Mitigation or Myth? Impacts of Hydropower Development and Compensatory Afforestation on forest ecosystems in the high Himalayas

•This study conducted in the remote Kinnaur Division of Himachal Pradesh in the Western Himalayas, between 2012 to 2016 found that hydropower proliferation in the name of ‘clean energy’ has brought rapid land-use changes adversely impacting local terrestrial ecosystems and communities inhabiting them.•We found that of the area of ‘forest land’ diverted to non-forest activities between 1980 and 2014, 90% was transferred for hydro-electric projects (HEP) and transmission lines (TL), leading to change in land-use, fragmentation of forests and loss of biodiversity in the Kinnaur region, already considered as vulnerable from the point of view of its ecology, geology and climatic changes.•We found that the ‘compensatory afforestation’, carried out as a ‘mitigation’ measure for loss of forests and a mandatory condition for forest clearance for forest diversion has not been able to fulfil its stated objective and further, maybe leading to change in composition of forests. While plantation work was undertaken only in 12% of the proposed area this was ridden with issues like abysmally low presence of surviving saplings (upto 10%) interspecies conflict, infringement on local land usage, and vulnerability to disasters.•We discuss the structural problems in the forest governance regime and the global ‘green growth’ policy with its neoliberal ideological underpinnings, as key factors driving these ecosystems’ transformations.•We advocate for an independent, holistic and multidisciplinary inquiry into the impacts of these interventions and highlight the need to confront the current notion of ‘mitigation’, the costs of which are being transferred to vulnerable ecosystems and people dependent on them. Fragile ecosystems of the Himalayas have seen rampant land-use changes in recent times due to proliferation of hydropower development promoted as a climate change mitigation strategy for global energy transition. Further, in order to mitigate the loss of forest lands diverted for hydropower projects, countries like India have compensatory afforestation policies, which have meant more physical interference in natural landscapes, whose long-term consequences remain under-researched. This study conducted between 2012 and 2016 uses information from government data and ground research to examine the extent, nature and impact of forest diversion for hydropower projects in the remote, ecologically vulnerable Kinnaur Division of Himachal Pradesh in the Western Himalayas. It also stud