Solar Projects on Common or Ecological Land: Legal Issues

Solar plants are clean in operation, but the land they sit on can carry legal problems that the developer, the panchayat and the state did not check. Village grazing land and other commons are governed by state revenue and panchayat law, which often restricts their diversion. Orans, grasslands and scrub recorded as wasteland may in fact be forest, deemed forest or wildlife habitat. Solar photovoltaic plants generally do not need environmental clearance, so these questions are rarely examined at a public hearing. They come up later, in objections, revenue proceedings, High Court writs and NGT applications.

This guide is for villagers and panchayats whose grazing land, sacred grove or pond area has been fenced for a solar park, and for developers and lenders who want to avoid that dispute. It explains which law governs which kind of land, why the usual environmental checks do not catch these problems, and which forum suits which issue. Our renewable energy approvals work covers the developer's side of this.

Land conflicts around solar parks often overlap with the problems discussed in our guide on illegal change of land use, and they belong to the wider group of land use disputes handled by our construction and land use violation practice.

The essentials

Can village common land be given for a solar project?

It can, in many states, but only through the procedure in that state's revenue and panchayat laws, and only for land that the law allows to be diverted. Village commons go by many local names: shamlat land in Punjab and Haryana, gochar or charagah grazing land in Gujarat, Rajasthan and central India, poramboke land in the south, and so on. State laws commonly restrict changing the use of grazing land, require a resolution of the gram panchayat or gram sabha, require the state government's approval, or require replacement land. A lease signed without following those steps can be challenged.

Then come the environmental questions. If the land is forest, or has the character of forest whatever the revenue record says, it needs prior approval under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, the renamed Forest (Conservation) Act. If it is a notified wetland, or lies in an eco-sensitive zone, those rules apply. If it is habitat for protected wildlife, wildlife law and court directions may restrict the project or its power lines. A solar park can clear all its electricity approvals and still fail on any of these.

Why solar disputes do not follow the usual pattern

Most large projects meet their objectors at an EIA public hearing. Solar photovoltaic plants do not, because they are not listed in the schedule to the EIA Notification, 2006, so they generally need no environmental clearance and no public hearing. Under the CPCB's categorisation, solar PV power generation is in the white category, which is exempt from consent to establish and operate, although consent rules have been revised recently and the current state position should be checked.

The result is that no environmental regulator looks at the land in a structured way before work starts. The developer deals with the state nodal agency for renewable energy, the revenue department and the power utility. The first sign of trouble is often a fence across a grazing route, bulldozers in a sacred grove or flooding in the fields below the site after the first monsoon. Objectors then have to build the case themselves, which is why records and dates matter so much in these disputes.

Kinds of land and the issues they raise

Local names and rules vary by state. This shows the pattern, not the law of any one state.

Solar plants on grazing land and village commons

Grazing land is the most common flashpoint. To the revenue department it may look idle; to the village it is where the cattle and goats go for most of the year. State laws often treat grazing land as reserved for that use, and changing it may need the state government's sanction after notice to the village, a resolution of the panchayat, or allotment of other land for grazing. The exact steps differ from state to state, and some states have relaxed them for renewable energy. The question in each case is whether the steps that the law in force actually required were followed.

Courts have long treated village commons as held for the benefit of the community, and have been wary of their diversion to private use except on clear legal grounds. That principle helps villagers, but it does not automatically defeat a lease made under a valid state policy. What usually decides these cases is the paper: whether the gram sabha met and resolved, whether objections were invited, who signed the lease, whether the approval came from the authority the law names, and whether the land handed over matches the land described in the order.

The route for these land issues is usually the revenue hierarchy (SDM, collector, divisional commissioner, revenue board, depending on the state) and then a writ in the High Court. The NGT is not the place to argue whether a panchayat resolution was valid. It becomes relevant when the land is forest, wetland or habitat, or when the project causes environmental harm such as flooding or tree loss.

Orans, grasslands and wasteland that is not waste

Large solar parks favour flat, open land with few trees, which is exactly what grasslands and arid scrub look like. Revenue records built for farming often classify such land as barren or wasteland. Ecologically, it may be grazing commons, a sacred grove protected by the community for generations, or habitat for grassland birds and animals. In western Rajasthan, conflicts over orans and over the felling of trees such as khejri on solar sites have drawn wide attention.

