The Dark Side /
Our launch took two hours to reach Singaran, the first “cut-off” village on Balimela reservoir, which my tourist guidebook calls “a great place for scenic beauty and adventure water sport.” As the lone boat of the day had left, the only way in was to hitch a ride with the police. As advertised, serene deep blue water surrounded lush and lofty green hills. But life for people in this unhappy corner of Orissa state is no idyll.
India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, built dams here in Orissa in the 1950s to improve the lives of the poor. He called them “the new temples of modern India.” Balimela was a pioneer project of a hopeful new experiment: Nehruvian development.
But rising waters on the river Sileru soon submerged many villages and left more than 150 others stranded on the far side. These are known as “cut-off” villages and are linked to the rest of the world only by infrequent boats. An area meant to symbolize a better future for impoverished Indians now exemplifies the opposite.
The Balimela region is a microcosm of an Indian tragedy. Most of India’s natural resources lie in areas that have long been home to “tribals,” ethnic minorities who have lived freely for centuries, hunting, gathering, and farming small plots.
Today, industry and mineral extraction take precedence over human lives. No one is certain how many have died as police, a government-supported militia, and the armed security forces battle people who increasingly fight for their rights. Perhaps more telling are the day-to-day lives in communities that struggle to survive.
When Balimela reservoir filled, the villagers of Singaram went into the hills to a place called Sitagandhi. When our boat reached shore, I met Gauranga Hantal, who showed me around.
“Singaram was a big village,” he said, “but people scattered when the dam was built. Only 11 families are left here today. Some ran away, some died.” His family had lived in a different village, which was submerged. They went to Singaram when he was a small boy and when waters lapped at its edges they moved on to Sitagandhi.
In Sitagandhi today there are no roads, no electricity, no irrigation, no safe water, no doctor, and no school. Reaching the nearest hospital takes three hours by boat, when one appears, followed by a two-hour walk. The nearest school is seven hours away, three by boat and four more on foot.
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