Monday 16 January 2006 by Manthan Adhyayan Kendra
Bhakra dam — a different view Siddharth Narrain Frontline, Volume 22 - Issue 12, Jun 04 - 17, 2005THE last two decades have seen an increasing number of questions being raised on the utility of big dams in India. In 2000, the World Commission on Dams (WCD) brought out its report "Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision Making" after two years of work, which included interactions with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), people’s movements, governments, and international organisations such as the World Bank......Read the full review
A reality check on Bhakra Himanshu Thakkar Infochange Books and Reports, InfoChange News & Features, June 2005Ever since April 18, 2005, when ‘ Unravelling Bhakra: Assessing the Temple of Resurgent India’ — a report by Manthan Adhyayan Kendra, Madhya Pradesh — was released to a packed audience at the India International Centre in Delhi, the pillars of the pro-large structures establishment in India have been shaken.......Read the full review
Was the Bhakra dam worth it? Sudhirendar Sharma indiatogether.org 21 May 2005
Three years of painstaking research has shattered many a myth around the most revered hydropower project in the country. A mere 20 per cent of all cultivable area in Punjab is under the dam’s command area. Sudhirendar Sharma reviews the recently released Unravelling Bhakra : Assessing the Temple of Resurgent India..... Read the full review
Debunking a Dam Legend: New Book on India’s Bhakra Dam By Ann Kathrin Schneider, International Rivers Network & W.E.E.D., July 2005
In 1963 India’s then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru gushed at a ceremony for a new dam project: “The Bhakra Project is something tremendous, something stupendous, something which shakes you up when you see it. Bhakra, the new temple of resurgent India, is the symbol of India’s progress.” Shripad Dharmadhikary’s newly released report “Unravelling Bhakra” deconstructs this myth. ... Read the full review
A myth demystified Meena Menon The Hindu, Magazine 4 Sep. 2005
A four-year study of the Bhakra Nangal project dared to examine the most sacred `temple’ of India’s development..... Read the full review
Why belittle Bhakra? M.S. Menon The Tribune, Chandigadh, September 9,2005
THE Bhakra Dam, Nehru’s temple of modern India, is under attacks from pseudo environmentalists. These self-appointed experts have been, for the past two decades, unleashing a venomous propaganda against India’s major water resource development projects within and outside the country..... Read the full article
Read the response by Shripad Dharmadhikary to this article.
Bhakra gains limited Shripad Dharmadhikary Response to “Why Belittle Bhakra” The Tribune, Chandigadh, September 29, 2005
THE piece by M.S. Menon “Why belittle Bhakra?” (Sept. 9) borders on an invective. It is clearly attempted as a criticism of our recently released report “Unravelling Bhakra”, a study of the contribution and impacts of the Bhakra Nangal project focussed on the food production and food security aspects..... Read the full article
Ramesh Bhatia & R P S Malik: Don`t damn the dam Ramesh Bhatia & R P S Malik Business Standard, New Delhi August 20, 2005
Those who portray Bhakra as a disaster do so on the basis of incorrect as well as incomplete facts. ... Read the full article
Read the response by Shripad Dharmadhikary to this article.
Shripad Dharmadhikary: Bhakra Nangal - fact and fiction Shripad Dharmadhikary Response to Don’t damn the Dam Business Standard, New Delhi September 17, 2005
Don’t damn the dam” by Ramesh Bhatia and R P S Malik (Business Standard, August 20), attempting a critique of our study of the Bhakra Nangal project (Unravelling Bhakra) says that we have used incorrect as well as incomplete facts. Neither of the accusation is correct. .... Read the full article
Flawed Critique of Bhakra A Vaidyanathan Economic and Political Weekly December 3, 2005
This monograph purports to provide a comprehensive and detailed assessment of the country’s biggest and perhaps the most celebrated canal irrigation system, namely, the Bhakra Nangal project. Sceptical of what is called “… the unqualified, absolute and lavish praise of the Bhakra project” (p 2), the author critiques the concept and design of the project.... Read the full article
Read the response by Shripad Dharmadhikary to this article.
Unravelling Bhakra Shripad Dharmadhikary Response to Review by A. Vaidyanathan Economic and Political Weekly January 21, 2006
A Vaidyanathan’s review of our study of the Bhakra project (‘Flawed Critique of Bhakra’, December 3, 2005) questions some of our basic findings on the grounds of “several serious flaws in the use of data and the methodology of estimation”. We feel that the arguments and figures presented by the reviewer do not establish the said serious flaws and hence, cannot make our findings “unconvincing” or “untenable”. ... Read the full article
Bhakra Nangal and the Green Revolution Ramaswamy Iyer Letter in Response to Review by A Vaidyanathan Economic and Political Weekly Jan 7, 2006
This letter has been prompted by A Vaidyanathan’s review (December 3, 2005) of the Manthan (Shripad Dharmadhikary) study of Bhakra Nangal (BN). There have been very few ex post facto re-evaluations of completed irrigation and multi-purpose projects in this country. The Manthan study of BN then is a pioneering venture and is to be welcomed. Read the full letter