South Asia: India, Giant of the Subcontinent - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 242

India must still import fuel. Multinationals as well as
private firms are contracted to seek imports in addition
to finding new sources. The Asian Development Bank
has proposed a pipeline that will bring natural gas from
the Caspian Sea to India via T Turkmenistan, Afghanistan,
and Pakistan. Instability in Afghanistan and Pakistan is
hindering the plan.

feed 20 million, foster an industrial boom, and protect
750,000 downstream residents from floods.
Critics claim that the Narmada scheme is a disaster
in the making. Both forests and agricultural lands are
being flooded and up to 1.5 million people will be
displaced. The destruction of forests will be particularly
devastating because they have housed a diverse commu-
nity of tribal peoples such as the Bhils and the Gonds, as
well as endangered wildlife, including the tiger. T Tribal
representatives say they have nowhere to go, and when
the valley is flooded, they will join India' is growing num-
ber of environmental refugees.

DAMS AND THE DAMNED
Inadequate water control—timing, amount, and
distribution—has been a bane of Indian farmers for
centuries, and the rapid expansion of irrigation systems
has been one of the country' s highest priorities since in-
dependence. Dam construction aims to alleviate these
stresses, thereby increasing food production. Numerous
projects have been installed, mainly large-scale opera-
tions involving foreign aid and modeled on America' s
T Tennessee V alley Authority' s (TV A) principles of regional
hydroelectric planning. T Tremendous investments have
been made in several areas, but the consequences have
not always been positive.
The Krishna River, most important for irrigation on
the Deccan, was developed with a series of dams, tanks,
and canals dating back to the Raj. Unfortunately , plan-
ners did not take into account farmers' perceptions of
their water requirements or desired crops. State bound-
aries divided stored water supplies from users' lands.
Moreover, construction integrity was poor, resulting in
silted dams and leaky canals. In fact, dams and canals are
rarely able to provide water to even 50 percent of their
designated service areas.
Another earlier dam project concerns the Damodar
River, which drains Bihar and West Bengal, an old indus-
trial core founded on iron and coal supplies. For years,
excessive rainfall in the upper valley produced flooding
in the lower valley , with devastating consequences. The
Damodar V alley Corporation (DVC) was designed with
the assistance of the TV A. Floods have been reduced, but
the DVC' is greatest success is in the area of power gener-
ation. Unfortunately , increasing industrialization of the
Damodar region with chemical factories and mining
operations has rendered the river one of the most
polluted in India.
The Narmada River project, the largest ever under-
taken, includes two super dams: the Sardar Sarovar in
Gujarat and the Narmada Sagar in Madhya Pradesh. In
addition, 30 large dams, 130 medium-sized dams, and
3,000 minor ones are planned. The scheme should help

THE POWER OF WIND
India has committed itself to energy independence by
2020. In 1994, T Tulsi Tanti set up two wind-power
machineto support his family' s textile mill in Gujarat
state. This venture evolved into the founding of Suzlon
Energy , which manufactures and installs wind turbines.
It has developed the largest wind park in Asia, at India' s
southern tip where the trade winds blow consistently .
The company is experiencing rapid growth with contracts
from North America, Australia, and China. Suzlon already
has a large wind-power park and a rotor-manufacturing
plant in Minnesota.

India's Oustees

The twentieth century was a century of uprooted
people: oustees . These are people who flee from war and
violence, political and/or ideological oppression, natural
and other disasters, economic stagnation, and human-
induced environmental problems. Dams produce the
largest segment of environmental oustees , followed by
mines.
About half of oustees are landless or sharecroppers
with no recorded or “legitimate” claims to the land they
may have worked for generations. No more than half of
oustees are ever resettled. Some are compensated
monetarily , but many squander their new-found
“wealth” on consumer items and end up landless, jobless,
and moneyless.
Many oustees become seasonal laborers in agricul-
ture or construction. In northern India, husbands tend to
leave their wives and children with a male relative, per-
haps for years at a time. In southern India, husbands
tend to take their family with them. These workers join