POLAVARAM DAM "FROM HEAVEN TO HELL"

Under the serene backwaters of the Godavari are 72 villages of Andhra Pradesh that got submerged, some completely, this June because of the under-construction Polavaram dam. SHAGUN KAPIL visited some of these villages in East and West Godavari districts as well as seven rehabilitation colonies, and found serious flaws with the resettlement process that has caused agony to countless families

- SHAGUN KAPIL

A PARTIALLY damaged statue of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy stands in a pile of rubble. The dilapidated houses around it still contain furniture and utensils— reminders of a thriving past life.

The road to Dandangi village in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh would lead to paddy, maize, and cotton fields. Till June. Now it just abruptly disappears into the backwaters, created by the cofferdam built last year for the construction of the Polavaram dam on the Godavari. A cofferdam is a temporary watertight enclosure built to expose the bed of a waterbody for the construction of a permanent structure and causes water to spill along the river bank on either sides.

An hour-long boat ride along the length of the river through the backwaters, and crossing one submerged village after another, leads to two parked tourist boats completely cut-off from the mainland.

The boat house five families left after the village was evacuated. “Can you see the half-submerged houses by the bank? That was our village,” says 45-year-old Polama Kundu, a resident of the now evacuated Devipatnam village in East Godavari. It had over 1,300 families, many of whom were engaged in fishing.

In mid-2020, most of the families were allocated houses in rehabilitation colonies in the district, but none of them shifted because the colonies were too far from the river, some as much as 60 km. In May this year, the district administration ordered immediate evacuation over fears that the village would get submerged during the monsoon.