Thurga Dam

Turga Dam holds a reservoir on the Turga Nala, a hill stream close to Baghmundi, at about 284 m above sea level. Its clear water ringed by wooded slopes has long made it a place to spend the day, and Turga Falls lies a short way upstream. The dam is planned to become the lower reservoir of the 1,000 MW Turga Pumped Storage Project.

The existing dam belongs to the state's Irrigation and Waterways Directorate. Behind it, the reservoir spreads between low forested hills, fed by the Turga Nala, which drains towards the Subarnarekha. A 2023 travel account describes clear blue water held in the lap of the hills, the kind of view that keeps people sitting on the bank for a long time.

The Turga Pumped Storage Project, planned by the state electricity distribution company WBSEDCL, would enlarge this dam into the lower reservoir of a 1,000 MW scheme, with a new upper dam across the Turga Nala further up. Water would be pumped uphill when power is plentiful and run back through four 250 MW machines in an underground power house at peak hours; two are variable-speed units meant to absorb surplus solar and wind power.

The project is contested. Santal villages in the hills around Turga have opposed it for close to a decade, citing the loss of forest, grazing land and sacred sites, and a long legal battle has followed.