Category Archives: Narmada

States along the Narmada river’s course (source to Arabian Sea):
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra & Gujarat
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=22575

“Study at Narmada Basin is important because of its geographical location which is very strategic for migration of animal population from North to South and East to West. It is not only rich in fossils and archaeological sites, but it has a long history of human occupation and this region is facing submergence due to dam construction” – Parth Chauhan (Co-director, Stone Age Institute, Narmada Basin Paleoanthropology Project NBPA) on efforts to collect all the paleoanthropological evidence within the last two million years; quoted in “Was Narmada valley the centre of human evolution?” (Times of India, 14 August 2012)
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/vadodara/Was-Narmada-valley-the-centre-of-human-evolution/articleshow/15485975.cms
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=22575

“Baba [Amte] moved out of his ashram to violence-hit Punjab, the dam-hit Narmada valley and to communal riots-affected bastis in Mumbai. […] We in India are often guilty of eulogizing people, but it can be said without doubt that Baba exemplified the humanitarian politics of Gandhiji.” – Medha Padkar in “The inspiring gardener” (DownToEarth, 15 March 2008)
https://www.downtoearth.org.in/coverage/baba-amte-the-inspiring-gardener-4264
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=21404

“[T]heir opposition to the dam was futile and [the Bhils in the Narmada region] must have known that, like thousands of other tribals displaced in the name of ‘development’, they might soon have to flee their homes once the dam came up […] sunk deep in the swirling waters of the Narmada, its denizens being reduced to manual labourers in some dusty, nondescript Indian town.” – Yoginder Sikand in “Simple ways of life” (Deccan Herald, 23 December 2012)
https://www.deccanherald.com/content/300193/simple-ways-life.html
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=10420

“The social characteristics of those displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Dam are not unique, either to India or to the rest of the world. Of the 200,000 to 250,000 who have been displaced by the Sardar Sarovar Dam, 60–70 per cent, are the Scheduled Tribe populations, i.e., those defined by the Indian Constitution to live primarily by pastoralism, subsistence-oriented slash and burn agriculture, and/or hunting and gathering. […] Those displaced, who are the Scheduled Tribes, belong to the Bhil, Bhilala, Pavra, Tadvi, and Vassawa ethnic groups and are located at the boundaries between the three states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Their rates of education and literacy are low by the all-India standards.” – Judy Whitehead (University of Lethbridge) in “Development and Dispossession in the Narmada Valley” (Pearson, New Delhi 2010), pp. 6-7
https://www.academia.edu/442943/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=1713

“The Narmada and its 30 big dams, the Sardar Sarovar in particular, have for long been a matter of prestige for the government [even though] increasing the height will affect villages in Madhya Pradesh more than the other States.” – Lyla Bavadam in “Height of controversy” (Frontline Magazine, 19 September 2014)
https://www.frontline.in/the-nation/height-of-controversy/article6364780.ece
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=10420

“More than one hundred and fifty thousand people in and around the bountiful and peaceful valley of Narmada are forced to raise a struggle of life and death. […] They are tribal and poor people, farmers and labourers, fishermen and forest produce gatherers, small enterprisers and artisans, belonging to about 250 communities. They are socially and economically disadvantaged. […] The tribunal especially considered the views of the three states Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra – represented by their chief Ministers and bureaucrats aiming at resolution of the political conflict. But in no way were the tribal and peasant communities and their riparian rights to – or even their unique and non-replaceable relation with – their mother Narmada, taken into consideration. The mute nature and powerless inhabitants of the Valley never were among the parties.” – Medha Patkar and Baba Amte, Acceptance speech on behalf of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Right Livelihood Award, 31 December 1991)
https://rightlivelihood.org/speech/acceptance-speech-medha-patkar-and-baba-amte-narmada-bachao-andolan/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=10420

“[O]ver the last three decades, successive governments in the state have pushed the Narmada dam as a lifeline for the drought-prone areas of Kachchh, Saurashtra and North Gujarat. In practice, however, these regions are given the lowest priority. They receive only the residual water after the requirements of urban areas, industries, and farmers in central Gujarat are met. […] The programmes of well-charging and check dams adopted in the past must be revived.” – Namita Waikar quoting Himanshu Thakkar of the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (2018 report titled “Gujarat’s water crisis rooted in years of misplaced priorities”) in “Counting sheep as grasslands shrink in Gujarat”
https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/counting-sheep-as-grasslands-shrink-in-gujarat/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=22575