In the alphabets of development, mega projects are considered a sign of prosperity and success, especially to nations that suffered from colonialism; the independence of the countries of the southern hemi-sphere meant freedom but also a huge responsibility to catch up with the developed world. However, not all efforts came with the best results. For instance, establishing dams was considered a great achievement, to the extent that the late Indian president Jawaharlal Nehru called them temples of modern India when India first constructed the Bhakra Nangal Dam.
On the other hand, those very dams negatively affected the ecosystem of large areas and brought devastation to the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people, which has been especially evident at the construction of the Narmada river dam.
The latter was the inspiration behind forming the Save the Narmada Movement which later became an icon for advocacy against the destructive impact of dams. This very movement is the inspiration behind how the hero of our story, Dipti Bhatnagar, an environmental and social justice activist from India.
Since she was 10 years of age, Dipti started hearing news of the plight of the people living around the Narmada river and how their communities and livelihoods were devastated as a result to the construction of the Narmada river dam without paying attention to the environmental consequences it may bring. Fast forward to her college days, the momentum of the Narmada Bachao Andolan gained momentum and that was the time when she knew she has to do something to lift injustice off those marginalized communities of tribal and indigenous villagers.
The experience Dipti gained while she was in India was carried over to other countries, such as California, USA and Mozambique where she is based now.
Her efforts worldwide are concentrated on environmental injustice, and how the exploitation of the environment and compromising the ecosystems lead to harming people directly and indirectly through damaging their livelihoods and contributing towards the increase of greenhouse gas emissions. For example, large deposits of natural gas and coal were found in Mozambique, which drove the government to evict large communities in favor of gas and coal corporations and elites, which has denied the rights of many people. This has driven Justiça Ambiental/ Friends of the Earth Mozambique to conduct advocacy campaigns to champion for the people’s rights while raising awareness towards laws that can dismantle such practices and petitioning for the removal of fossil fuel companies, such as Eni, Total and Shell, to leave the country.
Back to the dams, there is a misconception that dams may provide a clean source of energy. However, Dipti elaborated that the submersion of large vegetation areas leads to the fermentation of biomatter and later producing methane, one of the major GHGs with an impact far worse that carbon dioxide.
Furthermore, dams are mostly constructed in remote areas where poor and underdeveloped communities live, who are often relocated without fair nor equitable compensation. Additionally, the mud that those rivers carry gets obstructed by those dams, which later affects shore lines like what happened as a result to the construction of the Narmada river and the same thing happened due to the construction of dams on the Zambezi river in Mozambique, which is here currently ongoing project and the Nile in Egypt.
From her experience, Dipti mentioned that how mega corporations exploit the environment and try to make up for it through carbon offsetting, which is nothing but a sorry excuse to justify the carbon emissions those companies produce. On the other hand, those companies buy up large forest areas or other lands to sequester carbon, while indigenous people are denied access to their lands. Yet, the abuse of the large corporations doesn’t end here; as the same corporations that exploit the global south are the same that pollute poor communities and communities of color in their own countries, such as the attempts to pass the Keysteone XL pipeline through conservations lands dedicated to one of the first nations’ tribes in the USA or the devastation of villages in Groningen, Holland whose suffering at the hands of Shell is similar to that of the people living at the Niger Delta.
Of course, such efforts often come with a high toll; the suffering people have to face affects. Dipti who strives to protect the rights of the weak and vulnerable, forgetting her own suffering as it doesn’t compare to theirs, as she mentioned. Yet, the successes she contributed to and the friendships she made along the way are the drive behind her activism towards a clean and safe planet for all.
In the end, Dipti commended the increasing numbers of youth who are becoming environmental activists themselves and advises them not to use fear as a tool, but they should tell the truth no matter what. She also urges them to be curious and inspire and learn more, always hear from the people facing injustices and never succumb to the excuses of the perpetrators. Change never happens at a sudden; it takes time and we all have to take part in it.