The journey to Charanka village begins long before you charanka solar park Gujarat reach Patan district, since the drive from Gandhinagar covers nearly 350 kms through barren lands and wild vegetation with barely any population in sight.
Volvo buses carried visitors on smooth roads made of tar, a welcome change from the pothole-ridden streets of Mumbai where concrete roads rarely survive a single kilometer.
By the time the buses reached the site, air conditioned halls were already packed for the inauguration of the biggest Solar Park in Asia, a facility that had by then commissioned more than 600 MW and would eventually cross 730 megawatts.
Charanka Solar Park Gujarat
The developer community turned up in large numbers, and the mood carried a fair share of posturing from the dignitaries and speakers who took the stage that day.
Official estimates expected around 4000 attendees, but the villagers poured in until the crowd swelled past 10,000 people, arriving not just from Charanka villagers but also from Sabarkatha and Banaskatha where private developers had already bought land for new solar projects.
What stood out most was how the locals were included by the administration, a rare show of transparency in a country where land acquisitions charanka solar park Gujarat usually happen quietly, and this openness helped build genuine trust and education among the community.
Dignitaries present included the Consul General of the United States, Peter Haas, along with the Gujarat Minister of State for Energy Saurabh Patel, the Principal Secretary, Energy and Petrochemicals, DJ Pandian, and of course the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
Several project developers received recognition certificates that afternoon, and Modi delivered his speech with visible vigour and passion, speaking entirely without a written speech.
He compared 2000, when only 50,000 hectares of land charanka solar park Gujarat had drip irrigation, to the present, where 7,00,000 hectares now enjoy it, driving agricultural growth for Gujarat agriculture at over 10% growth against the national 3% annual growth.
Modi called Gujarat a dry state with a smile, then pointed out that electricity production had jumped from 8000 MW in 2000 to over 17,000 MW of power generation capacity today, making it a genuine power surplus state.
He recalled how daily labour in Charanka once paid just Rs. 50 per day, but after the park arrived, workers could earn Rs. 300 per day, while land prices rose sharply alongside.
He explained that the government backed Solar Power projects even at Rs. 13 per unit because it wanted clean energy secured for future generations, anticipating a shortage of fossil fuels within 40-50 years.
Not far from the India-Pakistan border, the Gujarat Solar Park, or GSP, promised jobs and development to a village that instead lost its grazing land and its water sources. Ten years after the celebrations, Nanu Rabari, aged 60, breaks pods of gando bawal, locally known as mad tree or Prosopis juliflora, to feed her only milking buffalo in this now parched village.
Today, Thirty six companies operate across 5,384 acres, or 2,178.82 hectares, generating solar power, with another 20 MW projects underway including a contested 15 MW project facing direct villagers opposition.
Maps from Technology for Wildlife show this stretch of Kutch district dotted with solar installations, all traced back to when charanka solar park Gujarat the park was first launched on December 30 2010 and formally commissioned on December 31 2011.
A bumpy road lined with open drains greets visitors today, a stark contrast to the world-class project that the Gujarat Power Corporation Limited, or GPCL, still advertises.
Nanu says a canal would have served her better than solar panels, since her plot depended on irrigation and fodder for sheep and a camel she once kept on her two-acre plot of government wasteland.
That land is now covered by a monoculture of grey solar panels, forcing Nanu, mother of seven daughters, to rebuild her income from scratch.
One daughter earns as an ASHA worker for Rs. 2,000 a month, another works as a frontline worker with an NGO for Rs. 3,500, while the family buffalo produces just enough milk to cover its own upkeep, and a small shack selling biscuits, chips, and candies brought in extra income until the pandemic meant schools shut down and even that stopped.
Her daughter Matu Rabari, now 22-year-old, travelled 130 kilometres to the Patan headquarter and stayed in a hostel for Rabari girls to complete her graduation, hoping for jobs for girls back home, but found none.
Villagers once earned Rs. 300 for grass cutting a couple of times a month, work that dried up as companies hired only through sub-contractors. Matu describes this as a dual misery for women, since neither the companies nor agriculture offered work anymore to the landless in what was once a chorad, or open pastureland.
Neeta Pandya of the Maldhari Rural Action charanka solar park Gujarat Group, or MARAG, an Ahmedabad-based non-profit, explains that pastoralists like the Maldharis never believed in owning large land and instead relied on shared commons for their livestock.
Many sold animals to buy tractors during the construction phase, earning quick money, but this soon led to distress migration away from the village. Of the 160 Maldhari families that once lived in Charanka, only 10 families with livestock remain today.
