Indian farmers battle against nuclear plant

A robust people's movement against a major nuclear power project has built up in a cluster of small villages on India's picturesque Konkan coast.

Some 350km (220 miles) from India's commercial capital, Mumbai, lies the village of Madban overlooking the vast expanse of the Arabian Sea.

It is in this village that a 10,000 megawatt nuclear power plant is proposed - and farmers and fishermen, backed by campaigners, are hardening their stance against it.

People from Madban believe the project will cause havoc to the environment and to their livelihoods.

Stunning beauty

Pravin Gavhankar, a local farmer who is leading the campaign against the plant, expresses his resolve in no uncertain terms: "We have been living here for centuries; we will die but not abandon our ancestral homes and farms."

"The nuclear plant will amount to raping the gift of nature that we have here."
Pravin Gavhankar. The nuclear power plant's director CB Jain is seemingly unperturbed by the villagers' opposition. He says: "We are very much excited that we are going to implement this particular plan of the government of India very soon."

Plans for the government's ambitious nuclear power plant came after the September 2008 Indo-French agreement. This was implemented soon after the global body, the Nuclear Suppliers Group, lifted international restrictions and permitted other countries to collaborate with India on civil nuclear deals.

The French nuclear company Areva is set to install six nuclear reactors, each able to produce 1,650 megawatts of power, in this part of the coastline of western Maharashtra state. The long coastal stretch between Mumbai and Goa is stunning in its beauty and dotted with horticultural activity. The only big industrial activity here is the Dabhol power plant.

The villagers are not just opposed to the nuclear plant in their backyard but also to nine other power projects in the region which are in various stages of being commissioned. Mr Gavhankar believes they will destroy the region's ecology.
"The nuclear plant will amount to raping the gift of nature that we have here," he says.

Real concern

But Mr Jain disagrees. "The site is most suited to the plant. It's totally barren, 80 percent of it surrounded by sea, water is available in abundance." He says that despite the protests, the first phase of the project, that of land acquisition, is over.

Mr Jain says that the next phase - procuring environmental clearances - will be over soon. His optimism is a cause for real concern among villagers. In Madban and other villages on the proposed site of the plant, local people refuse to believe that land officially acquired last month has suddenly ceased to be theirs.

Milind Desai, a local medical practitioner, says: "There is not even a hypothetical possibility of us leaving the village. We know the plant is not coming here."

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"We are not against progress. Nature has given us air, water and sunlight. You can make solar energy from sunlight, wind energy from air and the water in this long coast of the Arabian sea produces enough waves to generate thousands of megawatts of power. Why are they not using these natural resources?" he asks.

Campaigners from around India have now joined the resistance movement set up by farmers and fishermen.