Kalpavriksh Environment Action Group, Pune, Maharashtra.
Ashish Kothari is one of the leading environmentalists of the country and the founding member of Kalpavriksh, an organisation working on issues of environment and justice established in 1979.
It was in 1983 that as a member of Kalpavriksh and Hindu Nature Club, Ashish with other colleagues journeyed the Narmada valley from Bharuch in Gujarat to Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh to understand the implications of large dams on the river. This journey finally led to the publication of the report, ‘Narmada Valley Project-Development or Destruction’, in the Economic and Political Weekly of 2 June 1984, authored by Ashish and Rajiv Bhartari. This is one of the first reports of its kind on the Narmada Dams and their environmental implications.
In these select parts of his longer interview, Ashish highlights the early environment concerns of the country, the Narmada dams, the journey to the Narmada valley in the early eighties, the important players working on the issue of dams and displacement at the time including Arch-Vahini, Gujarat; Centre for Social Studies, Surat, Gujarat; the organisations active in Madhya Pradesh on the issue of water logging in the Tawa dam command area, etc .
Ashish’s interview here helps us understand the emergence of the environmental issues and questions around the Narmada dams in the early eighties and the subsequent emergence of the Narmada Bachao Andolan.
Interview Duration:
00:50:59
Language:
Audio in English, Subtitles in Hindi
Subtitles can be switched on and off by clicking ‘CC’ button at the bottom right of the video