The Environmental and Ecological Impact of AI Data Centres in India: Caste, Dispossession, and Environmental Justice

Abstract

This rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and digital infrastructure has created a severe ecological crisis, mainly due to the massive land, energy and water consumption of hyperscale data centres. Although digital technologies have an environmental impact, the burden on the environment in India is far from equal sharing and is deeply rooted in historical inequalities. This research paper critically analyses the environmental and ecological effects of AI data centres in India using the lens of environmental justice, highlighting that the experience of land dispossession and water stress is not just a matter of class or race, but of position and caste. Western environmental justice approaches, which rest on the core principles of race and class, are not adequate to the Indian scenario, where the ecological vulnerability of Dalit and lower caste communities is shaped by their historical and geographical marginalisation. The study uses these patterns of land acquisition and water use efficiency in the major Indian technology hubs as a basis to illustrate how agrarian lower caste groups are being displaced and left out of decision making on the environment. These findings show that the state is creating a new form of dispossession of resources in favour of digital capital for the marginalized population. Thus, environmental equity requires addressing the entrenched eco-casteism that is part of India's digital development path.