Observatory Tower for Gujarat Solar Park, Patan
Rising above the flat expanse of Charanka Solar Park, the observatory tower stands on a 20 sq km plot near Charanka village in Patan, Gujarat, and gives visitors a full view of the solar power generation spread below.
The site generates 500 MW and is recognised as a multi-developer solar park, multi-facility solar park, and multi-beneficiary solar park, making it the largest solar park in the world of its kind at the time it was built.
Standing 7-storey tall, the structure had to be completed in just four months, and the team achieved this tight deadline by using a modular galvanized steel structure instead of conventional construction.
HCP, the firm behind the tower, did not stop at the observatory alone. The company also handled project management for the wider site, including the canal construction and the 1 MW solar plant owned by the Gujarat Power Corporation Ltd, or GPCL. Together, these works shaped the backbone of one of India’s earliest large-scale renewable energy sites.
Unfulfilled promises
When the Gujarat Solar Park was formally dedicated to the country in April 2012, Narendra Modi, serving then chief minister, promised Charanka a Surya Tirth, modelled on the nearby Modhera sun temple, complete with a picnic spot for tourists. He called the site a new sun temple and claimed it would create 30,000 jobs, many tied to solar panel manufacturing.
Today, Sumersinh Jadeja, the Sarpanch of the village, says none of those promises, including a Class 8 to 12 school, a hospital, drinking water, and free electricity, have been kept.
Jadeja points out that companies operating in the park since 2011-12 still sell power at Rs. 15 per unit, earning roughly Rs. 75,000 per one megawatt every single day, a healthy profit that could easily fund village facilities.
GPCL claims it transferred Rs. 50 lakhs, or Rs. five million, in CSR money to the Collector’s office in Patan, yet nothing has reached Charanka so far. All these commitments were made as verbal promises with no written records, leaving little room for accountability.
Sami Ben, a resident, recalls that an electric line does run from the park to the village, but instead of free electricity, her electricity bills have only climbed from Rs. 500-1000 to Rs. 2,500.
Drinking water supply remains another broken promise, since the government supply arrives only once every five to seven days to fill a 500 litre tank or 1,000 litre tank, forcing families to buy water tankers at Rs. 1,000 per tanker from Fangli village.
The only water point built by PLG Photovoltaic Pvt. Ltd., known as a parab or public drinking water stall, has no pipeline attached, a clear sign of CSR scheme absence in the village.
A GPCL official admitted the company had charanka solar park Gujarat considered installing a RO system, but the forest department had already set one up, which the Panchayat, or local administration, failed to maintain, so the plan was shelved.
The promised school till class 12 never materialised either, and the lack of the promised three buses to Santalpur town, roughly 20 kilometres away, has pushed many children, especially girls, out of education entirely.
Anjali, from the Rajput community, could not continue past grade eight due to this girls’ education dropout pattern, though officials say a tender for an ambulance and fire brigade is now in progress.
Land deals made farmers rich?
The Gujarat Solar Park, or GSP, sits on 5,384 acres, equal to 2,178.82 hectares, land the GPCL website still describes as unused land. In reality, about 1,900 acres, or 768 hectares, came from private land, another 207 acres, or 84 hectares, was grazing land, and the remainder was government wasteland.
Back in 2011, GPCL paid Rs. 690,000 per acre, according to Shambhu Dan Ghadvi of the Charanka Dairy Cooperative, though not everyone received a fair deal.
Lilabhai Rabari, who owned 10 acres, received just Rs. 400,000 total for land he used to grow fodder and castor, money that quickly disappeared into household expenses.
Jadeja remembers that land value stayed near Rs. 20,000-30,000 per acre until 2006, but by 2009, Ahmedabad businessmen and other outsiders began arriving, convincing illiterate villagers that their saline land was worthless and better sold at Rs. 40,000 per acre.
He himself sold ten acres at that rate simply to cover hospital bills.
Mero Rabari from nearby Rozu village describes how his brother worked as a middleman, buying land at Rs. 100,000 per acre and getting it resold at double or triple price, though the profits soon vanished on a vehicle and travel, leaving him back as a labourer.
Some villagers bought cars despite having no proper roads, while others built a pucca house or purchased land elsewhere, yet their livelihood did not improve in the long run.
Against the promised 30,000 jobs announced at the inauguration, only 60 people employed from the village now work as security guards, technicians, or in grass cutting and panel washing.
These security guards earn between Rs. 7,000-12,000 per month, without any provident fund, and often work a 12-hour shift instead of the eight hours government stipulated. Security agencies hire through people who have sub-contracted the work locally, which keeps wages low for the guards.
