{
  "id": 13456392,
  "title": "Round table discusses damage due to data centres",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/10/round-table-discusses-damage-due-to-data-centres",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-10T15:57:52.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Hindu",
    "slug": "the-hindu",
    "url": "https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/telangana/round-table-discusses-damage-due-to-data-centres/article71568830.ece"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A round-table meeting was held on Saturday where environmental and agricultural activists discussed the negative effects of large data centres on public resources and the environment. E.A.S. Sarma, a former civil servant and prominent environmentalist, warned that data centres jeopardize water and power security, and come with higher costs due to subsidies given to foreign companies. They receive exemptions from pollution control laws and labor laws, despite not creating much employment.\n\nSarma also highlighted the absence of a law regulating data centres, despite existing provisions to protect the environment, which are not being enforced under the guise of Ease of Doing Business. He suggested that in three to four years, the AI bubble would burst, and data centres would become museums.\n\nRetired scientist K. Babu Rao pointed out that each data centre is equipped with 100MW generators, causing significant pollution equivalent to that of a thermal power plant. The heat generated by these centers raises temperatures in the surrounding areas, but the State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority has granted permissions without questioning the cooling methodologies. Babu Rao questioned how the power requirements of the data centres would be met and expressed concerns about noise pollution as well.\n\nActivist Saraswathi Kavula noted that Ranga Reddy district, with the best climate in the state, is now heating up due to industrial proliferation. She claimed that the pharma city is merely a front for the data centres, and that chief ministers attending the World Economic Forum always bring back orders from their \"bosses.\"\n\nSagar Dhara, an environmentalist, claimed that data centres impact the environment as much as a steel plant or a thermal power plant, due to both direct emissions and indirect effects from the need for greater power production. He proposed a people-led Environmental Impact Assessment to make the process more democratic.\n\nAgricultural activist Kanneganti Ravi argued that the government's developmental model, which is water-based, treats all political parties equally, including BJP, BRS, and Congress, and that environment is not a concern for left parties. City-based activist Lubna Sarwath said that the social and environmental costs of data centres should be weighed against income disparities and democracy.\n\nDeeksha Vanguru, a young activist from Visakhapatnam, discussed the Andhra Pradesh experience, emphasizing that governments are working in isolation and not concerned about the people.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}