Bengaluru: It’s a windfall for the Adani Group. Its subsidiary company, Adani Power, has just received 1,020 acres in Pirpainti in Bihar’s Bhagalpur district on a 25-year-lease to build, own and operate a power plant – at just Rs 1 per acre per year.This comes at a time when villagers have alleged that many have not received full or fair compensation from the state government for their agricultural lands, primarily fruit tree orchards such as mango and litchi. The infamous Srijan scam too looms large over this lack of fund disbursement. Farmers are also aware that though they may receive some compensation for their lands, they will no longer have a means of livelihood.The move to commission yet another coal-based power plant in a state that is witnessing high levels of air pollution also raises questions surrounding health impacts on local communities, as well as India’s climate goals and transition to renewable energy sources.Windfall for the Adani GroupOn September 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated multiple development projects worth around Rs 40,000 crore in Purnea, Bihar. Among these is a Rs 25,000-crore, 2,400-megawatt, coal-based thermal power plant in Pirpainti in the adjoining district of Bhagalpur. This was to make Bihar self-reliant in the power sector, Modi remarked. Per the press release, this will be Bihar’s largest private sector investment and is designed on “ultra-super critical, low-emission technology”. “The project will provide dedicated power and strengthen Bihar’s energy security,” the statement said.What Prime Minister Modi did not mention is the private company that will build, own and operate this power plant for 25 years: Adani Power Ltd, a subsidiary of the Adani Group.Two days before Modi’s address, on September 13, Adani Power signed a 25-year Power Supply Agreement (PSA) with the Bihar State Power Generation Company Ltd (BSPGCL). Per this Agreement, Adani Power will set up a greenfield ultra-supercritical power plant consisting of three units each of a 800 MW capacity, under the “Design, Build, Finance, Own, and Operate” model. In June, JSW Energy, Torrent Power and Bajaj Group’s Lalit Power were in the running for the bid in addition to the Adani Group. Last month, Adani Power received the Letter of Intent for the project from the Bihar state utility. Per a press statement by the Adani Group, the first unit will be commissioned within 48 months of the appointed date, and the last one within 60 months of the appointed date. It plans to invest USD 3 billion – nearly Rs 25,000 crores – in the project. The electricity generated in the plant will be sold to state power utilities for Rs 6.075 per KWh. Compensation concerns What has raised eyebrows about this deal is that Adani Power will need to pay just Rs 1 per acre per year for the 1,020-odd acres of land it will take up for the project over 25 years.Villagers told Bharati News/Molitics that many land owners had received different rates of compensation for their lands, and that they did not know why a uniform rate was not applied for the process. They also alleged that some have not received full compensation for their lands that were taken up by the state government for the power plant 12 years ago. Villagers said that the pending payments they receive in future for these lands will be at the same rate as the land deal from 12 years ago and not at the higher rates that currently exist. Villagers also alleged that some who tried to go to Bhagalpur to meet Prime Minister Modi during his visit to the city on September 15 to talk about these concerns were arrested and prevented from meeting him.With their lands gone, many are worried: while they may receive a one-time compensation for their lands, they will no longer have any means of livelihood. Land is a precious commodity in Bihar, with 28 of its 38 districts being prone to flooding. For the people of Pirpainti – a majority of whom are either cultivators (land owners or co-owners) or agricultural labourers, as per the latest Census (2011) – cultivable land is very important too.Some villagers told Bharati News/Molitics that the state government had listed their lands as “barren” when they took over the plots for the power plant – when these are in fact prime agricultural lands currently housing lakhs of fruit trees such as mango and litchi. Studies such as this one have found that these fruit crops are a sustainable and steady source of income for farmers in Bihar. They are also flood-tolerant – and therefore a climate resilient crop. Scientists have been advocating that farmers cultivate climate-resilient crops, as a mitigation strategy in today’s times of increased climate change impacts such as floods and droughts. Both mango and litchi are also important cash crops for the state – Bihar is the top producer of litchis in the country, and the third largest producer of mangoes.A history of oppositionVillagers have been opposing the project since it was mooted in 2014 (then envisaged as a supercritical 1,320-megawatt thermal power plant). Land acquisition was to have been completed by 2016 – but it did not happen. According to Land Conflict Watch, farmers in the area rallied under the banner of Kisan Chetna and Utthan Samiti alleging irregularities in receiving compensation for the land that they had given up for the project in 2014. Though revenue officials tried to engage in talks, villagers prevented the construction of the boundary wall at the site of the proposed power plant because they had not received compensation. According to The Telegraph, funds to the tune of Rs 200 crore were required to settle compensation to be given to land owners as part of the land acquisition for the power plant. The Union government purportedly released these funds to the proforma disbursement account of the Bhagalpur district administration. From there it was then transferred to the account of the district land acquisition office in Bhagalpur, which was responsible for distributing the amount to land owners.However, this didn’t happen – because of the infamous Srijan scam that surfaced in 2017. As part of this scam, government funds