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Paper short abstract:

The paper investigates the scope of deploying environmental justice to analyse the emergent forms of hydro-hazard violence in the Himalayas. It seeks to use ethnographic materials to present narratives of loss and structural inequality that deepen the effects of disasters.

Paper long abstract:

Over the decades since independence, the hydro project has mushroomed across the Himalayas. Posited as a visionary tool to strengthen the economic growth of postcolonial India, it has acquired an indisputable currency in the minds of city planners, infrastructure companies and big governmental conglomerates. Ranging from 100 MHz to a massive swell of barrage dams, the hydro project often brings renewed interest for both state and private companies. In particular, the state of Uttarakhand, a frontier Himalayan town, has seen unprecedented growth of projects – especially in the fragile ecosystems of the higher Himalayas.

This paper draws on ethnographic research and fieldwork conducted in Uttarakhand to make interrelated interventions in the debate on environmental justice in the Himalayas. First, it seeks to locate the problematic emergent vocabulary of ‘transition’ – often successfully deployed in run-of-the-river hydro projects. I show how these languages create an epistemic foundation for and create the conditions for entrenching systemic inequality distributed to caste, region and migration flow. Second, the paper exemplifies narratives of loss emerging from the context of forceful compensation given out to the survivors of disasters.

Using these two critical explorations, the paper situates the ongoing discussion on climate change vis-à-vis inequality in the Himalayas. Specifically, it fundamentally advances the intersectional scope of environmental justice within the Himalayas.