The reservoir of Rihand Dam, called Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar, is India's largest artificial lake.

[8] Nehru waged an aggressive dam-building campaign, drastically expanding infrastructure left by the British Raj, who "had put down 75,000 miles of irrigation canals to water the subcontinent’s most valuable farmland.

The region lacked basic modern features such as adequate transportation and roads, and electricity, but the prospect of arable land provided a boon for local villages to farm and sustain themselves.

Authorities recognized the potential for growth in the region, as Sonbhadra was home to vast natural resources including coal, forests with various types of trees such as sal, bamboo, khair, and salal.

In terms of achieving economic growth and development for Indian authorities and business interests, the Rihand Dam has been an unmitigated success.

To facilitate this growth, the Indian government subsequently purchased thousands of acres of land in neighboring villages and throughout the district of Madhya Pradesh to sell to industrialists.

[9] As the Indian government’s primary concern has been to foster growth, it has often chosen the most expedient route to achieve its goals, at the expense of the environment.

As state and private entities have continued to develop the region, pollution has increased, threatening the environment and wellbeing of residents, while taking valuable farmland.

Researchers estimate that more than 60 million people from 17 states deal with the effects of dental, skeletal, or non-skeletal fluorosis, a chronic condition caused by excessive intake of fluorine compounds, marked by mottling of the teeth and, if severe, calcification of the ligaments.

While some fluoride contamination may be caused by natural processes, human activities such as coal and mineral mining and the operation of thermal power plants have led to increased pollution.

Development projects throughout India have led to the forced migration of tens of millions within India, creating a phenomenon that Indian environmental activist Parshuram Ray dubs “development-induced displacement.”  After British colonial rule, the Indian government ambitiously sought to develop their newly independent country.

It causes dismantling of production systems, desecration of ancestral sacred zones or graves and temples, scattering of kinship groups and family systems, disorganization of informal social networks that provide mutual support, weakening of self-management and social control and disruption of trade and market links etc… Essentially, the very cultural identity of the displaced community and individual is subjected to massive onslaught leading to very severe physiological stress and psychological trauma.

The disruption in communities that these projects cause also quash potential political unrest or protest, as people can no longer rely on their destroyed networks.

The intergenerational traumas wound those forced to leave, but also disrupt stable villages and economies, ultimately dooming millions of future Indians to poverty.

[8] As the world's largest democracy and second most populous country, Indian leaders must balance the goals of economic development with democratic ideals and the overall welfare of its people.

Amartya Sen and Jean Drèze discuss these tensions, acknowledging "issues of economic development in India have to be seen in the larger context of the demands of democracy and social justice.

They write:Those who dream about India becoming an economic superpower, even with its huge proportion of undernourished children, lack of systematic health care, extremely deficient school education, and half the homes without toilets (forcing half of all Indians to practise open defecation), have to reconsider not only the reach of their understanding of the mutual relationship between growth and development, but also their appreciation of the demands of social justice, which is integrally linked with the expansion of human freedoms.

Instead, sustainable growth maximizes the number of individuals who benefit, while minimizing the hardship and complications that arise from economic expansion.

NGOs working with villages and small towns to bring back water collection methods speak to the efficacy of such an approach, showing mega-projects are not the only solution.

By 2019, various Indian companies such as the Shapoorji Pallonji Group and ReNew Power had won the rights to invest ₹7.5 billion ($106 million) to build solar panels with a capacity of 150MW on the Rihand Dam.