Posters urging "NTPC Go Back" have appeared in Joshimath, a subsiding Indian Himalayan town where roads are cracking and houses crumbling a crisis locals blame largely on a hydropower project led by India's biggest electricity producer NTPC.
Officials regard hydropower as essential for India to meet its renewable energy goals but recent events have cast a shadow on the viability of the power source.
The crisis in Joshimath has strengthened scrutiny of India's push for more hydropower to help balance rising energy demand while cutting planet-heating emissions to net zero by 2070. India's power minister told journalists last week that construction of the NTPC project had not led to land subsidence or cracks in Joshimath.