The Gadgil report on the Western Ghats is a major ecological tract and a signifi cant refl ection on the politics of ecology. It illustrates how a theory of nature, lives, livelihood combined with local knowledge, decentralisation, and diversity add to the dynamism of democracy. In contrast, the Kasturirangan report is an antidote to such therapeutic ecology and shows how
Mulshi Satyagraha: Remembering Indiaâs First Anti-Dam Struggle in its 100th Year
Ousted without rehabilitation in 1921 and jailed for resisting, the families of the 52 villages in Maharashtraâs Mulshi taluka who lost their land to the Tata Power dam face ever-growing troubles even today.
The villages scattered around the Mulshi Reservoir, owned by the Tata company. Photo: Nandini Oza
Rights05/Feb/2021
The first anti-dam struggle in India and possibly even the world was against the Mulshi dam, built at the confluence of the Mula and Nila rivers near Pune in western Maharashtra.
Popularly known as the Mulshi
satyagraha (insistence on truth), this struggle was led by Pandurang Mahadev (Senapati) Bapat and V.M. Bhuskute in the early 1920s, spreading across not only the 52 submergence villages of the dam, but even outside, right up to Pune and beyond. What is important about this struggle a hundred years ago is that even women participated in large numbers  and were ja