Looking at her husband Jat\u00a0Husain\u00a0Ismail, the mother of seven, who owns 50 camels, says that even through the worst droughts they never left the\u00a0Banni\u00a0grassland. They survived by finding ways, one season at a time, to keep themselves and their herd alive. This is home.<\/p>\n
Sitting inside the straw house in\u00a0Jatavira\u00a0village in Gujarat\u2019s\u00a0Kachchh\u00a0district, the sun streaming in to light up her heavy silver jewellery, she says, \u201cIf the grassland is taken, we will have to sell our herd and move on. We fear they we will become daily wage labourers.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple is a part of the\u00a0Fakirani\u00a0Jat, a nomadic pastoral community of shepherds and herders locally known as\u00a0Maldhari, who have chosen to settle only in the last couple of years. Thousands of\u00a0Maldharis, the majority of them Muslim, live across 16\u00a0Banni\u00a0villages, a part of the 2,600 square kilometres that the entire grassland area covers.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nAn\u00a0NTPC\u00a0Renewable Energy Limited is slated to move in to set up a solar project on the grassland. The villagers worry that this may impact their livelihood as pastoralists. They wonder whether to sell off their camels, buffaloes, sheep, and goats, and walk away from a way of life generations old.<\/p>\n
Conservationists have joined the locals in opposing the project, pointing to what sits at its centre: the\u00a0Chhari\u00a0Dhand\u00a0wetland conservation reserve, a fragile ecological site that shelters indigenous species and draws\u00a0lakhs\u00a0of migratory birds from across the world. In January, it was designated a Ramsar-protected site, meaning it is on the list of Wetlands of International Importance. The proposed solar project sits barely 500 metres away.<\/p>\n
The villagers allege that the government has described the proposed site as unused wasteland belonging to the Revenue Department, a label that has left many furious. \u201cHow can they call this a wasteland?\u201d says\u00a0Mutva\u00a0Agakhan\u00a0Alayar, a livestock rearer from the\u00a0Pulay\u00a0panchayat. \u201cOur herds graze here, our livelihood is here. This land belongs to no one person; it belongs to all of us. Every migration season rare birds arrive. This is where our camels breed.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Workers start their solar project work for\u00a0NTPC\u00a0near the\u00a0Kiro\u00a0hill in middle of the\u00a0Chhari\u00a0Dhand\u00a0wetland, in Gujarat.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n Vijay Soneji\n <\/p>\n
<\/div>\n Officials say the project is spread across the 16 villages, with the total project area measuring about 4,500 acres (approximately18 square km), including nearly 1,400 acres between the\u00a0Kiro\u00a0hill and the Ramsar site. According to\u00a0Mutva\u00a0Bhegmamd, a local actively involved in the protest, over 1,000 acres fall under the\u00a0eco-sensitive\u00a0zone, while the remaining 400-500 acres consist of agricultural land. \u201cForest Department officials have remained silent, claiming they have no role in the project, as it does not fall on forest land. But we know that a portion of the forest area is also part of the project, and they are not speaking about it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n The anger spilled into public view on May 22, International Day for Biological Diversity, when the community gathered for a day-long protest. \u201cWhen our buffaloes graze in\u00a0Chhari\u00a0Dhand, the milk fetches \u20b990 a litre because of its high fat content. But when we buy dry grass in summer, that same milk drops to \u20b960,\u201d says\u00a0Mutva\u00a0Rafeeq, also from\u00a0Pulay\u00a0panchayat, who owns 30 buffaloes. \u201cBanni\u00a0has over 70 varieties of grass, every one of them rich in nutrition. If they take this land, we do not just lose a grassland. We lose our playgrounds, our graveyards, our places of worship. Everything is falling under this project.\u201d<\/p>\n The\u00a0Fulay\u00a0villages alone are home to over 5,000 buffaloes and almost the same number of goats and sheep, according to locals, and they fear those numbers will fall sharply in the coming years if the project goes ahead. Camel herders say the losses would extend well beyond the villages. Every monsoon and winter, over 5,000 camels from across Kutch make their way to\u00a0Banni\u00a0for grazing and breeding. If the grassland is taken, that too would stop.<\/p>\n Backed by local\u00a0BJP\u00a0MLA\u00a0Pradyumansinh\u00a0Jadeja, the villagers have demanded a re-survey of the site. On May 26, they met Chief Minister\u00a0Bhupendra\u00a0Patel in Gandhinagar to press their case. \u201cThe Chief Minister heard our plea and asked us to submit our demands to the District Collector for administrative consideration,\u201d\u00a0Jadeja\u00a0says.