"How Data Centres Are Displacing Dalit Communities From Their Land" 26 May 2026

Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta have already pledged billions to build data centres in [India]... OpenAI joined the chorus, announcing a joint venture with Tata Group, India’s largest conglomerate, to build more data centres and train workers to use AI. Adani Group, owned by the second-wealthiest man in India, pledged to invest $100 billion to develop hyperscale data centres powered by renewable energy...

Both Indian and foreign companies are being rewarded handsomely for their investments. Data centre projects receive deep concessions on land and electricity...

Yet, across India, from Mumbai to Chennai, the unbridled growth comes with a high cost borne by the country’s most vulnerable communities. Low-income Dalit families say they are being evicted or pressured to sell their land as data centres arrive in town....

The government has postponed plans to retire ageing power plants and approved dozens of new coal-fired plants, in part to meet demand from data centres. Data centres are guaranteed uninterrupted power and water supply, even as poor communities nearby struggle to get regular access to running water....

While every proposed data centre must go through an environmental review, experts say it amounts to little more than rubber-stamping. Each project is appraised independently and they claim there is no cumulative assessment of their environmental footprint – no accounting of the combined pressure on water, power, land, or local ecosystems...

In June 2024, at the beginning of monsoon season, bulldozers rolled into Jai Bhim Nagar, a settlement of around 650 mostly Dalit households.... Shrimati Chauhan, who has lived there for more than 30 years, said she and her husband and their son were dragged out of her home by local authorities. Hundreds of their neighbours were also evicted. By evening, the entire settlement had been reduced to rubble....

The Hiranandani Group, the developer, is rapidly expanding its data centre business and plans to construct a new data centre inside the township...

Google is working with the state government to acquire 480 acres of land across three locations. In Tarluvada, 200 acres earmarked for the project belong to Dalit families who said they are under pressure to sell to the government...

Pyla Kondamma, a farmer and former head of the village council, said she will not give up her land — neither the Andhra Pradesh government nor Google can force her to. “We are not afraid — even if they kill us, we will not give it away,” she said.