Did Azure Power grab tribal farming land in Assam for its solar plant?

The farmers, who have cultivated the land for generations, say they were deprived of their land without proper consent or compensation.

The front gate of Azure Power’s solar plant in Mikir Bamuni. | Photo Credit: Mahmodul Hassan

In 2019, the descendants of an erstwhile zamindar family entered into an “agreement of sale” for 91 acres of land to Azure Power Forty Pvt Ltd in Mikir Bamuni Grant village in Assam’s Nagaon district to build a solar power plant. The land deal directly affected the livelihoods of at least 60 families who were dependent on agriculture. Since then, farmers, activists, politicians, and lawyers have been raising serious concerns about the legality of the land transfer and its implications on the land rights of Adivasi and tribal communities.

Buku Mardi is a 57-year-old farmer from Mikir Bamuni. For Buku, the land was more than just a source of income; it was his family’s lifeline. “My bhoral [storehouse] used to be full of rice, enough to last the year. Now, I can’t even arrange one kg of rice,” he told Frontline. His last memory of working on his land was in December 2020, when he says “police brutality” was used to evict him.

The charges by the villagers against Azure Power range from questionable official notifications and orders to alleged police intimidation and coercive action by Azure Power and the Assam government. The conflict, which began in 2019, has gained renewed attention after Azure Power was implicated last month, along with Adani Green Energy Ltd, in an inquiry raised by the US Securities and Exchange Commission into charges that executives of both companies had bribed Indian government officials to get solar project contracts. Cyril Cabanes, a former member on Azure’s board, is charged with facilitating the bribes. The charges have prompted the Assam unit of the Congress party to demand a discussion on the 90 megawatt (MW) solar project in the State. The plant in Mikir Bamuni is part of the same project.

The 90 MW project by Azure Power spread across four districts—Udalguri, Kamrup, Nagaon, and Cachar—was commissioned under a Power Purchase Agreement signed with the State-run Assam Power Distribution Company (APDCL) for supplying power at a tariff rate of Rs.3.34 per kilowatt-hour for 25 years.

Origin of the dispute

It was in January 2018 that the Assam government published its Assam Solar Energy Policy 2017. The push for solar energy came in the face of Assam’s significant power shortages. As of 2024, the State’s peak-hour demand is 2,500 MW while it produces only 419 MW, forcing it to purchase around 2,100 MW a day from external sources. The policy was meant to promote and incentivise solar power plants.

In June 2018, Azure Power won the bid for a 75 MW solar power project in Assam. (By 2022, the company had commissioned a 90 MW solar power project in the State.) In 2019, the descendants of the zamindar family in Mikir Bamuni executed a land sale agreement with Azure Power for a 15 MW solar plant to be set up here. It is this deal that triggered the protest. 

Jiten Murmu, an Adivasi farmer in Mikir Bamuni, shows “tax receipt” for the land in question. | Photo Credit: Mahmodul Hassan

The land in question was designated for tea cultivation under the Fee Simple Grant system in the colonial era. Later, indigenous farmers transformed the land into paddy fields. The farmers say their connection to the land is nearly 150 years old. “Our forefathers were here, my grandfather was born here,” said a farmer.

Kawe Engtipi, a 32-year-old farmer whose family lost 12 bighas (one bigha in Assam is 0.33 acre) of land, recalled how her forefathers cleared the jungle to make the land arable. “Now, this land is taken away from us,” she said.

As many as 78 families were cultivating the land under the Assam (Temporarily Settled Areas) Tenancy Act, 1971. In fact, the Minister of Revenue and Disaster Management Jogen Mohan stated this in the Assam Assembly on March 31, 2023, confirming that Mikir Bamuni Grant village had 78 Kachha Khatiyans (temporary or informal land rights) from 1981 to 1982.

‘Illegal’ land conversion

In January 2019, however, the Assam government exempted any land used for APDCL-approved solar power projects from the Assam Agricultural Land Regulation Act, 2015, although such land still required reclassification under the Assam Land Revenue Re-Assessment Act, 1936.

Azure Power now entered the picture. In 2019, a meeting was held in the village between the farmers, some village leaders, the alleged company’s “brokers”, and members of the Gohain family, descendants of the erstwhile zamindar family. “They proposed that the farmers receive money for 12 mon [480 kg] rice a year in return for the land,” said Engtipi.

Sikari Rongpi, another farmer, said that he was told “the land status would remain the same”. He also said that the negotiators “claimed the company would be here for 25 years and after that we would get our land back”.

Lakhiram Mardi, another farmer, said that amounts ranging from Rs.2,000 to Rs.30,000 were paid to some 20 farmers, but the whole payments were not made. Now these farmers too have joined the resistance.

Ratul Bora, district secretary of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and one of the leaders of the farmers’ resistance, was present at the meeting. He suggested that the farmers cultivating the land should collectively buy the land in accordance with the Assam (Temporarily Settled Areas) Act, 1971. Bora claimed that most of the leaders did not oppose his suggestion. “But without the farmers’ consent, the leaders secretly compromised with Azure Power and split the villagers,” he said.

In August 2019, Azure Power entered into sale agreements with several people, including the Gohain family. The government then approved the conversion of the land from Fee Simple Grant to Khiraj Miyadi Patta (periodic patta), which granted the landowner permanent, inheritable, and transferable rights to use and occupy the land.