The legal handle for this is often forest law. In T.N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v Union of India (1996), the Supreme Court held that forest should be understood in its dictionary sense, whatever the ownership or classification, which is the origin of the idea of deemed forest. A grove or wooded tract that meets the state's criteria for deemed forest needs forest approval before it is used for a solar park, even if the revenue record says wasteland. The Biological Diversity Act, 2002, which is in Schedule I of the NGT Act, adds another angle where the area holds recorded biodiversity or the local biodiversity management committee has documented it.

Wildlife is the third layer. In parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat, the Supreme Court has been hearing a long-running case about overhead power lines in the habitat of the Great Indian Bustard, and its directions on undergrounding lines and on the areas covered have been modified over time. Any solar or transmission project in that region needs current advice on where those directions stand.

Solar on forest or deemed forest land

Using forest land for a solar park is a non-forest purpose that needs prior approval of the Central Government under the Van Adhiniyam, usually with compensatory afforestation and payment towards it, and other conditions. Where forest rights are recognised or claimed under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, the process also involves settling those rights, in which the gram sabha has a role. Work that starts before approval is a violation, however short the delay.

An approval under section 2 of the forest law can be appealed to the NGT under section 16 of the NGT Act within 30 days of the order being communicated, with up to 60 more days for sufficient cause. If no approval was obtained at all, an original application under section 14 is the route. Our guides on what deemed forest means and on challenging forest land diversion cover both situations.

If a solar plant needs no EC, what environmental rules still apply?

Quite a few. Cutting trees on the site or along the power line needs permission under the state's tree or forest law; our page on illegal tree cutting sets out what to do when that is ignored. Drawing groundwater for construction or for washing panels may need a NOC from the CGWA or the state groundwater authority, depending on the area and volume. Construction dust is controlled by dust rules, strictly so in Delhi NCR. DG sets on site follow emission and noise norms.

Waste rules apply at both ends of the plant's life. Damaged and end-of-life solar panels are covered by the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2022, and battery storage systems by the Battery Waste Management Rules, 2022. Developers who leave broken modules in heaps at the site edge, or bury them, invite a complaint to the State Board. Our e-waste EPR page covers the obligations of producers.

Drainage, flooding and water use

Levelling hundreds of acres, building boundary walls and laying internal roads can block the natural drainage that fields and villages downstream depend on. The first heavy rain then floods crops or homes that never flooded before, or starves a village pond of its inflow. These are environmental harms the NGT can hear under the Water Act and the Environment (Protection) Act, and section 15 of the NGT Act allows claims for compensation and restitution within 5 years of when the cause of action first arose.

Panel cleaning is the other water issue. In arid districts, regular washing of large arrays can draw significant water, sometimes from borewells. Villagers who notice falling water levels should ask under RTI whether the project has a groundwater NOC and what quantity it allows. Dry cleaning methods and robotic cleaning exist, and the absence of a NOC is a straightforward point to raise with the groundwater authority.

How villagers can challenge a solar project on common land

Start early. Many objections fail only because they come after the panels are up and the time limits have run.

Which issue goes where

If you are the developer: land diligence before you sign

Most solar land disputes could have been caught in the land diligence. When Advocate B.K. Singh reviews a solar site for a developer, he looks first at the classification history of each khasra over several decades rather than only the current record, because a grove or grazing land recorded differently years ago is the usual source of a later claim. He then asks for the forest department's written view on forest or deemed forest status, and for proof of every step the state's law required to divert common land.

Beyond title, check for orans, ponds and drainage lines on the ground, wildlife directions affecting the area, forest rights claims, and whether the panchayat resolution was passed by the body the law names. Plan drainage so it is not blocked, plan water for cleaning, and plan the power line route around groves and habitat. Lenders increasingly ask these questions too. Our renewable energy legal page covers how we support projects at this stage.

Before you object, or before you sign

Where to go next

If the solar site includes a village pond, our guide on village pond encroachment explains how to get it restored. Projects near national parks or sanctuaries should be read against our guide on eco-sensitive zone rules. Where the main harm is to local biodiversity, see our biodiversity and natural resources page.