Synopsis The great multitude of multipurpose and hydel projects envisaged in the Narmada basin add up to a gigantic engineering enterprise even on the global scale. This massive river valley project which contemplates the construction of 30 major, 135 medium and over 300 small dams, is the largest irrigation project that has ever been planned and implemented as a single unit anywhere in the world. The Narmada Sagar and Omkareshwar Projects on the river Narmada will together submerge 1,00,741 ha of land including 45,609 ha of forest and displace about 1.6 lakh people in 284 villages so as to be able to have an installed capacity of 1390 MW of hydel power and to have an irrigation capacity of 2,55,758 ha. A development initiative of this magnitude is bound to significantly impact upon the physical and biological environment, and would in turn, both directly and indirectly, impinge on the social and economic concerns of local people.