By the looks of it, 2025-26 was a dream year for the Indian wind industry. It installed a record 6.05 GW of fresh wind power, comfortably surpassing the previous high of 5.2 GW in 2015-16. Further, the Indian Wind Turbine Manufacturers Association (IWTMA) is confident of an encore, projecting fresh installations of 8 GW in the current year.So, all well in the wind industry?Not at all.At the Global Wind Day conference held in Goa on June 15, the mood among industry participants was anything but celebratory. Every speaker, without exception, harped on the same subject: Right of way, or RoW, challenges.This complaint is years-old but executives say it has now assumed serious proportions. Wind projects are particularly vulnerable because they are spread over large areas and require the movement of oversized cargo, heavy cranes and construction material through multiple parcels of land. Access roads, transmission lines and turbine locations... all become potential points of conflict.The challenge is growing because the industry is spreading out more. Earlier, wind farms were concentrated in a handful of high-wind locations in a few states. Today, advances in turbine technology have made it viable to develop projects in areas that were previously considered unsuitable. This has brought developers into conflict with a larger number of landowners and local interest groups.Protests, higher compensation demands and, in some cases, threat to life and property are making projects more difficult and costlier to execute, members of the industry say. “RoW-related issues have gone beyond genuine compensation concerns,” alleges UB Reddy, Vice-Chairman of the Indian Wind Power Association (IWPA).