Highlighting both the immediate as well as hidden and long term adverse impacts of hydropower development, on environment, agriculture, culture, livelihoods and more, Bhattacharya who has extensively covered the north eastern region, reveals how majority of communities across Arunachal, Manipur, Assam, Sikkim have said no to big dams.
Touted as a ‘clean’ source of energy, the reality of big hydropower on ground is far dirty and dangerous. Even as the north eastern region has been identified as the site for massive hydropower development, and is attracting huge sums of largely public money in the name of ‘renewable’ energy, Snigdhendu Bhattacharya shows how hydropower in fact has become a ‘financial black hole’.
The discussion goes on to focus on how ‘national security’ has emerged as the main plank to justify development of big hydro in the north eastern region, and which very often trumps dissenting notes around environmental, cultural, financial, socio-economic, and transparency concerns.
Snigdhendu Bhattacharya is a Kolkata based journalist with over 20 years of experience, focusing on environmental, political, and social issues in India. He spent 13 years at Hindustan Times until mid-2020 and now works independently. His reports have appeared in outlets like The Wire, Outlook, Mongabay-India, Nikkei Asia, HuffPost India, Caravan, The Times of India, Deccan Herald, IndiaSpend, The Third Pole, Article-14,