Reportage on a planet without equitable or sustainable development.
on arunachal’s egregious hydel plans
between december and now, i worked on a set of stories about the hydel projects coming up in arunachal pradesh. between 2006-09, this state in north-eastern india signed 130 MoUs with about 55 companies allocating them places where they could build dams. several things about these MoUs were surprising. these MoUs translated into 130 dams on 8 river basins — probably the world’s highest concentration of hydel projects.
it was not clear why the state needed to sign so many MoUs in such a short span of time. it was not clear why it had signed projects for more MW-age than what the centre had budgeted for. for its part, while the state government said this rush just showed its urgent desire for development, many of the companies it had tied up with had little or no background in hydel power generation. there were other puzzles. for some reason, the state had turned its back on multi-purpose projects (which can also do flood control) and was only pushing hydel power projects.
stories seeking to uncover the hydel mess in arunachal pradesh began popping out from today. the first one, a lead story which introduces the significance of what has happened in arunachal, compares this to coalgate.
the main story explores why few of the projects have gotten off the ground. and ends up concluding that something similar to the ill-fated thermal power plant boom i wrote about earlier took place in arunachal. companies rushed in fecklessly. the state signed more projects than it could have supported.
the motivations of the companies are easily understood. the main story elaborates on those. but what about the state government? why did it sign so many MoUs? 130 MoUs on 8 river basins? the answers, as ever, lies in political funding.
I am an Indian journalist with interests in energy, environment, climate and India’s ongoing slide into right-wing authoritarianism. My book, Despite the State, an examination of pervasive state failure and democratic decay in India, was published by Westland Publications, India, in January 2021. My work has won the Bala Kailasam Memorial Award; the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award; and five Shriram Awards for Excellence in Financial Journalism. Write to me at despitethestate@protonmail.com.
“Westland closure: Titles that are selling fast and a few personal recommendations,” by Chetana Divya Vasudev, Moneycontrol. (Because this happened too. In February, a year after DtS was released, Amazon decided to shutter Westland, which published the book. The announcement saw folks rushing to buy copies of Westland books before stocks run out.)
Fractured/Earth 
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