Threat to Sundarbans: Barclays faces complaint in UK over link to power project
Times of India | 10 September 2026The complaint says the plant is polluting the forest’s air and water and damaging biodiversity, with coal barges eroding riverbanks, citing govt monitoring reports.
It says Barclays underwrote securities for NTPC, which owns half the plant, and for India EXIM, which lent the project $1.6 billion.
The clinic is acting for three complainants from two countries: Animesh Mandal, upadhyaksha (vice-chairperson) of the South 24 Parganas zilla parishad, Dakshinbanga Matsyajibi Forum (DMF) and Sharif Jamil, a Dhaka-based environmental campaigner.
Sue Willman, supervising solicitor at King’s Legal Clinic, said the complaint was filed on Aug 11 with the Office for Responsible Business Conduct, the UK’s contact point for the OECD guidelines, and acknowledged on Aug 26.
Barclays has 20 working days from being notified to respond. The complaint, however, is not a court case; the office can offer mediation and publish findings but cannot compel the bank.
Mandal said Krishnendu Mukherjee, the barrister instructed on the complaint, whom he met at Jadavpur University, helped them reach the clinic in the UK. “After the Rampal project started, the number of ships travelling through the Sundarbans has increased a lot. Diesel and air pollution have increased. Fishermen are being affected, large ships are causing erosion, and pollution from these ships and the Rampal plant is affecting the Sundarbans’ biodiversity.”
Debashis Shyamal, general secretary of DMF, said the plant may be in Bangladesh, but barbed wires and international borders can’t stop pollutants. “It is so close to the Sundarbans that it is affecting biodiversity, polluting the rivers here and affecting fishermen’s livelihoods.”
Willman said the OECD guidelines had let the Sundarbans complainants bring their case in the UK, offering communities facing extreme environmental harm in the global south a relatively accessible route to draw attention to activities that might otherwise go unnoticed.
The 1,320 MW plant in Bagerhat district of Bangladesh is owned by Bangladesh India Friendship Power Company, a 50:50 joint venture between NTPC and the Bangladesh Power Development Board. It began operating in Dec 2022, around 4 km from Bangladesh’s Sundarbans Ecologically Critical Area and 65 km from the world heritage boundary.
The complaint, citing BankTrack data, says Barclays underwrote NTPC shares and bonds worth 172.8 million euros between 2005 and 2013 and $631 million between 2014 and 2017. London Stock Exchange filings list Barclays as an arranger and dealer for India EXIM’s medium-term note programme in 2019 and 2023.
It also notes that NTPC drew 84.3% of its revenue from coal-based power in 2024-25, while Barclays’ climate policy says it will not finance clients generating over 30% of revenue from thermal coal power.
TOI asked Barclays whether this underwriting falls within its climate policy, which defines financing as including underwriting, and emailed questions to NTPC and India EXIM the same day, on Sept 7. None had responded at the time of publication.
