The Human Rights Forum (HRF) demands that the AP government revoke all permissions granted for the 900 MW Open Loop Pumped Storage Hydro Power Project (PSP) proposed by the Adani Energy Hydro One Ltd (AEHOL) at Raiwada in Devarapalli mandal of Anakapalli district and Vepada mandal, Vizianagaram district. G.O. 51 (dt: 30-6-2025) that accorded approval for enhanced capacity of the PSP from 600 MW to 900 MW and increased water allocation to it, must be immediately withdrawn.
A four-member fact-finding team of the HRF visited several villages in Devarapalli and Vepada mandals on 26-7-2025 and 6-8-2025. We spoke with local residents, most of them Adivasis, whose lands, forest and water sources are directly threatened by the project. The AEHOL, a group company of Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) is pushing to construct an Open Loop PSP with a lower reservoir near Sammeda village in Chintalapudi panchayat of Devarapalli mandal and an upper reservoir at Marika village, located atop a hill in Karakavalasa panchayat of Vepada mandal, Vizianagaram district. The government proposes to acquire about 549 acres in the Chintalapudi panchayat and 213.8 acres in Marika village and hand it over to AEHOL for the lower and upper reservoirs respectively. This would dispossess Adivasis in the area of their ancestral lands and threaten local ecology.
Through G.O. 51, the government has also approved a huge increase in water allocation for the PSP – from 9 million cubic metres (MCM) to 23 MCM. This would allow the PSP to draw directly from the catchment of the Sarada river that feeds the Raiwada reservoir. This reservoir has a committed ayacut of over 15,344 acres serving 44 villages in the mandals of Devarapalli, K Kotapadu and Chodavaram in Anakapalli district and is a key drinking water source for Visakhapatnam city. The Sarada river also sustains irrigation in about 6,000 acres unofficially and, further downstream, provides vital lower riparian rights to people in the Anakapalli, Kasimkota, Munagapaka, Yelamanchili and Rambilli mandals before reaching the sea. Diverting this scarce, life-sustaining resource for a PSP would endanger livelihoods, agriculture and drinking water security across the region and is wholly unacceptable.
The land sought to be acquired for the lower reservoir – from the revenue villages of Sammeda, Pallapukodabu and Chintalapudi in the Tamarabba and Chintalapudi panchayats of Devarapalli mandal – is predominantly inhabited by Adivasis and is among the most fertile in the area, with thriving cultivation. Seizing such productive farmland would deal a severe blow to the local agrarian economy.
The 213.08 acres earmarked for acquisition for the upper reservoir at Marika, located in the Marika reserve forest, will entail the physical displacement of the village, erase the Adivasis’ zeroyithi landholdings and destroy their self-sufficient way of life. Marika has 103 Adivasi households – 76 of the konda dora tribe in Patha Marika and 27 kondh (a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group, PVTG) households in Kotha Marika. These people will stand to lose their homes, lands, access to forest and cultural heritage.
The Marika hill is the community’s lifeline, providing the Adivasis with abundant water, forest produce and fertile soil for organic cultivation (they do not use any fertilisers or pesticides) of paddy, often double-cropped. Farming here is vibrant with fields of millets, ragi, various pulses, green gram and horse gram. The landscape is rich with jackfruit, guava, tamarind, cashew, coconut and custard apple.
The Marika gedda, a perennial spring originating here flows down to join the Sarada river. It also sustains farmers in the plains of Nagayyapeta panchayat in Devarapalli mandal and also villages in Vavilapadu and Veeluparthi panchayats of Vepada mandal. The water security of both Adivasis in Marika and non-tribals in the plains below will be irreparably harmed if the PSP proceeds.
The Adivasis of Marika as well as those in the villages of Tamarabba and Chintalapudi panchayats are unequivocally opposed to the project. On several occasions this year, they have physically disallowed officials from carrying out surveys in and around their villages and also held protests at the mandal headquarters, making clear their opposition to the project.
Contrary to the hype being peddled that PSPs are a clean and reliable source of green energy, they are in fact destructive of local ecosystems. They cause deforestation, erode biodiversity and disrupt and deplete natural water flows. PSPs primarily steal local water resources and damage livelihoods of communities, especially of Adivasis. They privatise common resources like rivers, land and forests. Large-scale land acquisition, as in the Raiwada case, inevitably leads to forced and often violent displacement. Increasingly, there is growing concern that this ‘clean, green transition’ is merely a cover for large-scale land and water grabs by corporate entities like Adani.
HRF has previously conducted fact-findings into the other PSP proposals in North Andhra. We are of the view that permissions accorded by the previous YSRCP government and now expanded by the present regime are a recipe for disaster in the Agency region. These PSPs are being green lighted and handed over to private entities in open contempt of Constitutional provisions relating to the Fifth Schedule. The Yerravaram PSP in Chintapalli mandal of ASR district seeks to pilfer water that is catchment for the Thandava river with serious consequences for Adivasis up in the hills – 34 habitations are at risk of being submerged – and jeopardising farmers downstream being served by the Thandava reservoir. Similarly, the Pedakota PSP in Anantagiri mandal, close to the proposed Raiwada PSP, had its capacity raised from 1,000 MW to 1,800 MW through G.O. 51. This PSP seeks to exploit water from the Tamutapu gedda near Pedakota which is also part of the Sarada catchment feeding Raiwada reservoir.
HRF demands the immediate scrapping of G.O. 51 approvals for the Raiwada PSP and cancellation of all related land acquisition and water diversion plans. The Yerravaram and Pedakota PSP proposals should also be rescinded. The government must respect and uphold Constitutional safeguards for the Fifth Schedule areas and act to protect the rights of Adivasis.
KV Jagannadha Rao – HRF AP State president
K Anuradha – HRF AP State Executive Committee member
VS Krishna – HRF AP&TG Coordination Committee member
11-8-2025,
Visakhapatnam.