KAVADIA (India). Au^:. thefr pfa^.’^mM.Vuk^ at the last minute Friday after the for a review of the conti ovei sial Narmada Dam Project, reports AFT

Girls Patel, a spokesman for the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA, Save Narmada Movement). told reporter* at the dam site here that the planned "wlf sacrifice" by nine activists was off.

Medha Patkar. 37, the leader of the NBA s seven-year-old fight against the dam threatening to displace more than 200,000 people, had announced she would drown in the water* of the dam Friday with eight of her follower*.

The cancellation was announced after the NBA leadership met to discuas an offer by New Delhi late Thursday to review the three-billion dollar project being built in West-central

A group of experts would conduct the review arid submit their findings tn three months.

The offer was accompanied by a appeal from water resources minister Vtdya Charan Shukla to Patkar to call off her plan to commit suicide.

Patkar. a former sociology scholar who is one of India's best-known environmental crusaders. had described her planned suicide as 'a small sacrifice towards a larger goal."

"In the name of science and development. In human events

cannot be condoned," said Patkar, winner of the right to livelihood award, considered the environmental equivalent of the Nobel Prize

The dam. designed to be one of the world's largest, harnesses the waters of the Narmada, India's largest westward flowing river, across the states of Madhya Pradesh. Gujarat and Maharashtra.

The NBA says it would create a huge artificial lake wiping out 248 villages, displacing more than 2.00.000 tribes people from their ancestral homes, de straying fragile ecosystem, fer-tlle farmland and rich forests.

The organisation, whose fight has won the backing ol such International envlrontncn

tai movements as Greenpeace, says the government has no concrete plan, for the relief and rehabilitation of those who would be flooded Out

An NBA source In Bombay said the government offer of a

pert* committrewto a positive step, the Press Trost of India (PT!) reported.

"We hope that th* committee goes into the project sincerely and submits Its report within three months and that the government will also implement the committee s recommendations sincerely.

"We shall be vigilant about the findings of the cmnmlttee and if we fell that the government Is not sincere enough or the committee is not fitoction-ing properly, then we w* renew our agitation." the source said

The state government of Gujarat, which stands to benefit most from the project had steadfastly opposed a review of the dam, already built to a height of 61 metre (201 feet)

Proponents of the project say It would provide drinking Water and irrigation for million* of people In a drought-prone'/e-glon and boost electricity generation, bul anti-dam crusaders say the human cost out-wei^bts the benefits.

A World Bank-commissioned report had urged detailed studies to analyse the impact of the dam, accepting that planners had not taken Into account the hardship It would cause.

Friday's mass suicide champaign had prompted a security crackdown In the Narmada valley. with police sealing off all roads to Manlbell, which has been at the centre of the crusade as the first village to be submerged by the dam.

Some 500 activists were ar rested and the official secrets act invoked Manlbell and Its vicinity, barring journalists and photographers from the region.