Contents
Introduction
With India’s data-centre capacity projected to cross 4.5 GW by 2030 (Colliers), data centres—digital economy’s ‘refineries’—pose mounting environmental risks, testing India’s Net Zero 2070 and sustainable development commitments.
Environmental Footprint of India’s Data Centre Boom
- Energy Intensity and Carbon Lock-in: Data centres are among the most electricity-intensive infrastructure, operating 24×7 with high base loads. Cooling alone consumes 35–40% of total power. With India’s grid still ~55% coal-based (CEA, 2024), rapid expansion risks carbon lock-in, undermining Panchamrit commitments. Globally, the IEA warns that AI-driven data demand could double data-centre electricity use by 2030, amplifying emissions unless decoupled from fossil fuels.
- Water Stress and Resource Depletion: A typical 1 MW data centre consumes ~25–30 million litres of water annually, largely for evaporative cooling. In water-stressed regions like Noida, Chennai, and Hyderabad, this intensifies aquifer depletion. NITI Aayog’s Composite Water Management Index already flags 600 million Indians under high water stress, making unregulated siting environmentally untenable.
- Thermal and Local Ecological Impacts: Dense server clusters generate significant waste heat, contributing to urban heat-island effects and local micro-climate alteration. Backup diesel generators further add to local air pollution, raising public health concerns.
Risk of ‘Data Dumping’ and Sustainability Challenges
- Meaning of Data Dumping: ‘Data dumping’ refers to India becoming a low-cost storage destination for redundant, low-value or dark data, disproportionately bearing environmental costs for limited economic or employment gains.
- Resource Misallocation: Data centres are capital-intensive but job-light. Without safeguards, scarce water and power may be diverted from households, MSMEs, and agriculture to store foreign low-utility data—echoing concerns raised in extractive-resource economics.
- E-Waste and Lifecycle Emissions: Rapid server obsolescence accelerates e-waste generation, already 1.75 million tonnes in India (Global E-waste Monitor, 2024). Improper recycling adds toxic risks, compounding environmental externalities.
- Governance Deficits: The CAG, NGT, and Supreme Court have repeatedly highlighted gaps in post-clearance monitoring and environmental enforcement, increasing the probability that India absorbs the most resource-intensive, least locally beneficial facilities.
Policy Interventions for Green and Just Digital Growth
- Regulatory and Planning Measures: – Zoning data centres as heavy infrastructure, with buffer zones and mandatory environmental impact assessments. – Location-based incentives favouring cooler, water-surplus regions and Tier-2 cities to reduce cooling loads.
- Efficiency and Technology Standards: – Mandatory disclosure and benchmarking of Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE).
– Promotion of liquid immersion cooling, direct-to-chip cooling, and air-cooled designs, as adopted after judicial scrutiny in Chile’s Google Cerrillos case. - Clean Energy Integration: – Compulsory renewable PPAs for large facilities, aligned with Draft Data Centre Policy 2026. – Exploring small modular reactors (SMRs) and grid-scale storage for carbon-free baseload power.
- Data Governance Reforms: – Enforcing data minimisation and lifecycle management to curb ‘dark data’. – Public registries for audits, water budgets, and grid-upgrade cost-sharing to prevent cross-subsidisation by households.
Way Forward
India need not ban data centres but must ensure early community engagement, transparency, and strict ESG accountability, converting digital infrastructure from an extractive burden into a sustainable growth enabler.
Conclusion
As Justice P.N. Bhagwati stressed environmental trusteeship, and the Supreme Court affirmed intergenerational equity, India must ensure data centres serve Digital India without betraying Net Zero ethics or ecological justice.
