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The impact of wind energy project development on livelihood of local communities residing around project sites is something which is not seriously taken into consideration by concerned authorities. A large proportion of Indian population in rural areas still depend on land as an important pre-requisite for the continuity of their livelihood. At the same time, huge chunks of land are required to harness wind energy and fulfil the national clean energy targets. Hence, in some cases, land acquisition for wind energy project development acts as a major roadblock which further fuels conflicts between local community and project developers, ultimately leading to cancellation of strategically crucial wind energy projects. This study is a case study of one of the wind farms constructed in Khambhala village in Kachchh district of Gujarat. This study aims to understand the socio-economic impacts associated with wind power development on the livelihood of local community by using the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework by DfID (1999). The study identifies and analyses the change in livelihood capitals (capitals include: human capital, physical capital, natural capital and social capital), livelihood strategies (occupation structure) and livelihood outcomes (income, consumption and number of working days) for different groups of people i.e., landowners and landless labourers in Khambhala village. It is found that the wind farm development impacts the grazing/pastoral community much more severely than the agricultural community. It is also found that there are differential impacts on the livelihood of grazing land landowners and landless grazers in the sense that landowners with already high capital endowments have achieved improved livelihood outcomes and landless cattle grazers with lower capital endowments have reported deteriorated livelihood outcomes. Additionally, the overall natural resource base of the village common (grazing) land and private land has reduced in Khambhala Village signaling towards unsustainability of livelihoods of local people.
Keywords: Wind energy, Sustainable livelihoods, Socio-Economic impact.
