Modi's AI data centre push collides with Indian residents' environmental concerns

Tushar Shetty, an engineer living on the twenty-first floor of a Mumbai apartment building, watched the view from his window transform over five months. The green stretch he had counted on when he bought the place gave way to exposed red earth and felled trees. An Amazon data centre was going up, part of a $21 billion commitment the company has made to build artificial intelligence infrastructure across India by 2030. Shetty was direct about his regret: he would not have purchased the apartment had he known what was coming.

His experience is not isolated. From the suburbs of Virginia to the edges of Amsterdam and Dublin, residents have begun to organize against the spread of data centres, citing noise, power consumption, water depletion, and the industrialization of neighborhoods that were once residential. In India, the resistance is sharpening as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft pour billions into facilities that serve Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stated goal of hosting "the whole world's data." The investment corridor stretches from Maharashtra in the west to Andhra Pradesh in the south. Modi's government frames this as a strategic pivot: unable to compete with the frontier artificial intelligence models being developed in the United States and China, India is betting that dominance over the physical infrastructure that powers AI—the data centres themselves—could prove equally valuable as the technology moves forward.

The collision between this ambition and ground-level reality is stark. India holds only 4 percent of the world's fresh water while supporting 18 percent of its population. Data centres are clustering in cities already experiencing water scarcity. Research firm S&P Global estimates that between 60 and 80 percent of Indian data centres could face high water stress during this decade. In 2025 alone, data centres consumed roughly 150 billion litres of water; projections suggest that figure will more than double by 2030. The Amazon project near Mumbai has become the most visible flashpoint. Interviews with more than two dozen residents and a review of official records reveal deepening anxiety about strain on local power and water supplies, as well as noise that residents worry will harm children and elderly people. On September 8, hundreds of residents gathered at the site holding signs that read "Data centres are energy vampires." They demanded the project be relocated. Vasudha Shetty, a 62-year-old who bought a flat near the fifty-four-acre planned facility, was explicit about her choice: if the data centre proceeds, she will leave; if it stops, she will stay.

Amazon and local authorities have mounted a vigorous defence. The company states that water and power will come from dedicated sources, not from public utilities, and that it will employ water-free cooling technology and noise-mitigation measures. The company also noted that more saplings were planted than trees were removed. Modi's government has promoted data centres online as "the invisible engines powering India's digital life" and argued that modern facilities use water and electricity more efficiently than older infrastructure. Yet even some industry executives have expressed doubt about the wisdom of siting data centres in residential areas. Sharad Agarwal, chief executive of Sify Infinit Spaces, which operates fourteen data centres, stated plainly at an industry event in September that he would never build a data centre next to homes, arguing that such facilities require abundant, uninterrupted power and water—resources that could be starved in shortage situations when they compete with residential demand.

More than one thousand residents living near the Amazon site say the project was advanced without meaningful consultation. In Virginia, home to the world's largest concentration of data centres, Amazon paused a 2024 proposal for three facilities in response to noise and proximity concerns, citing a desire for more time to engage with communities. Mumbai residents report receiving no such opportunity. Internally, according to a person familiar with Amazon's planning, the company is not deeply alarmed; government officials have indicated to Amazon that the protests will subside. Still, the company is developing community outreach plans to address concerns. The person acknowledged the tension directly: "Building data centres comes at a cost. Amazon at a global level is prepared to work with community and limit any inconvenience. For now there is no other option but to live with protests."

The backlash has begun to acquire political weight. In September, Aaditya Thackeray, an opposition legislator, joined Mumbai protesters and promised that his party would relocate the project if returned to power. In Andhra Pradesh, environmentalists are opposing Google's $15 billion data centre project, citing risks to wildlife, water supplies, power availability, and alleging that temple land was used without permission. Google and the state government deny wrongdoing. Microsoft has announced its own four-year, $20.5 billion investment plan for India, the bulk of it earmarked for AI data centres. Property broker Atul Jadhav observed that buyer concerns over views and property values may already be affecting resale prices in the area. Vidya Kadam, who has lived near the site for thirty years, was unambiguous: "We will come out on the roads and do whatever it takes to stop it." The question now is whether Modi's infrastructure ambition can be reconciled with the communities whose neighborhoods are being transformed to power it.