After
India's independence in 1947, under the newly formed government headed by
Jawaharlal Nehru, investigations were carried out to evaluate mechanisms for using water from the
Narmada River, which flows into the
Arabian Sea after passing through the states of
Madhya Pradesh,
Gujarat. The formation of the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal was triggered by interstate differences in implementing schemes and sharing of water by the
Government of India on 6 October 1969 to
adjudicate over the disputes. The
tribunal investigated the matters referred to it, and responded after more than 10 years. The Narmada Tribunal aimed to set out conditions regarding the resettlement and rehabilitation of those displaced by the dams. On 12 December 1979, after ten years of investigation, the decision as given by the tribunal, with all the parties at dispute binding to it, was released by the Indian government. Thus, the construction began. In 1985, after hearing about the Sardar Sarovar Dam, Medha Patkar and her colleagues visited the project site and noticed that project work was being checked due to an order by the
Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India. The reasons for this was cited as "non-fulfillment of basic environmental conditions and the lack of completion of crucial studies and plans". The people who were going to be affected by the construction of the dam were given no information but the offer for rehabilitation. Villagers weren't consulted and weren't asked for a feedback on the assessment that had taken place. Furthermore, the officials related to the project had not even checked the land records and updated them. Through Patkar's channel of communication between the government and the residents, she provided critiques to the project authorities and the governments involved. At the same time, her group realized that all those displaced were given compensation only for the immediate standing crop and not for displacement and rehabilitation. As Patkar remained immersed in the Narmada struggle, she chose to quit her PhD studies to focus entirely on the Narmada activity. Thereafter, she organized a 36-day solidarity march among the neighboring states of the Narmada valley from Madhya Pradesh to the Sardar Sarovar dam site. She said that the march was "a path symbolizing the long path of struggle (both immediate and long-term) that [they] really had". The march was resisted by the police, who according to Patkar were "caning the marchers and arresting them and tearing the clothes off women activists". Patkar's actions did force the World Bank to set up The Morse Commission, an independent review of the project. Their report clearly stated that the Bank's policies on environment and resettlement were being violated by the project. The World Bank's participation in these projects was canceled in 1993. Before the World Bank could pull out, the Indian Government did. In protest, a few NBA activists and she began a fast; 20 days later, they were arrested and forcibly fed intravenously. The Sardar Sarovar Dam's construction began again in 1999 after the construction was allowed and was declared finished in 2006. It was inaugurated in 2017 by Prime Minister
Narendra Damodardas Modi. Since construction in 2017, the height has been increased from 138 meters to 163 meters. ==Formation==