Sikkim’s Hydropower Projects As Monuments of Disaster

The glocal narrative on renewable power has been advocating a shift towards “green” and sustainable hydropower potential of numerous rivers in India’s North-east and Himalayan Sikkim is a classic study of how disasters and hydropower are intimately connected. October 2023 marked a turning point for Chungthang Town in North Sikkim, India when GLOF in Lhonak broke the Teesta III dam and wiped the majority of the town and this disaster had followed inhabitants slow-recovery from the 2011 Great Himalayan Earthquake. Both these catastrophic events were not unforeseen or unpredictable and several of my earlier writings had alluded to these disasters while the Government of India, Government of Sikkim and private developers were investing and dreaming of hydro-rupees and ignoring the fragile ecology and hydro-social connections of communities residing here. In this paper with my 25 years long association with the landscape and some discussions with the affected communities, I try and focus on how a prevention of disaster and acknowledging a disaster mitigation perspective is critical to India’s ambitious hydropower policy and climate adaptation measures.