Given how environmental degradation and rehabilitation of displaced people have become so important, you would think that governments at the centre and in the states would be serious about dealing with these complex issues, deliberating at length about environment clearances and the rehabilitation packages relating to various projects. Yet, the evidence available suggests that the process is as casual and routine-driven as it can be.

The Central Water Commission failed to secure an agreement between Delhi and Haryana over sharing of water and power from the Renuka Dam at meeting here on Monday. With Delhi refusing to give in to Haryana's demands and depart from the agreement signed in 1994 on sharing of water and power, the matter is now likely to be referred to the Planning Commission for a resolution. Haryana's demand for a share from the water and power that will be generated once the Renuka Dam is commissioned has struck a discordant note as Delhi has objected to the change in agreement.

Supa dam was built on the Kali river for supplying water to forest-based industries. In October 1972, prime minister Indira Gandhi promised a compensation package for the 1,113 affected families from 44 villages. Though the families wanted the fertile Gobral village near Dandeli, the state refused since the area was under dense teak plantation. A state government-appointed committee look into the resettlement found Ramnagar unsuitable for cultivable. The government then promised irrigation facilities and the families had to move to Ramnagar in 1981. The promise hasn't materialized.

Soil conservationist P R Mishra's search for the source of silt in the Sukhna Lake took him to Sukhomajri, a village in the denuded Shivalik hills.

DTE tracks the developments in Sukhomajri which became a model of self-reliant development in the 1980s due to successful management of ecological wealth by HRMS. But the situation has changed now. The forest department has hijacked the forest created by the villagers, while control of water is going into private hands.

Bunga took the sukhomajri story forward The first village to follow Sukhomajri's development model was Bunga, just 30 km away in Haryana's Panchkula district (see timeline: Divergent trajectories).

Government must facilitate, not control The experiences of Sukhomajri and Bunga have a lesson: given the right conditions, external and internal, villages can be self-sustaining. But their inherent

the Kerala State Electricity Board is hopeful that the Athirapally Hydro Electric Project in the state's Trissur district will be revived. The Union ministry of Environment and Forests on July 19

on april 18, 2007, the Kerala government gave

forest officials of Narmada Valley Development Authority (nvda) launched an operation in March 2007 to shift monkeys and nilgai from an island in the Indira Sagar Reservoir area near Chhanera in

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