Darkness under the sun: The struggles of an Assam village against 'green' energy

As the world prepares to welcome 2021, Lakhiram Mardi (36), a father of three daughters hailing from Mikir Bamuni cluster of villages, will be spending the night with three other farmers in Nagaon Jail.

This will be his second time in jail in the last six months. Mardi, with Sikari Rongpi, Buku Mardi, and Bhaity Timung, who belong to the Karbi and Adivasi communities, is accused of manhandling the Assam police. The day before their arrest, locals alleged that police and paramilitary beat up the women. The residents of Mikir Bamuni allege that the Nagaon district administration and the police, helped by paramilitary forces, tried to evict them illegally for an upcoming solar power plant to be run by a New Delhi-based multinational company.

Surrounded by meandering streams emerging from the Karbi hills in the vicinity, 287 bighas (38.4 hectares) of prime agricultural land of Mikir Bamuni and Lalung Gaon was selected by the Assam Power Development Corporation Limited (APDCL), the state-owned electricity distribution in 2018. Azure Power, the solar company, won the bidding with Rs 3 per unit in 2019 for the plant following which, the process of land acquisition started in March 2020, days before the lockdown started due to the COVID-19 pandemic.