This conversion triggered outrage among the farmers. It raised multiple legal concerns as well. According to Krishna Gogoi, a lawyer representing the farmers, the entire process was illegal and violated the Assam Fixation of Ceiling on Land Holdings Act, 1956, which limits individual land ownership to 50 bighas. Gogoi argues that the farmers had held Rayati Khatian (legally recognised occupancy rights) for decades under the Assam (Temporarily Settled Areas) Tenancy Act, 1971. The land had been sold without their consent.

Joint Secretary to the Govt of Assam’s letter to Deputy Commissioner, Nagaon, informing the Governor’s approval for the conversion of the land in question in Mikir Bamuni.

Their vulnerability and subsequent displacement were made possible because of the failure of the state to enter the names of the farmers into the official land records (jamabandi). But the farmers are now demanding recognition of their occupancy rights. According to Gogoi, the district administration’s actions, including the conversion of land to periodic patta, constitute illegal acts aimed at dispossessing indigenous farmers.

When the farmers tried to challenge the land acquisition, they faced significant procedural hurdles. For instance, a March 2020 notice from the Samaguri Revenue Circle officer gave them only 24 hours to file objections. When six farmers attempted to file objections, they alleged that the circle officer refused to accept them. This led to legal intervention, with the Gauhati High Court directing a new notice with a two-week objection period.

Bulldozed crops

The farmers’ resistance led to violent confrontations. In May 2020, when the COVID-19 lockdown was in place, nine farmers, including Buku Mardi, were detained and allegedly beaten by the police at Parghat station. Buku recalled being given an ultimatum by the police: “take the money” and leave the land or face the consequences.

The situation reached a critical point in October 2020, when Azure Power’s personnel, accompanied by police, used bulldozers to destroy crops belonging to at least 30 families to make way for the solar plant. Fourteen villagers were arrested and later released. The tensions escalated further on December 29, 2020, when police and company officials returned to continue the construction work, overpowering the protesting villagers. Several people were injured in the clash, and a pregnant woman miscarried, allegedly due to the police violence.

Lakhiram Mardi, an Adivasi man in Assam’s Mikir Bamuni village who lost his land, displaying the “Khatian documents”. Despite holding Rayati Khatians (official records of occupancy rights) for decades, the farmers’ claims were disregarded, and the land was sold without their consent. | Photo Credit: Mahmodul Hassan

The legal battle that followed has been complex. Several cases filed by farmers challenging Azure Power are currently pending in Nagaon court. In one important case, the Nagaon district court ruled in favour of Barsingh Kro, a farmer, and restrained Azure Power from evicting or disturbing Kro’s peaceful possession and cultivation of the land. Farmers, however, alleged that their crops were bulldozed on the very same day as this ruling.

Official narrative

The official narrative about the land’s status has been contentious. In January 2020, the Deputy Commissioner of Nagaon issued an order supporting the land conversion, citing a Samaguri Revenue Circle Officer’s report claiming that “the proposed land area has remained uncultivated and is lying vacant”. The following month, the Deputy Commissioner issued another order reclassifying part of the agricultural land for industrial use, based on a Sub-Divisional Agriculture Officer’s certificate claiming that the land had not been cultivated for 10 years.

This official position was reinforced in 2021. Local officials, including the Circle Officer of Samaguri Revenue Circle and Deputy Commissioner of Nagaon district, then told a fact-finding committee that no cultivation had taken place on this land since 1986.

But this claim is contradicted by multiple sources, including the farmers who have been cultivating the land for decades. This writer visited the village and saw active cultivation in all areas adjacent to the fenced portion of the solar power plant. Moreover, census data from 2001 and 2011 lists barren and uncultivable land in Mikir Bamuni Grant Village as zero hectares.

A group of affected villagers in Mikir Bamuni read out the issues mentioned in a fact-finding report. | Photo Credit: Mahmodul Hassan

As for the promised benefits of trickle-down development, farmers say that individuals of only two families from Mikir Bamuni have received jobs as security guards in the plant, despite it being part of Azure Power’s larger 90 MW project across Assam. A few other villagers occasionally get low-wage temporary work.

The farmers’ attempts to secure their land rights through official channels have been unsuccessful. The Assam government launched Mission Basundhara in October 2021, meant to streamline land revenue services and make them more accessible to citizens. Jogen Mohan stated in the Assembly on March 31, 2023, that arrangements were being made to grant ownership to such farmers under Mission Basundhara 2.0, but Sikari Rongpi, one of the displaced farmers, said: “We applied for land rights under Mission Basundhara, but all applications were cancelled. The government claims to support indigenous people, but we see no result.”

Four years after losing their land, the farmers are struggling to survive. They take on odd jobs, such as collecting firewood from the hills to sell in the market. “This land was our livelihood. Now we are struggling to feed our families,” said Kabeng Tipi.

The conflict at Mikir Bamuni reflects the broader tensions in Assam’s push for renewable energy development. The State aims to achieve 3,000 MW of solar power production capacity by 2027. The seven operational solar power plants currently generate 175 MW a day. Projects are underway in multiple districts, including a planned 1,000 MW solar plant in Karbi Anglong. But without formal and fair mediation by Azure Power and the government, and a recognition of the farmers’ just demands, the renewable energy project will bear a great human cost.

As the standoff continues, the farmers of Mikir Bamuni remain steadfast in their demand for justice. “This land was ours,” said Sikari Rongpi. “We need it back.”

[The writer sent questions to the Deputy Commissioner; the Circle Officer, Samaguri; the Sub-divisional Agriculture Officer in Kaliabor; DFO, Nagaon Divison; and to Azure Power. There have been no responses so far.]

Mahmodul Hassan is a Writing Fellow with Land Conflict Watch, an independent network of researchers conducting studies on natural resources.