India’s push for large-scale renewable energy projects is creating new land conflicts and environmental concerns, speakers said at a webinar hosted by the Climate Change Media Hub of the Asian College of Journalism on Thursday (March 19, 2026).
The webinar, titled ‘Covering Heat: What Gets Missed’, featured Aparna Ganesan, documentary filmmaker and independent journalist, and Mrinali, advisor and climate research lead at Land Conflict Watch and NatGraf.
Drawing from her documentary on the Kamuthi solar park in Tamil Nadu, Ms. Ganesan said post-project impacts on communities remain underreported. She described how farmers who lost access to land also lost groundwater sources and livelihood autonomy, leading to migration and dependence on low-paying work.
Women, she added, now spend heavily on purchasing water, while pastoral communities face shrinking grazing lands and rising conflicts.
She also pointed to environmental changes, including increased local temperatures and high water usage for cleaning solar panels, even as nearby communities struggle with water scarcity.
