Clean energy, costly future: Rajasthan’s forest communities fight to save ancestral land

Ravi Sahariya (26) sits silently among a group of villagers at a small temple in Moondiyar, a village bordering the ecologically-rich Shahbad forest in Rajasthan‘s Baran district. The forest, vital to the lives of tribal families like his, is now under threat as 408 hectares of it are proposed to be diverted for a massive renewable energy project. More than 1.19 lakh trees are to be felled.The meeting at the temple has been called to oppose the 1,800-megawatt pumped storage project being built by Greenko Energies Private Limited.

A pumped storage…