Clean Development Mechanisms are big business in India. These projects claimed they will reduce 100s of 1000s of tons of CO2 in 2012 and increase to millions by 2020. One of the big companies involved is Tata Motors Ltd. (of course Zarathushtra was the fist environmentalist). The state of Maharashtra is one of the states that had head-ways with these projects.
In villages of Supa and Satara, Tata had promised a 770-meter road, a building for the Mangal Karyalay, a 2 store building and cars for the Gram Panchyat, employment for the villagers, water ponds, employment programs, temple electricity, and the list goes on and on. Tata will convert the fertile farming lands to wind farms for some 20.85 MW electricity. Tata paid the villagers a ridiculous price of 20,000 rupees (400US) per acre much lower than the market value. But then in Sahajanpur, the community was surviving on small patches of government land and their livelihood was destroyed. There are no jobs anymore except a couple of employment which were short-lived and then disappeared and the youth were let go. The Sarpanch of Sahajanpur, VishWanath Laxman Shinde says that the projects have nothing to offer to the region and have destroyed the lives of most villagers who have no land and no jobs now. The taxes promised to the Panchayat were never paid. With wind farms on their lands it is amazing the the villagers does not even have enough electricity and there are power cuts 8-12 hours daily. Tata Motors is the largest automobile manufacturer in India with revenue in the billions. I wonder what would Zarathushtra say to Tata? Maybe what Nietzsche said: God is dead.
Reference – The Carbon Rush by Amy miller.
