Environmentalists, local farmers and opposition parties are up in arms against Andhra Pradesh government’s plan to acquire a vast stretch of fertile land in Nellore district for building a solar power project. The opponents of the project contend that the proposed acquisition of 8,348 acres of land in Karedu village would threaten the livelihoods of local farmers, food security, and the region’s ecological balance.
The land is proposed to be allocated to Indosol Solar Private Limited to set up an integrated solar photovoltaic (SPV) module manufacturing plant at a cost of ₹69,000 crore. The 30 gigawatt (GW) SPV module manufacturing plant is expected to generate 13,050 jobs. Other than offering financial incentives, the government has also allocated water supply from Karedu, Cheruru and Chennapalayam ponds.
The lands in Karedu and the surrounding hamlets are fertile, supporting farmers who cultivate two paddy crops annually, along with groundnut, mangoes, coconuts, and aquaculture.
The Nellore district administration issued a preliminary notification in March for land acquisition in Karedu through A.P. Industrial Infrastructure Corporation Ltd. (APIIC).
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The first signs of unrest emerged on 2 July, when farmers organised a protest, blocking National Highway-16 for half an hour, disrupting vehicular traffic between Chennai and Kolkata. They demanded an immediate halt to the process of land acquisition.
Two days later, on 4 July, during a Gram Sabha in Karedu, revenue officials faced strong resistance. Angry farmers demanded that the officials leave their village.
Ironically, during the previous YSRCP regime, the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), then in the opposition, had supported farmers opposing the Indosol project’s location, dubbing it as a major scam. In power now, the TDP, along with its allies Jana Sena Party and BJP, is pushing for the project.
With political stakes being high, the Opposition YSR Congress Party has swung into action. When a delegation of Karedu farmers met YSRCP president and former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on 15 July at the party’s Tadepalli office and submitted a petition for support, he said: “Farmers cannot be forced out of their land without consent.”
He said he would visit Karedu and join protests, if needed.
On 22 July, Forum For Better Visakha Convenor EAS Sarma wrote to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, urging a halt to the land acquisition in Karedu and its hamlets. He said it was distressing that thousands of acres of verdant farmland were being taken for allotment to a private company, posing a grave danger to the livelihood of locals.
Sarma pointed out that even in an advanced country like the United States, a 10-gigawatt solar power plant in Tennessee was established on just 550 acres, suggesting the Indosol project would not need more than 1,600 acres of fallow land, not necessarily agricultural land.
The district administration, however, is hopeful of resolving the issue amicably. The District Collector O. Anand said the farmers could submit their objections to him or to the Special Deputy Collector. “We will conduct a Gram Sabha and resolve all their issues. There are about 12,000 acres in the village, but we plan to acquire less than 5,000 acres. However, we are not going to touch the three-crop land parcels close to the Buckingham Canal and the sea,” he said.
“We are in talks with the farmers and other stakeholders. We will not force them. We will negotiate with them and arrive at a mutually agreeable solution,” the official said.
However, farmers remain unconvinced, arguing that even a scaled-down acquisition would devastate their livelihoods.
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