As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the world's tallest Statue of Unity in Narmada district on October 31, 2018, the residents of 72 tribal villages who have been directly or indirectly affected by the project boycotted the inauguration by not cooking food. They released black balloons in the sky and burnt tyres to mark their protest.
Ahead of Modi's visit, the heads of 22 villages in the vicinity of the dam had written an open letter to him, stating that the villagers would not welcome him at the inauguration. Local tribal leaders announced a boycott of the function citing destruction of natural resources due to the construction of the memorial. A day before the inauguration, several tribal activists and local people were detained as a preventive measure.
The affected people consider the statue a "colossal" waste of public money. The government has envisioned a tourism zone in the stretch between the Sardar Sarovar Dam and the Statue of Unity. It is touted to have a "valley of flowers", a "Tent City", a guest house for every state, hotels and a lake for boating, for which the government plans to release water from the Sardar Sarovar Dam. The tribals fear submersion of their villages and crops. Some of the villages also lost many acres of land in October when the government widened the access road leading to the statue.
Of the 72 villages in which land has been acquired, the residents of only 32 villages have been compensated so far. However, in 19 of these villages, rehabilitation is yet to be completed. People in six villages -Navagam, Vagadia, Limdi, Kevadiya, Kothi and Gora in Kevadiya Colony - have been displaced and are living in temporary shelters. According to human rights activist, Anand Mazgaonkar, these six villages are not recognised as project-affected. Other affected people include those who have been paid monetary compensation but are awaiting land and jobs as promised under the rehabilitation package as well as those who have been compensated with land but are unhappy as the land is unproductive.
Tribal activists also allege that the Statue of Unity project has not taken environmental clearance. According to a media report, the activists wrote a letter to the environment secretary, stating that the statue violates the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986, environmental impact assessment notification of 2006 and a few orders issued by the National Green Tribunal.
The Statue of Unity is only 3.2 kilometres from the Shoolpaneshwar Sanctuary. According to a Supreme Court order dated December 4, 2006, if a project requiring environmental clearance is located within a 10-kilometre radius of a wildlife sanctuary or national park, the project requires the approval of the Standing Committee of the National Board for Wildlife.
On December 17, 2018, the residents of Kevadiya Colony locked the executive engineer of the Sardar Sarovar Punarvasvat Agency in his office at the Statue of Unity site to protest against the lack of jobs for the local people. They also complained of the lack of basic facilities for those displaced by the project. However, police rushed to the site and brought the situation under control.
On July 25, 2019, the Gujarat High Court ordered a status quo on the acquisition of land for various tourism projects and asked the state government not to evict anyone until further orders. The court's decision came after a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed against the land acquisition in the six villages. The PIL was filed by Ahmedabad-based environment activist Mahesh Pandya.
In the petition, Pandya alleged that the government and the Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSSNL) want to evict around 5,000 tribespeople residing in the six villages under the guise of tourism development projects without following due procedure under the Land Acquisition Act. He stated that the land is being acquired for tiger safaris, hotels and other buildings planned near the Statue of Unity to develop tourism. The petitioner further claimed that the land acquired from several tribal families was never utilised for the purpose for which it was acquired and that the physical possession of the land was never taken over.
In December 2019, the Gujarat government enacted a legislation called the 'Statue of Unity Area Development and Tourism Governance Act, 2019 which, amongst other things, excludes the application of the LARR Act, 2013, and effectively takes away the protections provided under Schedule V and the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, to the affected people.
In May 2020, the High Court of Gujarat withdrew the stay order on SSNNL to acquire the land surrounding the statue. Following this, the company laid fences on open plots of land around the statue in Kevadiya colony. The local residents protested and clashed with the police, in which 20 people were arrested. After a month of protest, on June 5, the fencing work was stopped to facilitate talks with the local residents. While the state government maintained that the fencing was not related to the Statue of Unity, the tribespeople claimed the move was another ploy to acquire land from them. The state, on the other hand, contended that it has not asked anyone living within the fenced plot to vacate and stated that the dialogue was to make the residents aware of the government packages. However, it also formed teams to book villagers trespassing into the lands.
In August 2020, a tribal man attempted suicide to protest against the fencing, which was completed in June.
In November 2020, the district administration served the first notice to execute the environment ministry's order to classify 121 villages around Shoolpneshwar Wild Sanctuary as eco-sensitive zones. This has led to further protests by tribal communities because it includes the state government as the co-owner of the 121 villages' land.
In March 2021, Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda blatantly denied claims of protests by aggrieved land owners in the Lok Sabha.