Demand for immediate scrapping of Adani's 900 MW Raiwada PSP proposal

The Hindu

7 days ago

The Human Rights Forum (HRF) demands that the A.P. government revoke all permissions granted for the 900 MW Open Loop Pumped Storage Hydro Power Project (PSP) proposed by the Adani Energy Hydro One Ltd (AEHOL) at Raiwada in Devarapalli mandal of Anakapalli district and Vepada mandal, Vizianagaram district.
The permission was accorded through G.O. 51 (dated June 30, 2025) for enhanced capacity of the PSP from 600 MW to 900 MW and increased water allocation to it, this must be immediately withdrawn, HRF AP&TS Coordination Committee member VS Krishna said here on Monday (August 11).
A four-member fact-finding team of the HRF visited several villages in Devarapalli and Vepada mandals on July 26 and August 6, to ascertain the facts and issues and interacted with the local residents, most of them adivasis, whose lands, forest and water sources are directly threatened by the project.
The AEHOL, a group company of Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL), is pushing to construct an Open Loop PSP with a lower reservoir near Sammeda village in Chintalapudi panchayat of Devarapalli mandal and an upper reservoir at Marika village, located atop a hill in Karakavalasa panchayat of Vepada mandal, Vizianagaram district. The government proposes to acquire about 549 acres in the Chintalapudi panchayat and 213.8 acres in Marika village and hand it over to AEHOL for the lower and upper reservoirs respectively. This would dispossess adivasis in the area of their ancestral lands and threaten local ecology, Mr. Krishna claimed.
Through G.O. 51, the government had also approved a huge increase in water allocation for the PSP — from 9 million cubic metres (MCM) to 23 MCM. This would allow the PSP to draw directly from the catchment of the Sarada river that feeds the Raiwada reservoir. This reservoir has a committed ayacut of over 15,344 acres serving 44 villages in the mandals of Devarapalli, K. Kotapadu and Chodavaram in Anakapalli district and is a key drinking water source for Visakhapatnam city, HRF A.P. State Executive Committee member K Anuradha pointed out.
The Sarada river also sustains irrigation in about 6,000 acres unofficially and, further downstream, provides vital lower riparian rights to people in the Anakapalli, Kasimkota, Munagapaka, Yelamanchili and Rambilli mandals before reaching the sea.
Diverting this scarce, life-sustaining resource for a PSP would endanger livelihoods, agriculture and drinking water security across the region and is wholly unacceptable, she said.
The land sought to be acquired for the lower reservoir — from the revenue villages of Sammeda, Pallapukodabu and Chintalapudi in the Tamarabba and Chintalapudi panchayats of Devarapalli mandal — is predominantly inhabited by Adivasis and is among the most fertile in the area, with thriving cultivation. Seizing such productive farmland would deal a severe blow to the local agrarian economy, HRF A.P. State president KV Jagannadha Rao said.
The Adivasis of Marika as well as those in the villages of Tamarabba and Chintalapudi panchayats are unequivocally opposed to the project. On several occasions this year, they have physically stopped officials from carrying out surveys in and around their villages and also held protests at the mandal headquarters, making clear their opposition to the project, the HRF members pointed out.
Contrary to the hype being peddled that PSPs are a clean and reliable source of green energy, they are in fact destructive of local ecosystems. They cause deforestation, erode biodiversity and disrupt and deplete natural water flows. PSPs primarily steal local water resources and damage livelihoods of communities, especially of Adivasis, they alleged.
The HRF members demanded the immediate scrapping of G.O. 51 and approvals for the Raiwada PSP and cancellation of all related land acquisition and water diversion plans. The Yerravaram and Pedakota PSP proposals should also be rescinded, to uphold Constitutional safeguards for the Fifth Schedule areas and act to protect the rights of Adivasis.