amounting around Rs 880 crores were fraudulently transferred between 2004 and 2014 into the account of an NGO called the Srijan Mahila Sahyog Samiti in Bhagalpur, in collusion with officials at the district land acquisition office. Srijan illegally withdrew money – about Rs 270 crores – meant for the land owners who had given up their land for the Pirpainti thermal power plant.From public sector undertaking to private handsThe proposal for the Pirpainti thermal power plant originally meant the NHPC, a public sector undertaking under the central government, to set up the plant. Per the Central Electricity Authority, as of 2021, Bihar had 22 thermal power plant units, most of which are part of four major thermal power plants: the Barauni, Kahalgaon, Muzaffarpur and Nabinagar plants. All these power plants, which generate a total of 7,050 megawatts of electricity, are owned and operated by central public sector undertakings. In 2014, when it was first mooted as a supercritical 1,320-megawatt thermal power plant, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Pirpainti Bijlee Company, Bihar State Power Generation Company Limited and NHPC Limited.Today, the Pirpainti thermal power plant has been handed to Adani Power to build, own and operate for 25 years – and will be the first and largest private sector thermal power plant in the state. What changed, more than a decade later, for the state government to have handed it over to private players?Moreover, the nature of the power plant has also changed over the years – from being mooted as a thermal power plant in 2014, to a solar power plant (also to be developed by NHPC) in 2021, and back to a thermal power plant in 2025. In fact, per Land Conflict Watch, media reports had noted that the state government had, in 2021, already acquired 1,350 acres of the required land with only 25 acres left to be acquired. Again, opposition from farmers led to the project being shelved.Coal, environment and healthPirpainti, where the 2,400 MW coal-based power plant will be constructed, is located in the Kahalgaon sub-division in Bhagalpur district. The district is already home to a large thermal power plant – the 2,340 MW Kahalgaon Super Thermal Power Station. For Subhasis Dey, a researcher who hails from Bhagalpur and has been following ecology and the environment in the state and district for decades, locating another power plant in the same district and just a few kms away doesn’t make sense.One issue is the Indian government commissioning a new coal-based power plant despite its commitment to invest in renewable energy to enable a transition from polluting fossil fuels to cleaner energy sources, Dey agreed. Another is how yet another power plant in the region could be problematic for the climate, environment and health, he said. With coal-powered power plants come numerous health concerns. Arsenic is one of the many pollutants that coal-fired power plants produce. Coal emissions release this pollutant into the air, while fine, powdery fly ash – a by-product of coal combustion – can leach into the ground, contaminating soil and water. Arsenic poisoning is already a huge concern in Bihar. In 2021, scientists at the Mahavir Cancer Sansthan and Research Centre in Patna screened the blood profiles of 2,000 cancer patients. They found that most of the cancer patients with high arsenic levels in their blood were from the districts near the river Ganga. Among these districts is Bhagalpur. In the same district and just around 7 kms away from Pirpainti, where the new coal-fired thermal power plant will arrive, lies the village of Kaliprasad. In 2023, scientists from the same cancer research centre in Patna studied 102 households and found that people here were suffering from many serious health-related problems such as skin issues (hyperkeratosis and melanosis on palms and soles), breathlessness, general body weakness, mental health disorders, diabetes, hypertension (raised blood pressure), hormonal imbalance, neurological disorders and cancers. They found that 77% of household hand pump water had arsenic levels far higher than the WHO recommended level of 10 µg/L (micrograms per litre): the highest level they recorded was a staggering 523 µg/L. The concentration of arsenic in the urine of 60% of the people in these 102 households was very high. The highest concentration they recorded was 374 µg/L – nearly 7.5 times more than the permissible limits. With people in the vicinity already suffering from arsenic poisoning, a new coal-based power plant in the region would only add to the disease burden.Particulate pollution and its impacts on health are yet another concern that people living in areas near coal-powered thermal power plants have to endure. And Bihar has one of the highest levels of particulate pollution in the country: between 2018 and 2022, Bihar – along with Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh – exceeded the national permissible limit of 60 μg/m3 (microgram per cubic metre) for fine particulate matter or PM2.5 for at least 250 days. PM2.5 is a major air pollutant emitted by the burning of fossil fuels including coal combustion in thermal power plants. Researchers at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, who studied ambient air pollution, meteorological influences and health risk implications in Bihar from 2021 to 2024 found that fine particulate matter “consistently emerged as the most hazardous pollutant” across all years. The study identified Bhagalpur as one of the four major “hotspots” for PM2.5 pollution in the state.But while particulate pollution is a huge health concern in Bihar, its surging power demands mean that power plants cannot be wished away, Shashidhar Jha, environment researcher and safeguard specialist, told The Wire.But there may be a safer way out: agri-PV or agrivoltaics – a system where solar panels are located together with crops in agricultural fields – would be ideal for an agrarian economy like Bihar that is also witnessing a huge surge in power demands, Jha said.“There is a high scope for agri-PV in Bihar and this should be explored with shade-growing crops,” Jha said.