Floating solar schemes put India's promise of just transition to the test

On 7 September, a couple of hundred fishermen, majority of whom were tribals, organized a bike rally against a proposed floating solar power plant on the Panchet dam.  The fishers staged a demo, shouting slogans like "DVC Murdabaad" (down with DVC), "DVC hosiayar" (beware), and "solar project bandh karo" (scrap the solar project).

DVC is short for Damodar Valley Corporation, a public sector undertaking that owns and operates the Panchet dam, on which solar power projects of 105 MW capacity floating power have already been tendered for development. The same or even bigger capacity is pending through the tender process.

Fishermen who have been dependent on the waters of the dam for livelihood claim that almost 1,500 families would not just lose their livelihood but also their main source of cheap nutrition, all because of the first phase of the project. They have requested a public meeting at Panchet on October 15, demanding the cancellation of the project.

"About 1,500 families of three panchayats in the Nituria block—Sarabari, Raibandh, and Guniara—live on fishing from the reservoir. Solar power project will make fishing impossible," opined Rajen Tudu, convenor of the southern West Bengal chapter of Prakriti Bachao O Adibasi Bachao Mancha (platform to save nature and tribal people).

Tudu, a leader of BJMPM and a tribal organisation with significant power, told Mongabay India that the project would also negatively impact boatmen and weavers of fishing nets, ultimately impacting nearly 2,500 families.

Apart from Tudu's organisation, the Damodar Valley Bastuhara Sangram Samiti (committee to fight for the displaced), Bastuhara Matsyajibi Saagram Samiti (committee to fight for the displaced fishers), and Jami Raksha Committee (land protection committee) together are spearheading the protests.

The DVC has jurisdiction over a stretch of about 24,235 square kilometres in Jharkhand and West Bengal, its assets being the multipurpose dams at Tilaiya, Konar, Maithon, and Panchet.

The agitators say that the DVC authorities had assured them alternative livelihood in the form of cage fishing. However, they are not convinced and say the suggestions are vague.

Mongabay India sent an email to the Chief Public Relations Officer of DVC inquiring about the company's engagement, if any, with the agitators and how they replied to allegations made by the fisherfolk and did not receive a response.

Sukhram Hansda, a protester from Neturia, grieved that many tribal families were uprooted without adequate compensation when land along the Damodar river had been bought for the dam back in the early 1950s.

"Patihto almost ten years and a half, we have been demanding proper compensation from the DVC. Instead of hearing our demand, now they want to displace us from our source of livelihood by cutting off our waters," Hansda told Mongabay India.

In 2009, on the 50th anniversary of commissioning of the Panchet dam, people of a dozen villages bordering the dam in Purulia district commenced a demonstration protesting "insufficient compensation." They complained that the compensation proved to be paltry in relation to the loss, not all sufferers fell under its scope, and some promises were not kept.

Villagers have ever since repeatedly brought the charge of unjust and partial compensation.

The DVC, in the 2023-24 annual report, stated that GVREL is constructing two Solar PV parks totalling 755 MW adjacent to and around Tilaya and Panchet Dam Reservoirs on the UMREPPs scheme. Out of these 755MW, GVREL contracted 310 MW Solar PV Projects under Phase I.

This includes award of contract to M/s. Sterling & Wilson for 155 MW Floating solar photovoltaic (FSPV) projects at Tilaiya, to M/s. L&T for 75 MW FSPV at Panchet and to M/s. NGSL for the balance 80 MW at Panchet, comprising 30 MW of FSPV and 50 MW of ground-mounted projects.

Tenders for the remaining 455 MW capacity of Phase II, also at Tilaiya and Panchet, would be floated later. "These projects will not only be adding to our growing renewable energy portfolio, but also enhance the strength of our efforts to minimize our carbon footprint," according to DVC annual report.

According to the government, the 100 MW floating solar park of 2022 in Telangana in southern India occupies 500 acres of reservoir water. The 278 MW floating plant in Madhya Pradesh is over 800 acres.

 

The DVC project is to install a 755 MW capacity at Tilaiya and Panchet. Some of the protesters' estimate, as obtained in negotiations with officials of DVC, is that 375 MW are going to Panchet. Fishermen living near the Panchet dam are concerned about losing access to approximately 1,500 acres of water.

Why do they not reduce their power consumption? They travel in AC cars, do their work in AC offices, and live in AC houses. How can they deny us our livelihood for the sake of reducing carbon footprint?" asks Robin Baskey, a resident of Neturia.

The protests

Discontent began building against the solar project at the close of 2024, when authorities from the DVC sat down with local residents regarding the project. Locals claim they objected to it immediately. Authorities, however, attempted to proceed with the development in January.

On 8 January 2025, when project contractor personnel arrived at the Maheshnadi area with workers to start work, a group of some hundreds of villagers from several villages in the Sarabari gram panchayat area chased them away. The Bharat Jakat Majhi Pargana Mahal, social umbrella organization of tribals, was involved in the agitation.

The demonstrators state the residents of Raibandh and Guniara commute across the reservoir on a boat to the Neturia block headquarter, but the solar project would eliminate the ferry ride. It takes 10-15 minutes in a boat. But, through road, it was a 25 km journey, stated Tudu.

The protests have been recurring sporadically since then. In February, a rally was organized in Purulia's Neturia. In March, a memorandum had been submitted to the DVC authorities.

"Fooling our ancestors once. Fooling tribal people everywhere in the world into a belief that they have brought big projects. Never benefit the oustees. Let us not be fooled again," the protester Tudu told the protest rally before a DVC office at Panchet on September 7. They also desired a bridge from Bathanbari to Maheshnadi.

This isn't the first floating solar project to have agitations from fishermen who depend on reservoir fishing. Fishermen in Maharashtra in western India have been protesting a 1,200 MW floating solar project at Nathsagar reservoir of Jayakwadi dam.

In Madhya Pradesh, central India, the 278 MW Omkareshwar Floating Solar Park, which is projected to become a 600 MW unit, "shows the magnitude and extent of India's clean energy ambitions," Union Minister Pralhad Joshi had said earlier this year. 

According to Bharath Jairaj, who is the program head of WRI India's energy program, the case for India is complex where the country has ambitious targets for renewable energy that could stress land. Therefore, water bodies are felt to be an alternative to land-based solar systems. However, many fishing communities also depend on the same water bodies for their livelihood, and therefore similar resource conflicts are emerging from floating solar projects as well.

What is needed is to conduct studies before projects are undertaken and relay their implications to fishers. An impact assessment of livelihood, aquatic life, and productivity needs to be done properly so that their problems can be taken care of, " Jairaj explained to Mongabay-India.

He added that conflicts over scarce resources are inherent in the transition to energy, and the process may be facilitated only by embracing a consultative approach. "We have to take the entire society with us to make the energy transition effective and meaningful," he said.