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The Banni grasslands of Kachchh represent one of the most unique, complex, and fragile ecological mosaics in the Indian subcontinent. For centuries, this vast expanse in the western state of Gujarat has been shaped by the harmonious coexistence of diverse wildlife and the Maldharis, a traditional pastoralist community.
The region gained greater conservation recognition earlier this year when its Chhari Dhandh wetland was designated as a Ramsar site in January, making it Kachchh’s first and Gujarat’s fifth Ramsar site, highlighting the wetland’s critical biodiversity.
However, a proposed solar power plant near the wetland has sparked concerns over its ecological impact and triggered opposition from local communities.
The solar power plant, proposed by the NTPC Renewable Energy Limited, will be spread over 4,500-acres as per the claim in the notice published by the Fulay Juth (group) gram panchayat in the newspaper on May 12. Documents accessed by Mongabay-India reveal that the timeline for securing the required No Objection Certificates (NOCs) was initiated in 2024. According to local conservationists and a forest official, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity as they have been instructed to not speak to the media, the project has now begun active groundwork, with site surveys, fencing installation, and the management of Prosopis juliflora underway.
However, conservationists, ecologists, wildlife photographers, and local pastoralists fear that the project will cause irreversible damage to the ecology of Chhari Dhandh wetland.
The local opposition started building up earlier in May. After putting public notice on May 12, the Fulay group gram panchayat also wrote a letter to the Kachchh District Collector. Three days later, on May 14, P.M. Jadeja, the MLA of Abdasa, wrote a letter to the Chief Minister of Gujarat, demanding a fresh survey of the project area. According to the letter, about 4,500 acres of land spread across 11 villages under the Fulay group gram panchayat in Nakhatrana taluka have been proposed for allotment to NTPC for a 900 MW solar project.
This opposition culminated on May 22, the International Day for Biological Diversity, when over 500 Maldharis and villagers from more than 16 villages gathered near Fulay to protest the proposed NTPC solar project.
Begmamad Mutva, who is a resident of Fulay, said, “Our community is opposing this solar project because it threatens our grazing pastures, revenue land and the animal husbandry livelihoods that sustain our families. We are also concerned about its impact on local tourism near the Chhari Dhandh Ramsar site.” According to him, residents from Fulay, Motichur, Vedhar Moti, Chhari Paiya, and surrounding areas are resisting this project.
Literally meaning “saline shallow lake”, Chhari Dhandh is one of the Kachchh’s important ecosystems. Spread across 227 square kilometres, it becomes a vital wintering ground each year, hosting hundreds of thousands of migratory birds of about 250 species, including thousands of common cranes.
According to officials, the solar project is located outside the protected wetland. Dheeraj Mittal, Conservator of Forests for Kachchh, told Mongabay-India, “The land identified for the solar project is entirely revenue land, outside the notified Ramsar site area,” he said. “The forest department remains committed to the conservation and scientific management of the Chhari Dhandh Ramsar site and continues to take all necessary efforts for conservation of migratory birds.”
However, ecologists argue that drawing lines on a map fails to account for how ecosystems actually function.
Chetan Misher, an ecologist and wildlife biologist, said environmental impact assessment often fails to account for the cumulative ecological effects of the projects across the landscape. “Chhari Dhandh cannot be treated as an isolated wetland. It is not a tank or a reservoir,” he said. “It is the product of several climatic and ecological processes that operate across a much wider catchment. Water reaches it from the surrounding high ground and seasonal drainage. Its filling, salinity, and productivity all depend on what happens upstream and across the larger grassland mosaic. The wetland and its catchment are one functional system.”
Misher added, “A wetland cannot be conserved while the system that creates it is dismantled around it.”
The Banni grassland and the Chhari Dhandh catchment support rich biodiversity that relies on the vast, uninterrupted openness of the landscape. According to researchers, it is one of the few places in India where four species of wild canids are found within a single contiguous habitat.
“Chhari Dhandh and the surrounding Banni grassland support the Indian wolf, the golden jackal, the Indian fox, and the desert fox,” said Misher. “It is also among the most important wintering grounds in the country for the common crane, which arrives in tens of thousands each year. These species do not depend on the wetland alone.”
