NBA is a people’s movement, a social movement of the people from generations old communities from the valley of Narmada. A river which flows from Amarkantak in district Jabalpur, M.P. up to 1312 km away to the Arabiansea. in district Bharuch, Gujarat. In the basin with an area of 10000 Sq.km, there have been thousands of hectares of forest, agricultural land, habitats of Adivasis (indigenous people), Dalits, farmers, laborers, artisans, fish workers, cattle grazers, potters and others with the most ancient culture. It is the region which is found to be the birthplace of the Adimanav, the first human being as well as the first place where the first farmer of Asia was born, as per archaeologists &; anthropologists. The Narmada is considered to be one of the most sacred and perennial rivers, flowing between Satpudas & Vindhya Mountain ranges, and is the only one which is walked along as Parikrama (circumambulation), by
thousands of Bhaktas, young & old, men & women, every year!

The Narmada was looked at as source of water resource for multipurpose plans to be attained through dams by each of the three riparian states – Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra & Gujarat. Although the largest part of the catchment lies in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat was most ambitious to utilize the water for the drought affected & drought prone regions like Kutch, Saurashtra & North Gujarat by building a large dam of 530 feet high. Submergence was to be caused mostly in Madhya Pradesh & Maharashtra & the least in Gujarat, hence, they raised a serious conflict. Madhya Pradesh & Maharashtra had their own plans!

It was since 1960/61 that the initial plan to build a 162 feet high dam on the Narmada in Navagam, Gujarat came up and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India inaugurated the same. Mulji kaka, the oldest Sarpanch of the village Kevadia always remembered the views expressed in Nehruji’s speech that the displaced adivasis should be rehabilitated with respect for their sacrifice, and with priority! The conflict arose on the height & cost benefits among the three states and Smt. Indira Gandhi appointed the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal Award, under Interstate Water Dispute Act, 1956.

The Narmada Tribunal (NWTDA) had the sole purpose of resolving the conflict. It gave hearing and received submissions from the representative of three riparian states (while Indira Gandhi also included Rajasthan in Tribunal process) including technocrats, bureaucrats, advocates and politicians! It is the legal flaw that ISWD Act, 1956 doesn’t permit any depositions or submissions by any Project Affected Person/ Family, nor their representative or any non-state actor. The Tribunal members, it is known, paid a visit to three temples in the submergence area of Sardar Sarovar – Shoolpaneshwar (on the border of Maharashtra and Gujarat), Hapeshwar (on the border of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh) and Koteshwar (in Madhya Pradesh) but not a single family of Project Affected! Both Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, opposed the project for ten full years, before the Tribunal. Narmada Valley Development Plan finalized, including Sardar Sarovar with 28- Million-Acre-Feet (MAF) water availability (@75% dependability) as the basis and distribution of 9 MAF to Gujarat, 0.5 MAF to Rajasthan with Madhya Pradesh &Maharashtra to be beneficiaries of only 56% and 27% of power generated from Sardar Sarovar project! Sardar Sarovar received Environmental Clearance (EC) on June 24, 1987, jointly with the Narmada Sagar (now Indira Sagar) Dam but as a ‘conditional clearance,’ with a condition to complete studies and related plans on 8 aspects (Please refer to the documents). The World Bank however, had appraised the project and sanctioned funding in 1983-85 itself, although with a long list of pending/ projectised studies and with unreliable and not final, benefit – cost ratio! The cost of the Project was also to be divided among the states based on the same. The latest status on each aspect is to be presented below.

Impacts – Social &; Environmental – of Sardar Sarovar, a large dam
Albeit India started building large dams, diverting from the tradition of tanks & ponds, followed since the days of Chanakya, traversing the path of U.S.A. It wason the lines of Tennessee River Valley Project. Pandit Nehruji, the first Prime Minister of Independent India also called large dams to be modern temples.
Damodar Valley project with a series of dams & Bhakra Nangal in 1955 were the first initiatives. However, when the impacts of these projects came to be known and witnessed, many states challenged with a critique. Pandit Nehruji himself changed his opinion, and called big dams as ‘a disease of gigantism & 39;! As of today, USA has decommissioned 1900+ dams while all the European countries together have decommissioned 4000+ dams!

When Sardar Sarovar started getting pushed with no full information, no survey of the PAFs in three states, no plan for Resettlement & Rehabilitation, adivasis in the villages near the dam site, affected by river dykes (lakes), project colony & reservoir, had to raise questions. They got organized and mobilized to prevent injustice through displacement without any consultation, nor consent,
losing sources of life & livelihood. Narmada Dharangrast Samiti in Maharashtra, Narmada Ghati Navnirman Samiti, in Madhya Pradesh (started by a group of Gandhians) and Narmada Asargrast Samiti, Gujarat, along with many support groups organized across India together constituted the Narmada
Bachao Andolan. Adivasis remained at front for years and large population from the plains in Madhya Pradesh joined with renewed spirit.

No doubt, it was years long effort with the youngsters who came to the valley, walking across hills and mountain ranges without roads, shops, amenities but habitats of natural resource-based communities. They were informed about the Project, pulled out of ignorance, opined in various meetings with villagers as well as officials and concluded that they couldn’t lose all their heritage, natural ecosystem, the mother river, sources of livelihood, cultural environs with their future hung in the oblivion!


NBA never opposed, nor avoided dialogue at any level of any Government, but when submergence came to the doorstep, in spite of the system of governance having been formed when P.M. Rajiv Gandhi gave clearance, forming planning and monitoring agencies, it emerged as a people’s movement. The interstate
central authority, constituted under NWDTA was Narmada Control Authority, with a Rehabilitation subgroup and Environmental subgroup used to have dialogue but with the dam being pushed to raise the height and cause submergence, mass protest was inevitable. An large number of sit-ins, rallies,
Jal Satyagraha’s, fasts – indefinite hunger strikes, with incarceration, false accusation & court cases..…..all that the people and activists had to pass through.

The social impacts were also due to environmental impacts on forest with minor and major produce, lands & water sources, fish & fisheries all resulted from the Sardar Sarovar Dam. The struggle had to intensify when life and livelihood of thousands of families was at the stake. Challenge had to be taken and given to all Governments – local to central – and also the World Bank as multilateral and
bilateral agencies ODA (U.K.), OECF (Germany), SWIDA (Sweden), CIDA (Canada), USAID (U.S.A.).

All this was with peaceful, Satyagrahi strategy, legal and mass actions that led to making authorities take decisions, liberalize policies, getting studies conducted and even withdrawing funds. The Apex Court itself stayed the Dam and created temporal space for progress on Resettlement and Rehabilitation works. This is what led to unprecedented policies and rehabilitation.