Large and small dams

To meet the demands of a rising population India needs to increase its food output by about 60% by the year 2000. This will involve a corresponding increase in the area of irrigated land. A controversy has arisen over whether large dams should be used to meet the target increase, since it has been asserted that large projects entail severe adverse environmental and human impacts absent from smaller works. This paper argues that small dams alone could not meet the country's needs, and if they could they would cause greater damage than would result from a combination of large and small dams.