Hydropower development in the north-western Himalaya is celebrated as a cornerstone of India’s renewable energy expansion, yet it unfolds within one of the world’s most fragile ecological and socially complex regions. Large dams such as Tehri, Pong, Bhakra, Nathpa Jhakri, Chamera, and Baglihar have reshaped river systems, fragmented habitats, and displaced thousands of people. The costs of these projects are borne unevenly: women, along with Scheduled Castes and Tribes, face the sharpest disruptions to livelihoods, health, and social security. Despite the existence of national policies on resettlement and gender empowerment, the lived realities of women—whose survival strategies are embedded in subsistence economies, kinship networks, and ecological knowledge—remain largely absent from hydropower planning and scholarship. This study reassesses hydropower-led displacement in the Himalaya through a gendered lens, guided by two questions: (i) how does displacement reconfigure women’s access to resources, livelihoods, health, and agency? and (ii) what pathways can foster more inclusive and sustainable development? A mixed-methods approach is employed: qualitative review of literature, policy frameworks, and field-based evidence is paired with a quantitative case analysis of census data (1971–2011) from dam-affected and control sub-districts. Indicators include female population growth, literacy, workforce participation, and Scheduled Caste/Tribe representation. Findings show that displacement undermines subsistence economies, intensifies women’s unpaid labour, and excludes them from decision-making. Census patterns reveal declining female population growth in Tehri and Pong, rising SC/ST shares in affected areas, and persistent gender gaps in workforce participation despite literacy gains. Yet women also exhibit resilience through agricultural adaptation, barter economies, and ecological stewardship. Consequently, sustainable hydropower demands site-specific EIA norms, gender-disaggregated monitoring, participatory rehabilitation, and benefit-sharing frameworks. By situating women as both vulnerable and resilient, it advances an intersectional framework for rethinking development in the fragile mountain contexts of the north-western Himalaya.