March 20, 2026
The Dark Side of Solar: Why Rajasthan's Villagers are fighting a Solar Project
What's happening?
A group of villagers started a 700 km march in January from Jaisalmer to Jaipur to stop solar parks from swallowing their community lands.
This is a region that gets just 100 mm rain in the whole year. People here use traditional wisdom to harvest this little water from ponds, shallow and deep wells, and khadeens, and to rear animals on desert grasses and shrubs in orans (sacred groves) and gochars (pastures). All of these are community owned and managed lands.
But 5.8 lakh hectares of these community lands including orans have been classified as “wasteland” in records.
Once classified as ‘wastelands’ they can be easily taken over for ‘development projects’ and 44,000 hectares already given to solar companies.
Why should you care?
Rajasthan targets 90 GW solar by 2030, but the land on which these solar plants will be built isn’t empty — the communities that live there and endangered species depend on it.
This pattern will repeat across India as renewable targets clash with communities that conserved land for generations.
What can we do about it?
- Supreme Court has directed proper oran mapping to avoid such instances but faster action needed. In some cases where the courts have stepped in, it has worked - Adani returned land allotted to a solar project in Baiya in 2025.