5–7 minutes
Over 2,50,000 people in 245 submergence villages will be/have been displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) and an equal number will be severely impacted due to project related infrastructure. The following clips excerpted from longer interviews touch upon the disruption in the lives of the Project Affected People as a result of the SSP. The different narratives here provide glimpses of the different impacts of development induced displacement. They also bring out the impact of submergence on the forests, fauna, flora and the ecology of the area. They bring out how the Government of Gujarat’s claim that the rehabilitation of the SSP oustees it has carried out is the best rehabilitation in the world is simply not true.
Dr. S. B. Ota of the Archaeological Survey of India rightly says: ‘We prefer to relocate the structural remains but do not care to preserve buried and surface archaeological sites which are less impressive but equally or more important for providing information about our earliest cultures.’ One of the narratives here provides us with glimpses of the impact that submergence by SSP has had on the archeologically rich Narmada Valley.
Shanker (bhai) Kagda
Resettlement Site Dharampuri, Gujarat
Shanker Kagda, a senior adivasi leader of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), belonged to the very first submergence village Vadgam close to the Sardar Sarovar Dam in Gujarat. Shankerbhai talks of the attitude of the state towards the Project Affected People in Gujarat and the losses they faced due to illegal submergence.
Clip Duration: 00:01:30
Language: Audio in Gujarati, Subtitles in English
Usha (ben) Tadvi
Resettlement Site Dharampuri, Gujarat
Ushaben Tadvi is a Project Affected Person from one of the nineteen submergence villages of Gujarat close to the dam. In the two clips excerpted from two of her interviews, one in 2009 and the other, 14 years later in 2023, she describes the impact of displacement on women and how women have never really felt rehabilitated at the resettlement sites. This is a unique recording and sharing of the voice of an oustee displaced in 1994, interviewed in 2009 and once again in 2023. The interviewer was present in 1994 during forced eviction of village Vadgam.
1st Clip Duration: 00:06:12
2nd Clip Duration 0:05:00
Language: Audio in Gujarati, Subtitles in English
Kevalsingh Vasave
Vadchil Resettlement site, Maharashtra
Kevalsingh Vasave, a firebrand full time adivasi activist of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), belonging to the village Nimgavan, one of the 33 submergence villages of Maharashtra. Kevalsingh narrates/expresses his emotions when the dam waters entered his house and permanently submerged his home and the impact it has had on his life.
Clip Duration: 00:03:03
Language: Audio in Marathi, Subtitles in English
The Late Pervi (bai)
Village Jalsindhi, Alirajpur, Madhya Pradesh (M.P.)
A senior woman adivasi leader of Khedut Mazdoor Chetna Sangathan and Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), Pervi explains in her own language the devastation the Sardar Sarovar dam has caused by choking the River Narmada and the impact it has had on the people, wild and domestic animals and the ecology of the river.
Clip Duration: 0:01:30
Language: Audio in Bhilali, Subtitles in English
Rehmat
Submergence Village Chikhalda, Madhya Pradesh (M.P.)
Rehmat, a resident of the submergence village Chikhalda in M.P., has been one of the senior full time activists of Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). This is a short clip from Rehmat’s ten hour long interview where he explains the impact Sardar Sarovar Dam will have on the archeologically rich Narmada River Valley.
Language: Hindi, Subtitles in English
Clip Duration: 0:02:01
Language: Audio in Hindi, Subtitles in English
The Late Shanta (ben) Yadav
Submergence Village Pipri, Madhya Pradesh (M.P.)
Shantaben Yadav is one of the key woman leaders of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA). Here, in a short clip from her interview, Shantaben explains why the SSP is being opposed by the people of the Narmada valley.
Language: Nimadi, Subtitles in English
Clip Duration: 00:01:53
Language: Audio in Nimadi, Subtitles in English
Champa (ben) Tadvi
Submergence Village Vadgam, Gujarat
Resettlement site Dharampuri, Gujarat
I was a witness to the forcible displacement of Champaben Tadvi in the year 1994 from her village Vadgam, the first out of a total of 245 villages to be submerged by the Sardar Sarovar dam. Champaben and her family were forcibly evicted by police from their village and were offloaded with their house and goods into trucks and dumped at the Dharampuri resettlement site near Dabhoi, Vadodara in Gujarat. The two short clips here are taken from her two interviews, the first 13 years after her displacement from Vadgam in 2009, and the other in 2023, 28 years after her displacement from Vadgam.
In these two clips together, Champaben covers an in-depth history of over three decades in the life of an adivasi woman, a victim of the Sardar Sarovar Dam and her struggles for survival.
1s Clip Duration: 01:15:00
2nd Clip Duration: 0:28:20
Language: Audio in Gujarati, Subtitles in English
The Late Kanti Rumal, The Late Jiku Jesang and Shanker Kagda Tadvi
Submergence Villages: Mokhadi and Vadgam in Gujarat Resettlement Sites: Savli and Dharampuri.
This collective interview of senior most adivasi leaders of Gujarat from the villages displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP), is a very heartrending interview on one hand and a very spirited one on the other. In this interview, the Late Kanti Rumal, the Late Jiku Jesang and Shanker Kagda expose the claim of Gujarat Government that the oustees displaced by the SSP have been properly rehabilitated. They agonise over the many losses they have suffered for having been forced to leave their ancestral lands, forests and homes to make way for what is claimed to be the life line of Gujarat- the SSP. While this interview can leave one deeply shaken, it is also a story of the spirited struggle of the adivasis of Gujarat to actualize their rights on their forcible displacement for what is claimed to be in interest of development. The three adivasi leaders here question whose development these kinds of mega dam-based projects lead to and who suffers the losses. This is a must listen interview from among the many here.
Duration: 01:54:30
Language: Gujarati, Subtitles in English