Chandigarh, June 8
Former Secretary to the Government of India E.A.S. Sarma has urged the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) to comprehensively examine every AI and data centre project in the country, ensuring strict compliance with environmental and forest laws before granting approvals. He warned against attempts to damage the environment under the guise of technological expansion.
In a letter to Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, Sarma highlighted that IT giants such as Google are shifting projects to developing countries like India, where data protection laws remain fragmented, environmental regulation is fragile, and crony capitalism is rampant. He noted that local political leaders are offering promoters of data centres unprecedented tax concessions, along with massive subsidies on land, water, and electricity. The Union Finance Minister’s announcement of a “tax holiday” for foreign data centres till 2047, he said, is ironic, as Indian taxpayers and land losers are being forced to subsidise companies earning trillions of dollars annually.
India’s cumulative AI/data centre capacity is projected to reach 17 GW or more by 2030. Sarma stressed that AI is not “just code” but involves extensive physical infrastructure and supply chains, including data centres, chips, electricity generation, cooling systems, water withdrawals, land occupation, critical minerals, and eventual e-waste. He pointed out that a 1 GW data centre consumes 11.4 TWh of electricity annually, 8.1 billion litres of water, emits 8.1 billion tonnes of carbon, and requires more than 600 acres of land.
If India reaches 17 GW capacity by 2030, data centres will consume 194 TWh of electricity, withdraw 138 billion litres of water, and displace more than 30,000 marginal farmers, devastating lives and livelihoods while damaging the environment. Sarma accused the Ministry of abandoning its constitutional obligation under Article 48A and joining the bandwagon of corporate cheerleaders for environmental destruction. He asserted that MEFCC must not rubber-stamp projects that violate the letter and spirit of environmental protection laws.
