What does a person do when a loved one is fighting for their life? It relies on instinct: call an ambulance, go to the hospital immediately, and hand them over to trained medical professionals. N. of Kalahandi district of Odisha. In Podapadar Gram Panchayat, that trend collides with geography and frustration.
Here, medical emergency starts not with a phone call but with a journey. One has to climb a hill or two in search of a flicker of mobile network to dial an ambulance. Then begins the struggle to tie a rope to the cot on a makeshift stretcher. The sick person is picked up and carried 8 kilometers to the banks of the vast sheet of water – the Indravati reservoir.
A government-run boat ambulance may be waiting to ferry the patient across. If not, they wait, praying for the lone boat that serves the 16 stranded villages. And if trouble comes at night, hope diminishes even more.
N. Podapadar sarpanch Raisingh Majhi speaks almost matter-of-factly about this reality: “This is the cursed life we are guilty of, to sacrifice our land for the Indravati reservoir. This project transformed drought-hit Kalahandi into a green belt, now one of the largest rice producing areas in the country.”
Majhi narrates how after the irrigation project took shape in the late 1990s, 16 villages situated in different hills were surrounded by water. Electricity reached these villages only about a decade ago and they have little access to formal education. N. Around 3,000 villagers of Podapadar panchayat have been surrounded by the immense waters of the Indravati reservoir for the last 30 years.
Project and Island
The Upper Indravati Hydroelectric Project (UIHEP) is a large multi-purpose river valley project. Its foundation was laid in 1978 by the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai at Mukhiguda in Kalahandi district. In the 1970s and 1980s, child trafficking and frequent droughts gave Kalahandi the dubious reputation of being one of the poorest regions of India.
Approved by the erstwhile Planning Commission at an estimated investment of ₹208.15 crore, the project was planned on the Indravati river originating from the hills of Thuamul Rampur block of Kalahandi. Its objective was to generate 600 MW hydropower and provide irrigation to 1.28 lakh hectares of land in Kalahandi. The Upper Indravati Reservoir, spread over 12,885 hectares, was created in the valley areas of the Eastern Ghats. The foothills and valleys were the places where villagers cultivated the land.
The total expenditure on completion of the project reached ₹1,427 crore. 97 villages (44 in undivided Koraput district and 53 in Kalahandi) were affected by the project due to the acquisition of 32,530.87 acres of land. 17,000 people were displaced in four phases: 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992. Those who chose not to move from their native villages remained in the shadow of development.
Umi Daniel, who participated in a World Bank study on the resettlement and rehabilitation of land displaced people, says compensation practices were markedly different at the time. “Unlike rehabilitation policies today, which assess multiple dimensions of loss before deciding compensation, the process in those days was largely cash-based,” he says. Daniel recalls, “People were unaware of their rights. They were unable to even count the money. Villagers would hire others to count it and give small tips in return.”
Dilip Das, a Bhawanipatna-based social activist who moved the Odisha Human Rights Commission and the Orissa High Court as a petitioner on the plight of the families stranded on the island within the Indravati reservoir, says that even managing modest compensation proved difficult for many. “Villagers often spend their lifetime’s cash on social gatherings and local liquor. Middlemen also take advantage of the lack of awareness and often cheat them,” he says.
life cut short
The reservoir began filling around 1996. “When people realized that their villages, located on high ground in the middle of the reservoir, would not be submerged, they decided to stay put. By then, most people had already spent their compensation money. They had no means of rebuilding their lives outside the reservoir,” says Khagpati Nayak, 51, of Tentulipadar, one of the island’s villages. He claims that his family owns 40 acres of land and has received compensation between ₹1,800 and ₹2,000 per acre.
In neighboring Bhitradunga village, 70-year-old Adhu Majhi recalls that his family received ₹60,000 as compensation for agricultural land, though he does not remember the exact acres. The amount was divided equally among 12 brothers. Some invested in oxen and plows while others spent money on marriages. “Within a few years, not even ₹100 is left,” he says. The Majhi family eventually returned to shifting cultivation and daily labour.
The house-building material has to be transported across the reservoir and then transported to N.K. in Kalahandi district. To be taken uphill by the residents of Podapadar Panchayat. Here, they are breaking stones to make it easier to carry. | Photo courtesy: Vishwaranjan Raut
The only N. on the island. Almost every household in the 16 villages under Podapadar gram panchayat has a similar story to tell. The state government had offered them resettlement closer to Junagadh, the urban center of Kalahandi district, but the villagers chose to stay on their ancestral lands.
“For the next 20 years, villagers made do without electricity. Life usually came to a halt before sunset. Only in 2016 did 16 island villages begin to be connected to electricity. It was an irony that the Indravati produced hydroelectricity that traveled thousands of kilometers to other states, but our village, barely 40km from the hydroelectric power station, remained untouched for two decades,” Shankar Harijan, another resident of Tentulipadar village, says.
