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?
Niyamgiri mountains: Pillaging the biosphereEnvironment 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?
posted by Debabrata at 12:28 AM
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