Who will save Goa?

By Hartman de Souza
03 Oct 2010

Wild rush to mine Goa has almost ruined the once beautiful coastal state. Alarmed by the widespread destruction, citizen groups have come together to bring some sense to the government’s development planning, but politicians continue to give a hoot to their concerns for nature.

Goa has seen unparalleled exploitation of natural resources

While the Expert Panel appointed by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to look into the status of the Western Ghats had its day-long meeting at a conference hall in the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa on September 27, there is every likelihood that the strong attack launched by citizens' groups and others against the mining industry will be diluted if not waylaid.

At the outset it must be said that the possibility of this bleak outcome must be set against the major gain of this day, which was that Goa-based scientists, architects, writers, scholars and several citizens' groups formed a consortium of common interest that is sure to torment several Goan politicians who depend on mining to fill their coffers. This is not as far fetched as it may sound.

Many of these politicians have made billions through legal and illegal mining operations in Goa but in the process have killed innumerable forests, springs and aquifers of the state. Not to be left behind, the remaining netas have also bought huge tracts of agricultural land and forests, and now wait for the environmental clearances to come through. The story doesn't end here.

When some Goan economists claim that mining is the backbone of the economy, in reality they mean that either politicians and influential officials have turned mining barons or running companies that lease out mining machinery, or own a fleet of barges; or that every Goan official from Road Transport Officer to Police Inspector's level probably owns a few trucks to haul out the ore.

But to come back to the MoEF's Expert Panel that heard what Goans not dependent on mining had to say:
In a 100-minute presentation that drew the expected frowns from those in the industry, they set before the Expert Panel, perhaps for the first time in Goa, the most comprehensive and damning of cases against mining in Goa.

At least one of the panel members, Dr. V.S. Vijayan, a distinguished agricultural scientist, maintained that there should be a total moratorium on mining activities. He echoed Goan claims that a detailed social audit of the mining industry be the need of the day, and certainly not the Chief Minister's much flaunted 'new' Mineral Policy that was conceived to ensure the mining in Goa continues unabated. Lest it be forgotten citizens' groups have long been clamouring that regulations be honestly enforced, and that the extensive damage of earlier mining operations be repaired before any new activities are even contemplated.

Will this be the case? That is a moot point.
Professor Madhav Gadgil, an eminent scientist with the reputation to back him, while chairing the proceedings of the Expert panel admirably, appeared less than willing to disclose either his cards or his heart. He began the morning with a rather long-winded regurgitation of his past achievements in negotiating the terrain between the environment and that magical word, 'development'. However, considering his own admission that the Konkan Railway Corporation totally disregarded the changes he had painstakingly suggested, we may not have the most potent advocate for our magnificent Ghats.

While the morning session provided fact and figure by way of enlarged Google-generated maps, an exhibition of photographs of mining-devastated areas, elaborately marshalled writing, impassioned argument, and a dossier of all this in each panel members hands, the afternoon alas, was given to spin-doctoring.

In a power-point presentation redolent of fake public meetings in the mining areas, the industry's young representative, blissfully ignored figures and statistics given in the government's own Draft Regional Plan, and trotted out reasons that are both painful and false. According to them:
75 per cent of the state population is employed in the mining industry; major tax paying industry giving 25% of Goa's GDP; environmental measures will be taken care of by the new Mineral Policy; social programmes by way of bus stops and clinics and water tankers; planting five to six million trees every year.

Their solutions to the problem of mining in Goa are ridiculously simple and predictably enough, backed by the politicians. That illegal mining be curbed by government, that wider bypass roads be cut through forest lands for higher capacity carrying trucks with air-conditioned cabins. Right now ore from Karantaka coming into Goa has made life around the Anmod Ghat and below a living hell of trucks. The mining industry wants a railway in! As if on cue, a senior member of the industry reminded one and all that if the mining would stop, as it did in Kudremukh, it would fan a Naxalite movement!


In the discussion that followed, Professor Gadgil, before he left for a meeting with the Chief Minister, took pains to tell those concerned with the effects of mining to tone down their rhetoric and give suggestions that could improve the mining industry. While those in the industry opened their notebooks and duly took pen in hand, one trusts that both they and Professor Gadgil got an understanding of the only suggestion that was really made, namely, that a moratorium against mining be enforced and earlier leases cleared under false circumstances, be revoked.