There were no roads in the early years. Villagers took zigzag routes across the hills to reach neighboring settlements. Nearly three decades later, only a distance of 300 meters has been concreted. While other roads are visible, their mobility largely depends on the driving skills of the island’s residents, who have no choice but to drive on half-built metal tracks.
In summer, a road opens, accessible by four-wheel drives and tractors from Koraput and Rayagada, while fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) floating jetties and FRP boats are the only way to reach the 16 villages. “More than 250 people have lost their lives by drowning in the last three decades. Boat capsizing is common,” says Das. The last incident took place on February 28, when a man went missing and two people managed to swim to safety, he said.
B Sani Majhi, who operates the FRP floating jetty in Cheptaghat, remembers how the jetty was washed away in 2024.
Maya
The Odisha government, in its response to the National Human Rights Commission of India (NHRC) and the Orissa High Court, said that efforts should be made to connect the isolated villages with the mainland and N. The bridges had been proposed for a long time to ease movement within Podapadar Panchayat. A major high-level bridge between Kenduguda and Sikakuji Ghat was planned 11 years ago at an estimated cost of ₹54 crore. However, this project never took off.
Brundha D, the then district magistrate of Kalahandi, informed the NHRC in October 2025, “Soil testing and other ancillary work has been completed. Tender has been issued for survey and design of the project.” Still no sign of the bridge.
Similarly, locals allege that work had started on a small bridge at B Cheptaghat, which could connect 16 villages to block headquarters Thuamul Rampur. However, the project was abandoned midway.
The Western Odisha Development Council (WODC) allocated ₹60 lakh in 2014–15 for the construction of a bailey bridge to connect Ghutrukhal and Tentulipadar. Even after a decade, the bridge is nowhere to be seen.
Ask Damu Majhi, a resident, how the absence of road connectivity affects daily life, and he narrates his own story. “I got ₹1.30 lakh for a housing unit under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana – Rural, but it proved to be completely inadequate. I had to transport the construction material by boat and then manually carry cement and stones from the reservoir bank to my house. The lack of connectivity forced me to spend a lot to build a small house,” he says.
Khatiguda Dam was constructed on the Indravati Reservoir in Nabarangpur district of Odisha. | Photo courtesy: Vishwaranjan Raut
The most serious impact of poor connectivity is on healthcare. Phoolmani Nayak, an accredited social health activist (ASHA) from Bhitradunga, says, “In my career, I have seen two women give birth on a boat and one on the roadside. Many people prefer to give birth at home due to the difficulty of reaching hospitals.”
Sarpanch Majhi says that just a fortnight ago a pregnant woman from Kolatikudruput village died because she could not be taken to the hospital on time. The subsidized rice of 10 kg per person under the public distribution system is the only lifeline for most of the villagers stranded in this cut-off area.
However, transporting the free grain from the banks of the reservoir to the houses on the upper reaches of the hills proves taxing. Sometimes, the government distributes the quota once every three months. This means families will have to carry three times the burden on their heads as they climb through difficult terrain to reach home.
missed education
The sarpanch says three government-run primary schools cater to the needs of 16 villages. He explains, “Children of Padipadar have to walk 10 km to reach school, while children of Upparganjmali have to cover a distance of 8 km. For children of 10 other villages, this distance ranges between 3 km to 10 km.”
In the government primary school at Podapadar, only 15 students from classes 1 to 5 are found sitting together on benches in a room. Two teachers appointed in the school are absent. Instead, Santosh Santa, a 12th class passed and unemployed young man, was appointed by the headmaster Ghasiram Nayak to take classes and look after the children.
After class 5, continuing education largely depends on the mindset of the parents. Those who are committed to further education of their children seek admission to government-run residential schools outside the reservoir. However, their numbers are small.
Projects, half-finished
N. The Sarpanch of Podapadar says that many projects have been started but are incomplete. The construction of Panchayat office, mini bank, health sub-centre, rice warehouse and permanent school building at the Panchayat headquarters was started years ago.
“I have been visiting the offices of the district collector and block development officers, but have little time to learn about the development of this forgotten panchayat,” laments Majhi.
Social activist Das says his PIL, seeking construction of a major high-level bridge over the Indravati reservoir, was disposed of in 2019 after the Odisha government informed the court that work on the project had started.
Dhrub Charan Muduli, block development officer of Thuamul Rampur, admits that there have been hurdles in completing the construction of the bridges. “The projects will be re-tendered,” he says.
For about 3,000 residents, mostly tribals and Dalits, the hope of crossing the reservoir by walking or driving rather than swimming in it remains a distant dream.
Edited by Sunalini Mathew