Meghraj Rabari, who washes panels for Bharat charanka solar park Gujarat Heavy Electricals Limited, earns just Rs. 0.17 per panel, meaning he must clean over 20,000 panels at a 5 MW plant thrice a month to make a modest Rs. 10,000 income.
Research by Ryan Stock of Northern Michigan University found that most of the 1,000 people permanently employed at the site are non-local males holding advanced degrees and technical skill-sets, not villagers from Charanka.
His paper highlights the injustice and inequality built into the park’s electricity infrastructure and water infrastructure, a pattern repeated across similar solar sites in India.
Access to grazing land
Villagers insist the entire Gujarat Solar Park sits on their grazing land, but government records list the notified gauchar area at only 207 acres, or 84 hectares.
Raghav Dan Ghadvi, former Sarpanch of Charanka, explains that the District Inspector Land Record, or DILR office, never clearly marked the boundary, and Survey number 152 now lies enclosed within the park, cutting off access for the Maldharis.
Villagers have requested a land use change from the Patan collector, sending a formal letter, but a GPCL official confirmed this request was rejected outright.
Siddhartha Dhabi, a PhD scholar at the University of Exeter in the United Kingdom, argues that the wasteland boundaries and grassland boundaries were never truly distinct, and the wasteland term itself is a British legacy from the era of the Queen, one that independent India kept using to justify acquiring land meant for livestock grazing.
Dhabi, who studies the ecological impact of renewable energy projects like windmills in Kachchh, says this pattern repeats across the state.
Viram Kanthad Rabari, who led the movement to save gauchar, points out that the official gauchar now sits 8-10 kilometres from the village, a distance too far for animals to travel comfortably.
Waterbodies lost to the solar park
Driving from Charanka toward Fangli, the change in scenery is immediate, as the lush fields there tell a very different story from the wilted castor crop back home, largely because the Kutch branch canal of the Narmada dam network reaches Fangli before being redirected to Patanka village.
Locals believe this canal diversion, planned back in 2005, was rerouted specifically because it clashed with the solar park, affecting seven villages including Charanka, according to resident Bharat Dan Ghadvi.
Officials at the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited, or SSNL, say feasibility studies for a new pipeline are still underway, since the original work order from 2005 ran into topographical challenges caused by undulating topography ranging from 9-30 metres.
Director V.P. Kapadia explained that gravity does not allow water to be lifted uphill, which forced engineers into the canal diversion design that ultimately bypassed Charanka.
The village once had five water bodies, including the 30-acre Saiyania bandh, now enclosed behind a boundary wall that keeps animals from drinking there, on land that was once cultivable land growing cumin through water pumps.
Viram Kanthad Rabari disputes the GPCL’s charanka solar park Gujarat claim that Saiyania was merely a khet talaouri, or small pond, insisting it was deepened only after solar arrays needed washing.
A GPCL official confirmed that dust from the nearby Rann, carried by dust-laden winds, requires frequent panel washing, which is why the site needed a proper water reservoir.
Ryan Stock’s research estimates the park needs roughly 64 cubic metres of water every two weeks just for cleaning, a heavy draw in this parched landscape.
Villagers also allege that Dana Band pond, a second pond, was filled in for another project, while two more water bodies sit on land earmarked for the proposed 15 MW project.
Former Sarpanch Raghav Dan cites a Gujarat High Court order from February 17 2022 that requires water bodies maintenance rather than destruction in the name of industrialisation, and he is simply asking for respite for the remaining gauchar and pond.
Stock’s findings suggest this is far from an charanka solar park Gujarat isolated case, noting that nearly 94% India’s solar parks built in agrarian spaces face serious water risk, a warning sign for the future of dryland agriculture across the country.
FAQS About Charanka Solar Park Gujarat
In which district is Charanka solar park located?
Charanka Solar Park sits in Patan district of Gujarat, roughly 350 kms from Gandhinagar. It rests near the quiet Charanka village, close to the India-Pakistan border.
Which is the 2nd largest solar park in India?
While Charanka Solar Park once held the title of Asia’s biggest solar park, several newer sites like Bhadla Solar Park and Pavagada Solar Park have since grown larger. Rankings shift often as new solar power capacity gets commissioned across India.
Which solar park in Gujarat is the world’s largest?
At the time it was built, Charanka Solar Park was celebrated as the largest solar park in the world of its kind, spread across 5,384 acres. It stood as a proud symbol of Gujarat’s early push toward clean energy.
Which is India’s biggest solar park?
Today, Bhadla Solar Park in Rajasthan holds the title of India’s biggest solar park by installed capacity. Charanka, though smaller now, still holds a special place in history as one of the country’s first solar parks.