Professor Gadgil perhaps, is not to know that nearly every single one of the Environment Impact Assessment studies mandatory for clearance have been fabricated by one Hyderabad-based laboratory with an office in Goa now; or how independent scientists who have scrutinised these have laughed at the pathetic job made of even fudging data, of 'Siberian salamanders' given home in Goa, or even, 'rivers of Gujarat' for that matter. Professor Gadgil is certainly not to know that the bulk of new clearances in the virgin foothills of Quepem and Sanguem were given by the MoEF panel headed by the infamous Dr. Majumdar, a scientist on the board of at least two mining and mining-related companies, who was then forced to resign. It is because of this obvious conflict of interest if not chicanery, that environmentalists, their lawyers and civil society ask that those earlier leases cleared, be revoked.

Whether one dwells on whether this destructive industry will be caught out or not, the scene perforce shifts to whether the Expert Panel, given their eminence and standing, are inclined to see the trees and water before the state and the central governments see the low grade ore beneath just waiting to be sent to China.

Too many intellectuals in Goa are now disturbed with the regularity that some scientists and environmentalists in Goa have shifted their allegiance to the mining industry, taking on board the myth that mining is the backbone of the Goan economy, and then, rationalizing this outrage in casuistry that would make even a Middle Ages monk blush with shame.
More @ http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1379

Theatre of the absurd

By Hartman de Souza
03 Sep 2010

Niyamgiri and its tribal inhabitants are saved, at least for the time being! But before we begin to sing praise of the government and its minders, isn't it prudent to review the actions and inactions of the same government which remained a mute spectator, even an active facilitator, while destruction of the Niyamgiri hill continued unabated for years?

Dongria Kondh tribals had to struggle for years to convince the world of their rights
Sorry for not breaking this news earlier.I am sure many of you already know it. I was travelling in Niyamgiri the last few days. Yes, Victory at last!! Niyam Raja, the Mountain God will not be harmed by the bauxite miners!! Many thanks to all of you for your support to the cause. The people are celebrating in Niyamgiri. Of course the battle is half won with Vedanta's monstrous refinery still active. Also Vedanta is eyeing other verdant hills in the region. Then justice is yet to be given to Arsi Majhi's family as well as Lado Sikaka. There are other threats as well like branding innocent tribals as Maoists. Then there is a pending case in a green court against Vedanta by the Dongria Kondh. So, we are yet to reach the final destination. But nevertheless, a great victory for all. More power to the people!

An activist writing on Facebook

In naming the behemoth he created Vedanta, harking to a brahminical sage who posited the outside world as being an illusion and as far from reality as Niyamgiri is from his mansion in London, Anil Agarwal plays a cruel joke on us. Not only is his mine, alumina refinery and smelter, ‘maya’, and, vedantically speaking, not there at all either for the Adivasi or misguided activists to see, equally deceptive is the satisfaction that he may have been thwarted in his quest to be the richest Indian on this terribly fragile and far from illusory planet.

Cynics of course now see the decision of the MoEF as little more than a superbly stage-managed spectacle intended to introduce to India and the world, a prince-in-waiting, or, as his party’s spin doctors will have us believe, a knight in shining armour rallying to the cause of this country’s largely ignored if not abused antipodal populations.

To those in tune with the skulduggery afoot, the high-minded posturing of Rahul Gandhi recalls a political cartoon of the 60s showing a well-heeled American tycoon, cigar in mouth, doling coin into the grateful hands of an impoverished African with his right hand while reaching out behind his back with his left hand, to loot a large bag marked with the dollar sign.

Out of decency one must ask whether public memory has become as short as day-old text messages. Whether this country has become so craven it will choose to delete the many anomalies that crop up in this seven year itch when Vedanta (and its beneficiaries) tried to bulldoze their way to the bauxite?

