At a high-level visit that brought together top civil and forest officials across three districts, Jharkhand Chief Secretary Alka Tiwari on Saturday reviewed the progress of the long-delayed Mandal Dam project and assessed the rehabilitation of families displaced from the Palamu Tiger Reserve—two complex, interlinked efforts that underscore the state’s ongoing struggle to balance infrastructure development, conservation priorities, and tribal rights.

Decades in the making, the Mandal Dam, a part of the ambitious North Koel Reservoir Project, is yet to see completion, stalled by ecological clearances, inter-state disputes, and local resistance. The project’s impact zone spans six villages, with 780 families earmarked for displacement. During a review meeting at the Latehar circuit house, Chief Secretary Tiwari, accompanied by Water Resources Secretary Prashant Kumar and Forest & Climate Change Secretary Abu Bakkar Siddiqui, discussed plans to rehabilitate affected families in Ranka block of Garhwa district. While the state has proposed relocation packages and integration into welfare schemes, concerns persist around land compensation, lack of basic infrastructure, and relocation timelines. District officials from Garhwa were directed to expedite the shifting process, even as local voices demand more clarity and assurances.

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In a parallel effort, the state is actively relocating tribal families living within the core zone of the Palamu Tiger Reserve, as part of a wildlife conservation and human safety initiative. Chief Secretary Tiwari visited Polpol village in Palamu, where 57 families from Kujrum and Jaygir are being resettled. This marks a significant shift in the state’s rehabilitation philosophy. Not only are families being provided concrete housing, electricity, and water access, but the government is also offering documented land rights, with instructions to enter beneficiaries’ names into the Register-2 of property ownership—an uncommon move that ensures permanent land titles, not just temporary leases. “This model village must be a template for all future rehabilitations,” Tiwari said, emphasising the importance of legal ownership, Aadhaar linkages, and integration into agriculture, animal husbandry, irrigation, and cooperative schemes.

Both initiatives—Mandal Dam and the Tiger Reserve resettlement—highlight a deeper tension that has long plagued India’s forested belts: development vs displacement, conservation vs consent. While the state projects are aimed at ecological protection and regional development, they disrupt traditional livelihoods, uproot indigenous communities, and raise questions about participatory governance. The push to create “model villages” may offer short-term relief and long-term opportunity, but activists and scholars argue that true rehabilitation must go beyond compensation—it must involve cultural integration, agency, and long-term livelihood security.

The significance of Saturday’s visit also lies in the unprecedented administrative convergence: senior bureaucrats from Latehar, Garhwa, and Palamu—along with police chiefs, ITDA officials, forest officers, and tiger project directors—came together to chart an integrated roadmap. This signals a new kind of bureaucratic coordination, essential for dealing with the state’s layered developmental challenges, especially in districts like Latehar and Palamu, where Naxal history, forest dependence, and underdevelopment converge.

As the government fast-tracks its infrastructure and conservation commitments, the real test lies in ensuring that progress does not trample rights. In Jharkhand’s deep hinterland, every displaced family tells a story not just of loss, but also of possibility, if policy and empathy walk together.