Bengal proposes world's largest solar power plant

[Contrarian]

Is this a joke?

Bengal is land starved. Better to build agriculture and agro based industries there than solar plants which are extremely land intensive. They need vast lands to produce small amount of energy!

 

[scorpionx]

Purulia, the westernmost district of West Bengal, is well known as a drought prone district and falls within the semi-arid region of the state. Cultivation of this district is predominantly mono-cropped.Out of total geographical land 52.47 % are used for agriculture. 29.69 % are under forest coverage (including social forestry) and 10.15 % are identified as Wasteland. Soil erosion is the most prominent phenomenon of the district resulting huge deposition of fertile soil in the valley region. Vast areas of land remained uncultivable wasteland. Out of the total agricultural holding about 73 % belongs to small and marginal farmers having scattered and fragmented smallholding. About 90 % of the population lives in villages and about 44 % of the rural population is below poverty line.

http://www.wbplan.gov.in/docs/NRDMS/NRDMS_Purulia.doc

I do not see any problem in this 10.15% wasteland to be used as a Solar project when several government firms are toiling hard to improve the Agricultural productivity in the rest 90% area.