From the Chipko movement to an emphasis on hydropower projects in Uttarakhand

In the Indian Himalayan states, particularly in Uttarakhand, a combination of development activities and the intensifying climate crisis has resulted in repeated calamities, drastically and adversely affecting rivers and the local people who depend on them. The Joshimath region, known for the Chipko movement that protected the symbiotic relationship between locals and their environment, later became an epicentre of hydropower projects, despite lying within zones previously declared as protected. In the name of conservation and development, the lives and homes of residents living along the tributaries of the Alaknanda were rendered vulnerable, and their socio-legal actions to protest this have received little support from the governments or courts. As the local rights related to the rivers, forests, and land were taken away, these resources were opened to corporate exploitation, leading to a vicious circle of disempowerment of people and environmental exploitation. In such a context, the initiatives undertaken for the protection of rivers, including those for river rejuvenation and the declaration of river rights, appear insubstantial, as unhindered exploitation and resultant devastation continue. For such protection-related initiatives to be effective, they ought to draw from and lead to the rights of local communities.