Off track……Chanpreet Khurana
As industry advances and encroaches on forest land, wildlife is on the retreat. Just where will the lines be drawn?
As industry advances and encroaches on forest land, wildlife is on the retreat. Just where will the lines be drawn?
It was a game of Pac-Man with a twist. In the graphic interface game, Turtle vs Tata, monsters bearing the ‘T’ insignia of the Tata group were designed to target and destroy Olive Ridley Turtles. Launched in July this year by activist group Greenpeace, the game was part of a campaign to protest the development of an 18′-deep port project at the mouth of the Dhamra river in Orissathe state is one of the largest nesting sites for Olive Ridley Turtles on the Bay of Bengal coast.
The Rs 3,200-crore first phase of the Dhamra Port project is now nearing completion, but for Greenpeace activist Ashish Fernandes this is far from the end of his environmental crusade. We dont have any objections to the development of ports, but the site of the Dhamra Port project (being developed by a joint venture of the hotels-to-cars Tata conglomerate and engineering major Larsen & Toubro) is critical from a biodiversity point of view, elaborates Fernandes. He adds the site is only 4 km from Bhitarkanika,which is home to a large population of saltwater crocodiles and a Mangrove ecosystem. Greenpeace is now protesting further expansion of the port at this site and the development of refineries, including those for oil and naphtha, at the site.
The ministry of environment and forests has this year refused second-stage clearance for bauxite mining in Niyamgiri, Orissa, to a Vedanta Group subsidiary; and the Supreme Court in February ordered the temporary closure of French company Lafarges limestone mining activities in Meghalaya. Home-grown Adani Group, too, was this year asked to take into account the livelihood of at least 10,000 fisherfolk while developing its waterfront development project at the Mundra Port Special Economic Zone. In July, environment minister Jairam Ramesh had asked the City and Industrial Development Corp for further clarifications on the proposed mangrove replantation in Dahanu, in lieu of the mangroves that would be cut down to develop an international airport at Navi Mumbai. Also, this year recommendations to widen a national highway running through the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh had caused Ramesh and roads minister Kamal Nath to spar. While the environment ministry is backing a Rs 900-crore project to build an elevated corridor through the protected area, the transport ministry is in favour of widening the existing 18-metre road to 30 metres.
Says Supreme Court advocate Sanjay Upadhyay: The mineral map, the tribal map, the poverty map and corporate interest often overlap in this country. Upadhyay, who also runs an environment-dedicated law firm, adds: It would actually make business sense for these groups launching multi-crore projects to know the law and comply. The process (of getting clearances and complying) does not always have to be adversarial.
Chandrajit Banerjee, director general, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), says: “Experience on ground shows environmental clearances can take eight-ten months, compared with the 210 days mandated under the 2006 EIA notification.”
But for Upadhyay, there is an even bigger issue at hand: the cumulative impact of violations by smaller-scale industry. He warns that while violations by or failure to get the requisite clearances on the part of ‘big fish’ such as Lafarge, Vedanta and the Adani Group have been highlighted, those by the smaller players largely go unnoticed by the media. He cites the example of illegal coal mining in South Garo Hills, Meghalaya.
So abundant is the commodity in the area that even rat-hole mining, or drilling holes anywhere in the land, reaps rich dividends. Locals also sometimes rent out their front porches as warehouses for contract miners. That the Balpakram National Parkhost to elephant and tiger populationsis a stones throw away is just an inconvenient truth.
Shilpa Chauhan, who has been practising environmental law for more than a decade, says at least 80% of the coal mined in this area, which under Schedule VI of the Constitution of India enjoys a certain degree of autonomy and is overlooked by the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council, makes its way to adjoining Bangladesh and the remaining travels north to Assam.
At the heart of the issue here are the very principles of ownership, and the right to trade in minerals. Chauhan elaborates, This is community-owned land, controlled by a council. But according to Indian law, any minerals extracted from the earth, even when it is from privately-owned property, belong to the government and cannot be mined without a lease or paying royalty to the government. Now all parties are waiting for the recommendations of the centrally-empowered committee constituted by the Supreme Court. It may not offer a solution to resolve all pending issues, but the precedence should be helpful.