Because the June solar shines brilliant, River Godavari laps up in opposition to the banks of Nathsagar in Paithan, Maharashtra. Chhaya Subhash Kuchir ambles out of her bamboo house to survey her catch.
It’s late morning. She returned from her fishing expedition 5 hours in the past. “Within the night I decrease the online and I pull it out at 5 am the following morning,” she says. Her catch of 5 to six kilos of tilapia fish fetches her a mean of Rs.20 to Rs.30 a kilo each day. That is hardly sufficient to maintain her family and her son’s medical bills: Nitin, 28, has a incapacity in his proper hand.
Quickly, the lapping water from the reservoir will probably be coated with swathes of photovoltaic panels, as a part of the proposed Jayakwadi floating solar energy challenge, sounding the loss of life knell to the livelihoods of conventional fishers reminiscent of Chhaya, who foresees a steep decline in catch and earnings.
The issues of the fishing neighborhood are usually not unfounded. If the challenge by NTPC turns into operational, almost two lakh artisanal fishers from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar district (beforehand Aurangabad), whose solely earnings is fishing, will probably be rendered unemployed and homeless.
The multipurpose Jayakwadi dam, the most important constructed on the Godavari, is 10 km lengthy and has a peak of about 41 metres. On a mean, six fishers catch 30 kilos of fish, which fetches them a complete of Rs.300-400 each day. “If we divide this between six households, how will we eat?” asks Kusum Kete, a fisherwoman who doesn’t know her age.
Kusumtai Kete, sitting beside her fishing internet outdoors her makeshift home in one of many settlements in Paithan.
| Photograph Credit score:
Mitul Kajaria
Chhaya, too, is imprecise about her age and blames this on her lack of literacy. She is, nevertheless, capable of hint the occasions in her life by the tragedies dotting it, reminiscent of her husband’s loss of life, her son’s incapacity, and her youngest baby succumbing to sickness. She recollects a time 15 years in the past when there was considerable fish and no household went hungry.
“There was at all times sufficient fish for all fishers. Whereas they aren’t well-educated, their earnings was good,” says Kishore Pathak, the honorary wildlife warden of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.
Suffocation of aquatic life
Scientists consider that an unintended introduction of the invasive fish species—Tilapia mossambica—into the reservoir resulted within the decline of different fish species. “There have been initially 85 species of native fish, now there are solely 10 or 12 remaining as tilapia feast on the eggs of different fishes,” explains Dilip Birute, a naturalist and a professor at Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada College. The villagers additionally clarify that the water stage within the reservoir has decreased; they have accustomed to relocating their self-constructed, tarpaulin settlements to accommodate the altering shoreline.
Additionally Learn | Is Maharashtra enjoying politics with drought?
The Nathsagar Jalashay (reservoir), shaped by the Jayakwadi dam, is 55 km lengthy and covers an space of over 350 sq km. Whereas it fills up yearly, the water recedes very quickly, leaving solely 25 per cent of it in useless storage. “At present, the scenario is such that there’s solely 5 per cent of water. Even when the reservoir is at full capability, the water comes up solely to your knees,” says Bajrang Limbore, president of the “Shield Jayakwadi Fisherpeople” committee. The water is deep solely on the centre of the reservoir, which suggests Chhaya and her friends must set out greater than 5 km into the water on their makeshift thermocol boats to solid their diaphanous nets. The skinny nets, the fisherwomen declare, typically get entangled as a result of gusty winds, ensuing within the lack of a day’s whole catch. And generally, the winds topple their boats, endangering their lives.
The NTPC challenge is the brainchild of MP and Union Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad. Karad has claimed that the photo voltaic panels will occupy 7,500 hectares, or 21 per cent of the entire reservoir space. However Limbore believes the challenge will want a minimum of 30 per cent of the water physique, and he claims that the panels will probably be laid on the centre of the reservoir, the place fishers primarily fish. He says that is the world the place water accumulates essentially the most, the a part of the reservoir that by no means empties out, even in summer time when the water recedes.
“If the water physique is teeming with aquatic life, then the protection [by the panels] shouldn’t be greater than 10-15 per cent,” says Arun Kumar, professor on the division of hydro and renewable vitality, Indian Institute of Expertise Roorkee. That is really helpful by varied worldwide our bodies, says Kumar whereas referencing Germany’s mandate of utilizing solely 15 per cent of its synthetic lakes to arrange initiatives. “And because the panels will probably be laid and not using a hole, the organisms that usually come up for oxygen won’t be able to take action and can die,” Limbore says.
Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal assesses challenge’s ‘eco-sensitivity’
If there are not any fish, this may also cut back the variety of migratory and native birds from the adjoining sanctuary. “With no place to roost, the meals chain will probably be destroyed,” he says.
The staunch opposition to the floating solar energy challenge started when the world was surveyed seven months in the past. “There are 55 gram panchayats across the reservoir, they usually handed a decision stating that they are not looking for the challenge,” Limbore says.
Early 2024 noticed scores of fishing communities marching to the District Collector’s workplace, demanding that the challenge be scrapped. The fishers obtained a written assurance from the Collector {that a} assembly could be held between them and elected representatives. The Collector was subsequently transferred.
A view of the Jayakwadi dam.
| Photograph Credit score:
Mitul Kajaria
Appearing on an utility filed by the Kahar Samaj Panch Committee, a registered belief representing fishermen, the Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal (NGT) this 12 months has sought a report from the Union Surroundings Ministry and the State forest division to find out whether or not the proposed challenge falls inside the eco-sensitive zone notified alongside the periphery of the dam.
As per a gazette notification issued on July 12, 2017, the world is protected beneath the Wildlife Safety Act, 1972. The NGT-mandated report may also consider if the challenge counts as a “permissible exercise” and if it might harm the atmosphere or pollute the reservoir.
In April 2022, the State water assets division wrote to the Ministry of New and Renewable Vitality stating that in response to the income and forest division’s 1986 notification, the Jayakwadi reservoir is a prohibited space, and the federal government of Maharashtra can’t give permission to NTPC for evaluation research to arrange a floating solar energy challenge.
“The birds feed on fish, crabs, and water spiders,” says Limbore. There have been 242 recorded chicken species, out of which 80 had been migratory, and so the area was declared a sanctuary. Villagers and consultants consider this challenge can have an enormous influence on the biodiversity of the area.
‘Floating solar energy initiatives’ throughout India
When photo voltaic panels are stacked on a stagnant water physique such because the Nathsagar reservoir, Pathak believes it should result in eutrophication, a course of whereby the extreme progress of algae within the water depletes oxygen.
Kusum additionally says that the standard of water will deteriorate. “Our forefathers caught fish, our kids will catch fish, that is our custom; the place will we repair our nets when the challenge is put in?” she asks.
Bajrang Limbore, 39, of the “Shield Jayakwadi Fisherpeople” committee reads the response to an RTI petition the committee filed relating to the allotment of land and water physique for the floating photo voltaic challenge within the Jayakwadi reservoir.
| Photograph Credit score:
Mitul Kajaria
In November 2022, Karad, who has twice served because the Mayor of Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, claimed that the present ruling alliance spearheaded by Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has given the nod to the challenge. Karad backs the challenge, claiming that it’ll present electrical energy to lakhs of farmers. In 2022, he wrote to the Central authorities looking for permission to launch the floating solar energy challenge. Earlier this 12 months, he additionally wrote to the State forest division looking for the denotification of the reservoir as a chicken sanctuary.
Maharashtra shouldn’t be the one State that has jumped onto the floating photo voltaic initiatives bandwagon. Bids have been invited for establishing floating solar energy initiatives throughout Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Punjab, Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal, regardless of native communities’ protests. Since 2020, the Photo voltaic Vitality Company of India has floated seven tenders for these initiatives.
Additionally Learn | Maharashtra tops water conservation efforts in India: Water Our bodies census
Though floating photo voltaic initiatives price 15-20 per cent greater than rooftop and ground-mounted initiatives, they rating in relation to land acquisition, each by way of availability of contiguous parcels and their price.
Very similar to Jayakwadi, one other floating solar energy challenge in Madhya Pradesh has robbed fishers of their livelihood and evicted them from their houses. Touted as India’s largest floating photo voltaic challenge, the plant was constructed on the backwaters of the Omkareshwar dam, the place panels had been laid on fishing areas.
Chhaya and Kusum worry that their houses will probably be taken over as soon as the challenge turns into operational. “We would not have farms, the dam is our farm.”
Mitul Kajaria is an award-winning photographer, curator, and educator with a background in structure. He’s presently coaching in psychology and psychodrama. Pragathi Ravi is an unbiased journalist writing on the intersection of local weather justice, vitality transitions, and pure useful resource governance. She acknowledges the help of Internews’ Earth Journalism Community.
