Yoginder Kapila, convenor of the Renuka Bandh Jan Sangharsh Samiti, told IANS that 700 families in 37 villages would be affected by the construction of the dam.

'The villagers have been lodging protests since the project was conceived. Over 400 villagers boycotted the parliamentary polls in May this year as a protest against the construction of the dam. Not even a single vote was cast in six villages,' Kapila said.

Kulbhushan Upmanyu, an environmental activist who is heading the Himalaya Niti Abhiyaan (HNA), said: 'We won't allow any government to plunder our natural resources in the name of development. The Renuka dam is the newest floodgate to submerge forest land and livelihood.'

The HNA, a conglomerate of more than 20 action committees, has launched protests against the mega projects coming up across the state. 'What is most painful is the fact that the government sacrificed 49 hectares of the Renuka Wildlife Sanctuary and 700 hectares of reserved forest land just to quench the increasing thirst of Delhiites,' Upmanyu told IANS.

The villagers agitating against the dam say the government did not take them into confidence before starting the land acquisition process. According to them, the project may have ecological repercussions and endanger the Renuka lake, which lies downstream of the proposed dam and is of religious importance to them.

Himachal Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (HPPCL) managing director Tarun Kapoor, however, said the government would provide more compensation to the affected villagers. The HPPCL, a public sector undertaking, is executing the project.

'The government will provide 100 units of power free for 10 years to each of the project-affected families, besides a series of other economic benefits,' he said.

The 148-metre-high dam on the Giri river, a tributary of the Yamuna, 350 km from Delhi, will create a 24-km-long reservoir. As per the Environment Appraisal Committee of the environment and forests ministry, the total area to be acquired for the project is 1,560 hectares, of which 1,200 hectares will be submerged.

(Vishal Gulati can be contacted at vishal.g@ians.in)