams, are immense. The project will devastate human lives and biodiversity by inundating thousands of acres of forests and agricultural land. The State” (India) wants to build these dams on the Narmada River in the name of National Development.

Like in the case of Chipko Movement Narmada Bachavo Andolan was successfully ensuring the mass mobilization , they adopted nonviolent actions like the Sit-in as water rise (1993), Sit-in hunger strike (1997), Mobilization begins in tribal belt (1985), Sacrifice in water threat (1993), Marches, sit-ins fasts, arrests (1989), capture of dam-sit (1998) ..etc.

The ‘Rally for the Valley’ organized by noted writer and booker prize winner Arundhati Roy in support of Narmada Bachao Andolan's ongoing Satyagraha, against unjust displacement and submergence, at Jalsindhi (Madhya Pradesh) and Domkhedi (Maharashtra), numbering not less than 500 people.

Arundathi Roy and many others walked by foot to understand the seriousness of the issue in depth and extend their support to the tribal who always travel by foot, about 4-5 hours from Mathwad and part of the rally including some old people traveled by boat to Jalsindhi. All the rallyists were warmly welcomed by the villagers and satyagrahis including Medha Patkar at Jalsindhi, The Narmada Bachao Andolan strongly condemnt the highhanded and paranoid behavior of the Gujarat government since there was no plan for the rally to come through Kawant and Hafeshwar. The NBA and the organizers of the rally had announced time and again that their route to Jalsindhi will be through Kakrana in M.P. and not through Hafeshwar. The Gujarat government and the pro-dam vested interests, as usual, have been raising the non-issue and have been trying to whip up frenzy in Gujarat for no reason. That has always been the modus operendi of the vested interests and fascist forces in Gujarat.
Friend of river Narmada

The struggle against the construction of megadams on the River Narmada in India is symbolic of a global struggle for social and environmental justice. The Friends of River Narmada is an international coalition of individuals and organizations .In particular, they are a support and solidarity network for the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada movement), which has been fighting for the democratic rights of the citizens of the Narmada Valley. The Friends of River Narmada holds that the Narmada Valley Development Project (NVDP) has been conceived without adequate participation from the people who are going to be affected.

(1) That many dams of the NVDP are not viable solutions to many of the problems (power, drinking water, flood control, irrigation) they set out to solve, and that there needs to be a greater emphasis on the search for alternative solutions from all concerned (Government, NGOs, people).
(2) That the construction and planning of many dams of the NVDP has disrupted (and will potentially disrupt) the lives of millions of people without just and adequate compensation;
(3) That the people of the Narmada Valley are waging a just and legitimate struggle to assert their right to life, livelihood, and participation in their own development;
(4) That while the country can ask for sacrifices from its people, such people must be justly and adequately compensated for the sacrifices that they are thus making;
(5) That while the country can ask for sacrifices from the people of the Valley for the greater cause of national progress, the burden of sacrifice should be distributed across the nation, and not be restricted to a specific group of people;
(6) That the NVDP is merely an example of a much bigger problem that is manifesting itself across the country: the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, the Enron controversy in the Dabhol Power Project in Maharashtra, the controversy over the Cogentrix project, the forgery of Environmental Clearances by Ernst & Young; the controversy over the construction of the Bangalore-Mysore highway, the human rights abuses over the port construction at Maroli, and the list goes on.
(7) That the struggle in the Narmada Valley consequently throws up much deeper issues about the developmental choices being followed in India and elsewhere, and that there needs to be a much wider debate of these choices;
(8) That the Narmada Bachao Andolan is a symbol of hope for people's movements all over the world that are fighting for just, equitable, and participatory development.