DAMMED

“Ravana tondhi Ramayan”, avers noted environmentalist Anupam Mishra in ‘Dammed’. He warns us that policy-makers – scripting disasters in fragile eco-systems – are condemned to narrate the epics of their own folly to the coming generations.

‘Dammed’ profiles the iconic long-drawn struggle of the citizens in the valley of River Narmada in central India – trying to save their river, their livelihoods and their way of life.

“The government can never win- for we shall never concede defeat” says Sakku Bai, a grand-mother who shepherds her village against the powerful corporations and multinational Banks making obscene profits from these Dams on the Narmada and its tributaries.

Piloted by the Narmada Bachao Andolan (Save the Narmada campaign), this 35-year old struggle is nearing end-game now, as the government raises the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, rubbishing the judgements and the limits set by the Supreme Court of India. The deluge shall snuff out more lives, inundating pristine forests and fertile land yet again.

Watching the film, it feels like Deja Vu.

In September 2012, NHDC – the Dam Corporation raised the height of Onkareshwar Dam on the Narmada – in defiance of court orders. The dreaded submergence was at hand. No alternate land, livelihood or compensation was provided.

This was the last straw.

In the face of this apathy, the villagers of Khandwa in Madhya Pradesh did a ‘Gandhi’. The media flashed the images of the 51 women and men – protesting submerged neck-deep in the rising back-waters. There was a nation-wide furore. After 17 days, the government capitulated.

The poignant protest gave a twist to the ‘Gandhian Satyagraha’. 

DAMMED investigates the passive genocide of citizens whose lives, livelihoods and property are submerged to electrify a few corporations and cities. It questions the a priori assumption that mega dams are critical to progress.

Refugees in their own land – over 11 million ‘Dam-displaced’ in India are nobody’s priority.