The not so green side

Behra Ram, 45, rues the day officials of a private company came to survey his village Dawara, located in western Rajasthan, for installing wind turbine generators. His 7.16 hectares of agricultural land, wrongly recorded as government land, was earmarked for acquisition for a hybrid power project. Even though Behra Ram, the sarpanch of the village, is fighting the case in court, his land was taken away by the company without his consent. The bid to turn Rajasthan into a hub of renewable energy projects has led to the labelling of lands with sacred trees and ponds as “wasteland”, fuelling backlash from affected villagers.

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