For decades, Kachchh has drawn naturalists and tourists from around the globe. “From a wildlife photography perspective, Chhari Dhandh and the surrounding Kiro landscape are among the most remarkable natural areas in Kachchh,” says Ashok M. Chaudhary, a wildlife photographer who has documented the region for nearly three decades. “The region offers an extraordinary combination of wetlands, grasslands, geological heritage, and birdlife. Places like Chhari Dhandh are not merely habitats; they are living ecological systems that connect distant continents through migratory bird routes.”
According to Ritesh Pokar, an ecologist at Sahjeevan, a Gujarat-based non-profit organisation, the region is remarkable for both its geological and ecological heritage. “Kiro Dungar (Keero Hill) preserves 135–150-million-year-old Jurassic fossils, while just 8 km away the Chhari-Dhandh wetland supports around 40,000 common cranes, nearly 40% of India’s wintering population, which arrive every winter to feed on Cyperus grass as the monsoon waters recede,” he said.
One of the key ecological concerns surrounding the proposed solar park is its potential impact on the millions of migratory birds using the Central Asian Flyway.
Large expanses of solar panels are known to cause a phenomenon called the “lake effect”. From the air, the vast, shimmering surface of photovoltaic panels can mimic the polarised light reflected by water bodies. Exhausted migratory birds, searching for a place to rest, may mistake the panels for water, resulting in fatal collisions.
Asad Rahmani, an ornithologist and former director of the Bombay Natural History Society who has studied the region since 1981, said Chhari Dhandh is one of the most important wetlands in India’s dry regions. “Recent studies have shown that solar panel farms confuse the migratory birds, and they mistake them as shimmering water bodies,” he said, adding that they collide with the panels while attempting to land and die. “A solar panel farm, so close to Chhari Dhandh, will be fatal for birds.”
Rahmani said that the proposed location for the solar plant is not barren land but an essential foraging ground. “The area identified for the solar plant is an important foraging area of the migratory Common Cranes, which dig out the tubers of Cyperus rotundus, locally known as motha or nagarmotha,” he said. “No one is against the development of green energy. Solar projects are not site-specific and, in my view, can be easily planned somewhere else in the district. Why so close to a Ramsar site?”
Underlying the dispute is a longstanding colonial-era land classification: the designation of open pastoral ecosystems like Banni as “wastelands.”
Critics argued that this terminology legally and culturally strips the grasslands of their ecological and economic value, making them prime targets for diversion toward industrial and infrastructure projects. But in reality, this region is a rich, living resource for the Maldhari community, driving a dairy economy that forms the backbone of local livelihoods. It sustains vast herds of migratory camels and Banni buffaloes. According to Imran Khan Mutwa, Secretary of the Rashtriya Yuva Maldhari Sangathan, the Chhari Dhandh area alone is home to roughly 6,000 people and between 25,000 and 30,000 Banni buffaloes.
“Grasslands are too often classified as wastelands,” Misher said. “That label makes them appear empty, and therefore suitable for green energy and other large projects. This is a misreading of the ecology. These are productive, living systems.”
The dispute has also reignited the debate over climate justice and who bears the cost of India’s renewable energy transition. Critics argue that the burden often falls on marginalised communities, who have the lowest carbon footprints and have lived sustainably for generations.
“Absolutely, it is a battle for economic survival for some of the most marginalised and poor people in the country,” states Abi Vanak, Director of the Centre for Policy Design at ATREE, a non-profit organisation. “They have to pay the price for the loss of livelihoods for themselves because we want to transition to a low-carbon economy. We should not deprive these people of their livelihoods simply because we don’t have a better imagination of where we can put our power generation.”
Vanak argued that, unlike coal or hydro, solar installations offer much greater flexibility in where they can be located, reducing the need to site them in ecologically sensitive landscapes.
“Green energy is a decentralised form of energy,” he said. “You don’t have to put it where there is open space. They can be located near demand centres, and we have shown that the economics work out better as well. So, if the demand centre is near Bhuj or anywhere else, then that’s where the solar power plant can also come up. This kind of putting up solar power plants in these open landscapes, especially grasslands, should be completely avoided as much as possible.”
Mongabay-India sought NTPC’s response by email on June 5 regarding the environmental and livelihood concerns surrounding the proposed solar project. The company had not responded by the time of publication.
 
Banner image: An Indian fox at Chhari Dandh, which forms one of the few landscapes in India where four species of wild canids are found in a single contiguous habitat. Image by Ronak Gajjar.
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