<\/p>\n District Collector\u00a0Anil\u00a0Ranavasiya\u00a0says a delegation of villagers had submitted a petition to him last week raising concerns over the proposed project and its possible impact on the ecology and livestock in the region. \u201cTheir concerns are being examined. I have directed the local officials to submit a report at the earliest. We will address their issues,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n But even as that demand remains under consideration, the ground is already shifting. Heavy machinery has moved into the wetland and begun a test pile, a preliminary foundation drilling used to assess the soil\u2019s bearing capacity before full construction begins. Workers at the site, most of them from Uttar Pradesh, say the work will be wrapped up in a couple of days, after which the site supervisor will submit a report to the company. The locals say they are powerless to stop it. \u201cWe cannot take the law into our own hands,\u201d one of them says.<\/p>\n The sense of helplessness runs deep. \u201cThe company officials come with police protection, as if we are some goons. They never talk to us. We have no contact with anyone. We don\u2019t know how to take this protest further,\u201d says\u00a0Mutva\u00a0Gulhasan, another livestock rearer from the area.<\/p>\n Documents accessed by\u00a0The Hindu<\/i>\u00a0show that in 2023,\u00a0NTPC\u00a0applied to the government for allocation of 578 hectares of land at survey no. 60\/part-1 in\u00a0Fulay\u00a0village,\u00a0Nakhatrana\u00a0taluka, and work began in May this year. Locals say they have not given their consent. That opposition is now visible from a distance. At the entrance of each village, large hoardings in Gujarati have gone up, each bearing a single word: Notice, declaring the community\u2019s stand against the project.\u00a0The Hindu<\/i>\u00a0reached out to\u00a0NTPC\u00a0for a response. The company did not reply.<\/p>\n When\u00a0Chhari-Dhand\u00a0was declared a Ramsar site, placing it on the global ecological map, locals allowed themselves a rare moment of optimism. Tourists would come, they reasoned. Homestays could be set up, cars hired out, guides trained.<\/p>\n For\u00a0Mutva\u00a0Salar, a college student and\u00a0Maldhari\u00a0who had been quietly planning to build a livelihood around the wetland\u2019s growing reputation, it felt like the future had finally arrived. \u201cBut all our dreams are scattered now. When there are no birds or rare species left, why would any tourist come here? International students travel from across the world to study this place,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Kutch-based wildlife photographer\u00a0Ashok\u00a0Chaudhary\u00a0says solar panels, viewed from above, resemble the surface of water and can disorient migratory birds mid-flight, causing them to crash land, with potentially fatal consequences for large flocks passing over the wetland.<\/p>\n Chhari-Dhand\u00a0changes across seasons. In peak summer, with temperatures climbing past 45 \u00b0C, the site bears little resemblance to its winter self. The land is cracked and bare, without a patch of water or a blade of grass visible as far as the eye can see. It is a landscape that can, to the uninitiated, pass for the wasteland the government\u2019s documents describe.<\/p>\n But come monsoon and winter, those who live here say the transformation is breathtaking. The cracked flats fill with water, the wetland blooms, and migratory birds arrive in\u00a0lakhs. \u201cThis place is no less than Kashmir, a paradise for birds and humans. While the rest of Kutch is sun-baked and dry, our land becomes heavy with water, with wetlands in the monsoon and winter,\u201d\u00a0Salar\u00a0says.<\/p>\n Across the vast flatland rises the\u00a0Kiro\u00a0Hill, an extinct volcano whose fossil-rich slopes have drawn palaeontologists from across the world for over a century. Unlike the scorched plains below, the hill stays dense and green even in the height of summer. For the\u00a0Maldharis\u00a0who graze their herds across the vast flatlands of\u00a0Banni, it also serves as a compass. A herder who loses his way scans the horizon for\u00a0Kiro\u00a0Hill and walks towards it to find home.<\/p>\n The hill is a refuge too. \u201cWhen wildfires break out in summer, birds and animals from across the region rush to\u00a0Kiro\u00a0hill for shelter. In the monsoon, when the entire area is waterlogged, people bring their herds up to the hill and stay there for weeks,\u201d\u00a0Salar\u00a0says.