The Booker prize-winning writer, Arundhati Roy, led protests yesterday after India's Supreme Court cleared the way for a controversial dam stalled for six years by an environmental lawsuit.
The project mainly covers the central Madhya Pradesh state and the western Gujarat state. Gujarat is banking on it to ease its acute water needs.
The Narmada Valley development is India's biggest dam project.
About 3,200 small, medium-sized and large dams are to be built on the 1,300 km river and its tributaries to generate electricity and provide water to millions of people.
Roy, who donated to the Narmada cause the $35,000 prize money she won in 1997 for her novel The God of Small Things, said the court decision was "heartbreaking".
"The court has crushed the most non-violent peoples' movement in the country," she said. "This shows that you can stand in front of the map of India and throw darts anywhere on it without bothering about the environmental or human costs or analysing its benefits for the people."
The Supreme Court, in a majority judgment of two-to-one, struck down a petition filed by environmentalists and asked the governments of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh to resume construction of the Sardar Sarovar dam.