| India is a developing country experiencing a rapid pace of growth. This growth is focused primarily in the larger cities where standards of living are approaching those of more developed countries. However, this prosperity remains largely a trait of cities in the plains region of India. The benefits of a surging economy are slow to trickle down to the rural poor. In fact, these people are often adversely affected when large developments come into their area to capitalise on the resources that they have been using sustainably for hundreds of years. Hydroelectricity is one such area. There are many large projects being developed in the state of Uttaranchal for the benefit of southern urban dwellers, and often the people living nearest to these developments have no access to electricity.;There were five case study projects (Niti, Bampa, Jumma, Malari and Bamini/Badrinath), each in the Indo-Tibetan border region of the Indian Himalayas. The plants are all run of river, and range in capacity from 25 kW to 1.2 MW. Four of the villages had no electricity prior to the development of the small-hydro plants, while one had a prior connection to the state electrical grid (Bamini/Badrinath). The Bamini facility is the only plant that was not developed primarily for rural electrification. The villages are inhabited by Bhotia tribespeople, and are occupied only during the summer growing season. The residents travel to lower altitude villages for the winter months.;The most successful project examined, in the village of Malari, was one where community development and energy needs were considered simultaneously, and where the local community was highly involved in planning, construction and operation. The less successful projects were those where community involvement and development, sound planning, and detailed geographic information about the site were lacking in their development and operation. This was observed in the village of Jumma, where the plant never began operations because it was damaged by an avalanche prior to its inauguration. At the time of the research the plant at Bamini/Badrinath was being inaugurated, the Niti plant was in the early stages of construction, and the Bampa plant was in the preliminary planning stages.;An alternative to these large projects that can bring more direct benefits for small isolated villages are small hydroelectric generating stations. These facilities can bring about much improvement for people in remote developing regions who may otherwise have little or no access to electricity. The purpose of this research was to determine the potential capacity for improved participation through community-based approaches to small hydroelectric development in the Indian Himalayas. The objectives of the research were: (1) to establish the current roles of the civic, public and private sectors in small hydro development; (2) to examine the potential for learning through participation during the development of small hydro projects; (3) to determine the potential for using community-based environmental assessment in future projects; (4) to investigate the benefits of community-driven small hydro development, and (5) to determine the implications of the findings for environmental policy and decision-making. Data were gathered using Participatory Rural Appraisal methods including semi-structured interviews, transect walks, and landscape analysis. |
