Windmills of The Devils

The Best Windmill

Windmills of the Gods is a 1987 thriller novel by American writer Sidney Sheldon. In the book, the lead character is constantly pursued and plotted against and very nearly killed by the very own forces that look like they can help her save her life. The following story is somewhat similar.

You must have seen the whirring windmills on the hills across the plains of Karnataka. These windmills are being projected as the ideal answer to the current power crisis of the state. These projects are being implemented with a promise of providing electricity to rural areas. The government looks at these projects as environment friendly and green solutions and provides further impetus and support to them.

Agreed, windmills do solve a part of the power crisis, but they have a ‘Mr.Hyde’ face to them too. One that is scarier and that might spell doom to a host of grassland forests in which they are being established. It is highly important we know and understand these aspects of the windmills. You must know that the reserve forests of Tumkur, Chitradurga, Davanagere, Gulbarga, Haasan and other districts are the primary sources and the fountainheads for the lakes and rivulets in the region. The tragedy is that the windmills are being established by destroying these very forests that are acting as the catchment areas of these lakes. The day is not far when these lakes will cease to provide water for the local industries, cultivation or cattle.

To install the heavy windmills, roads as wide as 15 meter and more are being cut on the mountains. In monsoon loose soil caused by these roads get deposited in the lakes.

Recently there was a proposal to install windmills in the forests of Rangayyanadurga in JagaLooru taluk in Davanagere district. These forests are the sources and catchment areas for lakes such as MaddanaLLi, Maagadi, KeLagOte and others that as spread over more than 77 sq.km. These lakes are the bread givers for hundreds of farmers, shepherds and fishermen. If all the lakes dry up or get filled with silt due to this project, then it will be a death trap for all these people dependent on these lakes.

Lets keep the human side away and look at the humane side for a minute. These windmills are a bane for animals and birds too. Direct impact is that these creatures lose their homes due to forest loss. Hundreds of birds get killed when they hit these huge rotating fans. There are many more problems due to these windmills that escape our attention. Bats are extremely useful creatures for farmers. Bats’s main food is the farmers’ great enemy, the crop-destroying insect. The Bats eat these insects in great numbers and protect the crops directly. The big misfortune is that these windmills are also killing the Bats. Wildlife enthusiast Satish.K.MallaNNa says that if you go to villages like beLLaara, dasooDi, hoysaLakaTTe, huLiyaaru and others in tumkur district, you can see hundreds of Bats lying dead because of getting caught in the windmills.


Check out the Size of the windmill in comparison to the man!


The irony is that the electricity produced by these projects is not reaching the rural folk at all! Think about this – rural land was used, surrounding forests were destroyed, with a promise of cheap and clean and green energy alternative for the rural areas, but that very purpose is not being satisfied! These people face power shortage till date. The builders of these windmills get a lot of grants and other benefits. The power thus generated is bought at a higher price than usual. The owners of these projects who are running industries in the city are getting power at household rates. Thus they make profit both ways! But the biggest loser in this whole bargain is the poor villager who has lost his surrounding forests and lakes.

The installers of windmills give small favours and win over the confidence of the villagers so that they don’t oppose the projects. The permission of Forest Department to use forest land is mandatory for establishing windmills. But the government declares the shrub forest as plain land and gives permission for the windmill owners.

Central government approval is mandatory for use of forest land greater than 5 hectares area for other developmental purposes. But the huge project is shown as many smaller undertakings and illegally given permission.

Before these development activities are taken up, it is mandatory that the “IEA Guidelines and Standards” have to be adhered to. But even these documents are found to be questionable and of suspicious nature in many cases. The “Environmental Advisers” who write these documents have minimal knowledge about the area in contention. There have been accusations that they create documents and records that are helpful for and biased towards the industrialists.

You have to understand that anti-windmill does not mean anti-development. But please think, taking such pains to establish windmills in ecologically sensitive areas by destroying forests and finally ending up with neither electricity nor water – should such a scenario arise? No, definitely not. In Talakaaveri, Coorg, remnants of such a useless windmill can still be seen.

These projects should never sound a death-knell to thousands of agriculture-dependent families and scores of forest-dependent species. Its time to make a choice.

Reference Article : Article titled, "gaaLiyantragalemba peDambhoota" by Mr.Sanjay Gubbi, which appeared in the daily prajaavaaNi on Thursday, 1 October 2009.
I also want to thank the various sources on the Internet from which I take the images and quotes.