<\/p>\n The proposed solar project is to come up beneath it. Panels and perimeter fencing, the villagers fear, will cut off access to the hill entirely, severing the connection between the wetland, the hill, and the communities that have depended on both for generations. \u201cThis project will do more damage to the ecology than anything the human race has done here before,\u201d\u00a0Salar\u00a0says.<\/p>\n Asad\u00a0Rahmani, ornithologist and former director of the Bombay Natural History Society, has studied\u00a0Chhari-Dhand\u00a0since 1981. He warns that any industrial development near the\u00a0Banni\u00a0Conservation Reserve will alter the larger ecosystem, bringing light pollution, human disturbance, and infrastructure such as transmission lines, which are among the leading causes of bird mortality.<\/p>\n \u201cThe land is part of the larger ecosystem and villagers have been grazing here for hundreds of years. The surrounding hills, particularly\u00a0Kirat\u00a0Dungar, are a treasure trove of fossils. Has anyone studied the impact of large-scale solar development on these fossil-rich surroundings? Will the stones and the fossils embedded in them be taken from the surrounding hills for construction?\u201d\u00a0Rahmani\u00a0says.<\/p>\n Anu\u00a0Verma, the Asia Regional Coordinator from the International Land Coalition, who previously served as the focal person in India for the South Asia Pastoralists Alliance adds, \u201cBanni\u00a0is one of Asia\u2019s largest grassland ecosystems. It has been shaped over centuries of pastoral mobility, seasonal grazing, and community stewardship by\u00a0Maldhari\u00a0pastoralists. Mobility prevents overgrazing, regenerates landscapes, and maintains ecological balance.\u201d<\/p>\n These concerns find little explicit mention in the State\u2019s Solar Power Policy 2015, or the Gujarat Wind-Solar Hybrid Power Policy 2018, both of which are largely centred on land allocation, grid infrastructure, and incentives for renewable energy developers. The policies do not directly address issues such as compensation, rehabilitation, or livelihood safeguards for communities dependent on common grazing lands.<\/p>\n Megha\u00a0Sheth, research and documentation associate at the non-profit\u00a0MARAG\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Maldhari\u00a0Rural Action Group \u2014 says the vulnerability of such communities is structural. \u201cCommons are easily diverted because they are classified as wasteland, despite being necessary for pastoral life.\u00a0Maldharis\u00a0rely on communal customary rights and not documents, making their rights often overlooked during projects like these,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n In Gujarat, a government resolution mandates 40 acres of pastureland for every 100 livestock in a village, but\u00a0Sheth\u00a0says the provision is rarely implemented. \u201cPasturelands are either non-existent or integrated into larger survey numbers, making commons vulnerable to diversion and encroachment,\u201d she adds. She also flags the poor implementation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, for Other Traditional Forest Dwellers.<\/p>\n The gap extends to the national level. Solar parks are not required to undergo environmental impact assessments prior to commissioning, according to an August 2017 office memorandum issued by the Union Environment Ministry, which clarified that the provisions of the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification of 2006 do not apply to solar photovoltaic power projects. The memorandum noted only that the disposal of photovoltaic cells would fall under hazardous waste management rules, and that solar park development would continue to be governed by existing pollution control legislation.<\/p>\n Transitioning to renewable energy sits at the heart of India\u2019s commitments under the Paris Agreement, adopted in 2015, which seeks to limit global temperature rise to well below 2\u00b0C and as close to 1.5\u00b0C as possible. Under its Nationally Determined Contributions, India has pledged to draw 40% of its cumulative installed electricity capacity from non-fossil fuel sources by 2030. The country has moved swiftly on that front. Solar power capacity has surged from 3,744 MW in 2014-15 to roughly 150.26 GW as of March 31, 2026, one of the sharpest expansions in renewable energy deployment anywhere in the world over the past decade, says the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy\u2019s social media handles.<\/p>\n Conservationists are not against the expansion, but say these can be in other regions such as Kutch and the\u00a0Thar\u00a0desert, away from ecologically sensitive zones.<\/p>\n deshpande.abhinay@thehindu.co.in<\/i><\/p>\n Edited by Sunalini Mathew<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shifting grounds<\/h4>\n
A hill as a compass<\/h4>\n
Ecological silence<\/h4>\n