India's First Power Project Was Here, Yet This Himachal Village Lives In Darkness

• Tilang village in Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh, remains without electricity despite India's first hydroelectric project being established in the same district 117 years ago by Raja Bhuri Singh in 1908.
• Residents face severe hardships: no power for charging phones (requiring a 2-hour walk), children's education suffers, and daily chores are difficult after dark.
• Lack of basic infrastructure, including road connectivity, leads to migration and makes medical emergencies critical, often requiring 8-10 people to carry patients.
• Villagers use expensive, hard-to-transport generators for events and have repeatedly appealed to elected representatives without success, despite an electrified village being just 200-300 meters away.
• Locals believe electricity and roads could transform Tilang into a tourism hub, but a young resident bitterly notes, "The world is looking for life on Mars, and our village is still waiting for light."

Why It Matters: Tilang village's darkness highlights India's stark development gap despite historical power legacy.