Vedanta’s seven year greed around Niyamgiri had three components, namely, the mining operations, the alumina refinery and the smelter. The refinery project at Lanjigarh was granted approval as far back as September 2004, in all likelihood with the willing consent or even behest of the PMO. There were serious violations in the clearance procedure, a fact challenged by at least three petitioners including the Wildlife Society of Orissa before the Central Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court. The same committee recommended that the environment clearance granted be revoked since it was based on misrepresentation and concealment of information, that the MoEF had granted undue favour to the project and had moreover, approved the project in haste. The MoEF (under D. Raja, now the infamous Telecom minister) opposed the recommendation and prayed to the Supreme Court that the project be approved since there would be no impact on either the tribal populations or wildlife.

Despite this damning report, the Supreme Court approved the clearances since the MoEF itself was keen that Niyamgiri be mined!

The plot now thickens: Vedanta’s smelter plant is located at Jharsuguda and construction on this also started prior to government clearance and approval. A petition to the National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA) the Delhi High Court saw a cost of 50,000 rupees imposed on Vedanta. But Vedanta’s case, argued by no less than Dr Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Congress M.P. and party’s senior spokesperson, went under the hammer in 2009, again, somewhat surprisingly, because the MoEF supported the projects, legal warts and all.

In early 2009 Rahul Gandhi had his dress rehearsal in Niyamgiri, promising the same Adivasi bussed in last week that he would not allow mining in Niyamgiri. While he flew off by helicopter to see how the Dalits in UP were faring, on April 28th 2009, the mining project at Niyamgiri was given its environmental clearances by the MoEF.

In June 2009, the clearances were challenged by 25 Adivasi and two other petitioners, including a reputed earth scientists, before the NEAA on the grounds, funnily enough, that Environment Impact Assessment reports (mandatory before any clearance) were prepared two years after the so called Public Hearing on the matter (another farce!).
Hearing for this case was held twice every month over a year and some, by which time Jairam Ramesh had already become the environment minister. Perhaps not fully clued in yet on his Blackberry, the minister maintained there was no need for a Public Hearing and that all environmental concerns were carefully considered. As late as May 2010 in fact, his ministry held before the NEAA that Niyamgiri had been approved after taking due diligence and that it was essential for the development of the area.

In a best case scenario, the MoEF can now only issue show-cause notices to Anil Agarwal and a host of other mining magnates in at least 10 other states. The show will go on. When, as some legal minds are saying, the anomalies may go all the way to the doors of the Supreme Court, fuelling hysterical rumours of suitcases of money changing hands in various cities and countries, where is the reason to smile or, at the very least, believe that justice will prevail?


Moreover, for all the roses thrown at his feet, one must not forget this minister's prevarications, irritability with straight questions, and indeed arrogance when conducting public hearings over the infamous BT brinjals...or the fact that his government and him chose to wilfully ignore the repeated telecast of farmers in Andhra Pradesh (before they were taken off the air) who had already grown the damn brinjals and were proudly thrusting them up to the cameras at the hearing in Hyderabad! Who gave them the seeds pray and why has no one been brought to book?
On the other side is still the Posco project, guilty of violating the laws but now expected to be cleared by the PM himself, the fundamental reason of course, above any law of the land, and certainly above public opinion, is that high-growth-rate India should not frighten away foreign investment with something as petty as environmental 'intransigence'.

Before we pat ourselves on the backs and pop out the corks, there's also the matter of a dam in Andhra Pradesh and the Adivasis there soon to have water flowing above their noses. There's Sterlite in Tuticorin, where, a week or so back, in collusion with the police, activists protesting the project were arrested and detained. There's still Coca Cola in Kerala, contesting a decision that the world and its mother knows went against the company? There's the farcical situation of Goa, where no one, not even the most ardent activists can tell you exactly which mine is legal and which is not, such the legal skulduggery at work, such the impressive technique of throwing activists to the mercy of wolves in the courts.

But then, why should this information be made easily available when you have provision for the RTI, a state-sponsored device intended to keep you from the truth as long as it takes to have illegalities brought within the ambit of the law. In Goa there are over 400 illegal stone-quarrying businesses, but since politicians and their functionaries have a hand in this trade, the government in Goa now proposes to make these quarries legal! They will do this in a court, thumbing their noses at us…
Isn't this the bottom line? Robber barons doling out the money and starting the work, knowing full well the machinery will be put in place to grant them the necessary clearances...

