Microsoft’s giant data centre in Telangana village accused of dumping waste, encroaching on lake
The Silicon Valley giant says it has complied with local requirements and follows environmental norms. A hearing in the case filed by villagers is pending.
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This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
By 7 am each day, the state-run milk collection centre in the village of Mekaguda is busy as dairy farmers stream in to deposit their stocks of raw milk. The 1,000-person village on the outskirts of the Indian tech hub, Hyderabad, is among the district’s top milk producers, and the centre collects over 4,000 litres daily.
In recent years, though, dairy farming has become less lucrative in Mekaguda as the cost of growing cattle fodder has gone up due to labour shortages and deteriorating soil quality.
“The villagers are opting to work at [factories] as daily-wage-workers,” said Mohammed Haneef, a 50-year-old farmer who met Rest of World outside the milk collection centre in July. “I run a puncture-fixing shop and a general store to feed my three kids now.”
Dairy farmers like Haneef are now worried that their livelihood would be further threatened as a Silicon Valley giant is constructing a data centre in Mekaguda.
In March 2022, Microsoft announced that it intended to build a data centre on a 22-acre plot in the village. As of July this year, 70% of the construction of the building had been completed, according to the company. However, in July 2023,...
