What Lies Behind the Resistance to India’s Highest Dam?

Not only has the government failed to do a cost-benefit analysis of building the Pancheshwar Dam or assess its environmental impact, it has also fallen short of addressing the growing concerns of locals. Exactly a year ago, our prime minister, in his campaign speech just before the Uttarakhand state elections, declared from the podium in Pithoragarh town that […]

A River Under Arrest: Critique of the Luhri Hydro-electric Project on the Sutlej River

Descriptions of the Sutlej, a glacial river originating from Kailash Mansarovar in Tibet traversing through the Himalayas and Punjab plains in India and meeting the Indus in Pakistan, never fail to boast of its magnificence, speed and depth. Over the last few decades, however, this perception has been challenged, as the Sutlej has been reduced from this transcendent symbol […]