To read more, follow the link :http://www.d-sector.org/article-det.asp?id=1357

Revenue rules over rights

By Hartman de Souza
12 Jul 2010

Environment ministry of India says the Dongria Kondh tribals are threatened by the proposed Niyamgiri mine in Orissa. Yet, Prime Minister's office is keen to grant it approval. Do these poor tribals not qualify as being people under the constitution?

It is now common news that the office of the Prime Minister has written to the Environment and Forests Ministry asking it to clear Vedanta's proposed Niyamgiri mine in Orissa. An agency report quotes an Adivasi, a Dongria Kondh tribal, from the area telling Survival International that the mining of ore only makes profit for the rich and that his people will be reduced to being beggars if the company destroys their mountain and forest for mining.

His words parallel a report commissioned by the Environment Ministry to investigate Vedanta's plan earlier this year that warned that the Niyamgiri mine could 'lead to the destruction of the Dongria Kondh people'.

The Ministry on its part appointed yet another team of experts to conduct further investigations, before making a decision on granting official clearance urging it to report back by the 29th July - the day after London-based billionaire Anil Agarwal's FTSE100 company Vedanta holds its Annual General Meeting in London. The expert team will investigate the mine's potential 'impact on the livelihood, culture and material welfare of the Dongaria Kondh' and its 'impact on the Wildlife and Biodiversity in the surrounding areas' as if the world and its mother did not already know.
One suspects the position that may be taken by the new expert panel thanks to a diktat from a GDP growth rate-obsessed Government or, for that matter, by a new cash-strapped government in the UK. Just last year the then UK government condemned Vedanta, declaring that it 'did not respect the rights of the Dongria Kondh' and that a 'change in the company's behaviour [is] essential.'

Not to be left out of the critique, the Church of England, the Norwegian government and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust were among the high-profile investors that sold their Vedanta shares over serious human rights concerns, and as Survival's director Stephen Corry rightly noted: India's Prime Minister "ought to be protecting the rights of India's most vulnerable citizens, not helping to railroad through a project that government experts have warned could destroy them".

Even as this is being written, the Dutch Asset management firm, PGGM has disinvested its €13m stake in Vedanta Resources, including its subsidiaries Sterlite Industries, Hindustan Zinc and Sesa Goa citing the company for "persistently ignoring environment and human rights. The firm which manages the €91billion healthcare scheme PFZW, said it had exchanged letters and held numerous talks with the company over the last two years regarding its mining activities in Orissa, but that the company made no concrete improvements. It further noted Vedanta's refusal to co-operate on environmental and human rights issues had increasingly put the company's reputation at risk, which, PGGM felt, translated into a financial risk.
Perhaps most damning is that Vedanta declined to participate in a roundtable meeting with experts - initiated by the group of investors - to discuss possible solutions for problems in Orissa.

Through all this, one must perforce ask why the Prime Minister's office is determined on bringing this company to our Adivasi lands. Does this population of ours left dangling at the antipodes all these years not qualify as being people under the constitution? Our English TV Channels in Delhi covering the problems in our eastern Ghats are quick to refer to the misdirected Naxalites as 'butchers' although there are some facts, courtesy publications of the Centre for Science and Environment, that they ought to engage with:
Mining royalties in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand contribute only 10 to 13 percent of total revenue receipts; in Orissa it is 5 to 6 per cent; in Andhra 3 per cent. Is there reason to suspect that the Adivasis are angry at losing their livelihoods?
In 1995 to produce 1 crore tonnes of ore, the mining industry employed 25 people, in 2005 this number dropped to 8, a decrease of 70 per cent. Where will the jobs come from? As there is no comprehensive date on people displaced by mining, available data suggests less than 25 per cent have been actually looked after.

For every armed Adivasi there may be close to 10 armed government personnel. In the same areas the average landholding is less than half a hectare and perhaps one drinking water source for 1,000 Adivasis. It makes one wonder what is really more obscene: a reluctant Adivasi with an AK 47 in his or her hand, or bulldozers taking away sacred shrines, forests and traditional water sources at the behest of a mining baron who probably doesn't even know what Adivasi means or stands for.