Kadve Khurd Community
14 November 2006
Maharashtra, India
Bharat Forge Ltd., owned by the Kalyani Group, is a supplier of engine and chassis components. To meet electricity demand at its plant at Pune, Bharat Forge initially planned to build a 4.2 megawatt wind energy power project near the village of Kadve Khurd. The project was registered in the CDM in 2003 for the period of 2001-2008 with a total estimated ‘emissions reduction’ of 60,315 tonnes of CO2 e. The project was renewed for a six-year cycle in May 2009 to run until 2015.
The villagers of Kadve Khurd knew nothing about the wind project before Bharat Forge Ltd began erecting turbines on their lands. Local residents launched strong resistance to protect their lands, which were being forcibly acquired. A total of 30 wind turbines stand in and around the village of Kadve Khurd today, and the community is forcibly kept off the lands.
The project occupies largely devottar or temple properties and privately held farmland. The deal for these lands was struck with a village headman whose family has been traditionally holding the land on behalf of the villagers. The villagers had old colonial-era documents dating back to the 19th century but no ‘official’ and ‘new’ title to the land. Accordingly, the company did not compensate them. The local administration refused to hear the villagers’ case, and in vain they sought justice from the Collector’s Court in Pune. The Collector refused to stop construction of the wind turbines and annulled a motion to that effect that had been passed by a lower court. The company, with support from the police, responded by falsely accusing several of the agitating villagers of robbery and equipment theft.
In the village, people view the wind turbines as harmful junk that provides no local benefits. It supplies neither electricity nor employment, and destroyed the only common pasture of the village. In addition, the company wielded a ban on cattle grazing in the project area.
Villagers at Kadve Khurd have never heard of the Clean Development Mechanism or carbon credits.