Google Satellite map of mines in Keonjhar

Orissa's environment is severely threatened by large-scale mining activities that are expected to intensify in coming years. Forty-three steel plants are poised to come up in Orissa, which will require over 2300 million tonnes of iron ore in the next 25 years. Stee and mines department officials say a few more steel MoUs are in the pipeline. Most of the iron ore mines are concentrated in Keonjhar and adjacent Sundargarh districts. Environmentalists are now up in arms against the large-scale mining of iron in Keonjhar district as it would pollute the Baitarani River, the lifeline of Keonjhar. EPGOrissa pinged me the following pictures of Keonjhar mines as scanned by Google Earth satellite.



Posco has sought allocation of Thakurani mines.

As the iron ore mines(brick red areas) expand, the forest covers shrink.

Scarred by mines...

Environment-a dirty word?

Niyamgiri mountains: Pillaging the biosphere


Environment has always been a dirty word for governments. Successive governments have viewed it as a bottleneck that stops development. Governments have always been in the forefront of all environmental law violations. Hundreds of acres of forest have been pillaged and forest areas denotified all in the name of development.

Well-known environmental activist, Nityanand Jayaraman, in his excellent essay on unfair practices of Vedanta is spot-on about how industrial houses like Vedanta flout laws in their hunt for maga bucks:

The formula for violating laws is simple: If you want to construct an illegal factory, just do it quick, make it big, and ensure that the investment is substantial. A March 2005 cartoon in Business India sums up the business strategy of UK-based mining giant Vedanta/Sterlite’s founder-cum-boss Anil Agarwal. The cartoon depicts a corpulent Agarwal squeezing himself through an hour-glass saying, “In India, you must have patience. Everything will come through.” The London-based billionaire’s analysis of India is frighteningly accurate. Indeed, it is borne out by the fact that big business houses are constructing and operating mines and factories in blatant violation of laws.

Of course, the likes of Vedanta are being aided and abetted by the governments of the day-in Orissa it is the Naveen Patnaik government. With price of aluminium going up on London Metal Exchange, Anil Agarwal zeroed in Lanjigarh village of Kalahandi district for his one million tonne alumina refinery. Like all corporate houses mouthing their well-rehearsed sentences on putting underdeveloped areas on the path of progress, Vedanta also did the same and had the Orissa government falling for it hook, line and sinker.


But look at the present and clear danger. Once the company starts mining bauxite(the ore for aluminium) from the adjacent Niyamgiri hills, it would mean the extinction of the hundreds of animals like sloth bear, pangolin, palm civet, giant squirrel, golden gecko, the last population of Travancore wolf snake, bamboo pit viper and langur. And just think what it would do to the Dongaria Kondhs, one of the distinctive tribes of the State that has a population of less than 8000. Once Vedanta is allowed to rip through the plateu top of the bauxite-rich Niyamgiri hills it would mean surefire extinction of the tribals, who can't live anywhere other than the mountain slopes.


Even though the Centrally Empowered Committee of the Supreme Court in its 89-page report has categorically said that the company should look for alternative bauxite sites the State government wants to move a fresh petition against the CEC orders. I just wonder if the government is for the big ticket industrialists intent on pillaging the natural resources or its hapless citizens?

BBC Wildife pictures

Every year, the BBC Wildlife Magazine and the Natural History Museum organises the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards. This year, the award was won by Italian Manuel Presti for his stunning photograph of a flock of starlings evading the attack of a Peregrine Falcon. My personal favourite though is the image by Martyn Colbeck of a herd of elephants shot against the backdrop of the beautiful Mount Killimanjaro.