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Energy plays an indispensable role in providing basic services for our daily lives. The perils of climate change and its impact on our environment have made accessibility of energy difficult. The burden of energy poverty falls particularly on the poor households in rural areas. Decentralised renewable energy options can be used to meet the energy requirement especially for the rural and tribal communities, which are scatteredly located. The study aims to find out the effectiveness of a renewable energy project at village level by studying the experiences of the Ho tribal community residing in Barapita village of Odisha, India. Barapita village is the first 100 per cent solar powered village of Odisha. Participatory rural appraisal method comprising tools such as transect walking, interview schedule, focus group discussion and key informant interviews has been used to find out the energy use pattern and challenges faced by the community. Although the solar project was initially a success, later on technical issues and maintenance problems led to the decline of solar energy use. This article suggests how the Gandhian model coupled with Nai Talim approach can be deployed to train the villagers as solar engineers, which will enable them to resolve issues related to the use of renewable energy.

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This article explores the relationship between displacement-induced alienation and ecology inthe tribal region due to development projects. It discusses the socio-cultural alienation of displaced people in tribal areas from a Marxian perspective, such as isolation from traditional social structure, informal economy, mutual cooperation and solidarity, beliefs and practices, and age-old relationship with nature. The advent of the development project led to ecological risk in the backward regions abundantly rich with resources inhabited by tribals, and the tribals had to face the wrath of environmental degradation. The article argues that in the process of social change due to development-induced alienation, it has given rise to ‘Tribal Neo-poverty’ replacing the poverty that existed previously among the tribals.