The Hindu Business Line : Emptying the Narmada and a forest

At Omkareshwar on the south bank of the Narmada river, there are more human beings at the Omkareshwar dam site busy choking the river with cement and steel than pilgrims at the white temple of Lord Shiva, the destroyer.

Lorries and dumpers line the stretch near the dam site as work goes on without a stop while Lord Shiva, also known as Mahakal, takes a commercial break from his vocation. In earlier times, the temple was girdled by the Narmada (for the public it is Narmadaji) and the Cauvery, a tributary, with pilgrims performing the parkirama (the roundabout) by foot or boat. The Cauvery is no more. Boulders and debris from the dam have finished it. Humans have taken over the job of Lord Shiva.

Dinesh Kothari and this writer drove past the site to Dabri village on the Narmada, trekked a stretch of around 8 km along the river touching Bakhatgar village before halting at Rampura village. One cannot sight a single tree except for the odd banyan or peepal on both sides of Narmada as the forest department of Madhya Pradesh has brought down all the trees. The villagers have been ordered to move out by June 11 as with the onset of the monsoon the water levels could rise in the catchment areas of the Omkareshwar dam and the upstream Indira Sagar Dam.

In lopping more than a million and more trees on either side of the Narmada river in Omkareshwar, the river could witness silting as there will be no trees to hold back the run off of mud and boulders. We took a motorboat travelling up the river till Dhavdiund to feel the fear of the villagers as they prepare to get away from the doob kshetra (submerged area).

On the second day, we went round the bare and wasted villages of Barawah, Siddhwarkut and Bakhatgad where all the trees and homes of the poor have gone. "Apne ko, Rs.400 per day milta hai. Pur isme katuti hoti hai aur hath mein milta hai Rs.300 ( We earn Rs.400 per day but there are cuts and we earn about Rs.300)," said a woman who has been working for the forest department. There is something called a "gun metre", to measure the quantity of wood cut and the men and women complain of being shorted by the forest officials.

Motor down the Indira Sagar Dam along the Bhopal road and one can note vast depots packed with orderly piles of cut wood. It reminded one of pictures of Jewish skulls stacked up with a trace of pride by Hitler's Germany. Empty Narmada and an empty forest. "In the location of the project, biodiversity issues and the social economic consideration have found no place," says a UNDP-UNEP case study on India. For about four days, we talked to sections of the population about to be displaced and every chat started with "bahut pareshani hai (we are in trouble)." Roshanlal Yadav, with a family of five children and old parents, at Dabri village, has been visited twice over the last week by government officials demanding he shift. Many in his village have gone but he is stalling, as one cannot uproot one's home and destiny. It is suicide. Some 50 years ago, his parents quit Faizabad in U.P. to settle down in Dabri village. The rafters will have to be ripped and the wood carried to a fresh plot near Omkareshwar town. He will have to sell his buffalos and cows as the new location has no space for building a cattle shed to continue with his milk business.

At Rampura village, one saw a villager loading a truck with a lifetime's accumulation of old vessels, wood, a large family and his fate. Roshanlal Yadav got from the government Rs.1.50 lakhs with a 11 per cent deducted as TDS. There is no `land for land' deal as the Madhya Pradesh government claims it has not enough land for the displaced.

Then there is an anudan (grant), of Rs.30,000 per male or female above the age of 18. Some have got money, some have not got any. No bank offers housing loans for these people.

The banking system does not exist for them and then there is the open tale of government officials not playing fair. Roshanlal Yadav's first daughter is in Class 5 and has to walk two hours either way to a school at Omkareshwar.

When Yadav changes location, the girl will have to walk less but will she ever go to school after the shrivelling experience.

The waters of Narmada and its forests of anjan, chirol, neem, and many other trees, formed the basis of living for these tribal and non-tribal families. Yadav and many like him will have to find new jobs, which are scarce. Their children will not have a swim in the Narmada for fun.

One late evening, we talked to Hari Singh, who has bought agriculture land away from the submersion zone. In a white dhoti, jibba and white hair to go with, the old man walked down to Roshanlal's half-broken home to chant his tale of loss.

"Villagers have not been treated fairly. There are different criteria for payment of compensation. Being illiterate, they do not know whether they are being tricked. None in Omkareshwar dam zone joined the Andolan of Medha Patkar," he told us. The UNDP-UNEP report admits: "The river valley projects invariably alter the social fabric of local communities, affecting their indigenous lifestyles and culture and accelerate the transition to a market economy centred in big towns."

That is easily written but cannot be taken by poor villagers like Roshanlal, Hari Singh and many others.

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