ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights the conflicts, community-culture-development nexus and the emerging issues raised by hydropower projects in Sikkim. Hydropower generation has made important contributions to human development, and the benefits that can be derived from them are significant. The Government of Sikkim aimed to develop its economic plans to become self-reliant with adequate revenue generation by capitalising on its perennial rivers as renewable resources. The socio-economic and socio-ecological impacts of hydropower projects include migration, landslides, damage to houses and cultivable land, changes in household size and structure. The 510 MW Teesta Stage V Power Station, one of the six hydropower schemes in a cascade identified on the Teesta, is a run-of-the river scheme located in the East District of Sikkim. Several landslides are visible on both sides of the Teesta in and around Lanco Project area. As a consequence of the one man commission report, the State government had to scrap the 30 MW hydel project in 1997 in Yuksom Valley.
