Farmers in India blame wind turbines for lasting drought

Claims that wind turbines are responsible for the three-year drought blighting parts of the sub-continent are being investigated by a group of India's most eminent scientists. Farmers in Maharashtra, a drought-ridden central state, are convinced the windmills' massive propeller-shaped blades are chopping up the clouds which bring precious rain to their fields. The claims were mainly ignored until last month when militant protesters attempted sabotage in one of the state's five turbine fields, which together hold 1,700 turbines. The local government immediately directed that a committee of experts, chaired by Dr G B Pant, director of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, should hear evidence on the matter.

The committee - including a professor of cloud physics, an executive director of wind energy technology and the director (long range forecasting) of the Indian Meteorological Office - have heard three days of submissions. More than 30 local pressure groups gave "evidence", using slide projectors and other visual aids, to show how they believed the 400-megawatt turbines chased away the clouds. One submission said the blades created "magnetic pressures" which drew in the clouds, only for them to be "slashed" and "fragmented" before being dispersed. The protesters want the turbines to be switched off from early May until the end of August to enable the monsoon clouds to develop unhindered, despite the fact that this would leave the state with serious power shortages.

Maharashtra has suffered a terrible drought before, in 1972-73, but local people are convinced that there was a connection between the arrival of the turbines in 1996 and consistent failure of the rains ever since. As their crops fail, their fields are left to empty and their debts mount, farmers in southern India are committing suicide in unprecedented numbers The Indian Wind Energy Association has held roadshows and public rallies to explain the turbines, but the public is still unconvinced.