Appeasing Tribal Land for Discriminating Development: An Indian Perspective

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Appeasing Tribal Land for Discriminating Development: An Indian Perspective

A S Chaudhuri

Abstact

The creation of economic institutions that can function well under the impact of substantial risks is analogous to the dilemmas confronting in the face of large-scale ecolog-ical uncertainties. The ultimate solution was not the development of technology that could ride out repeated catastrophe, but rather the invention culturally-adapted ecosystems constructed so as to maximize food yield and minimize risks of famine and adherence to human development indices. Ecosystems permitted a transition to village, city, and larger scale human communities. From that perspective, our current boom-and-bust `globalized' economic structure might be seen as primitive indeed, and may not permit long-term maintenance of current levels of human population, with all that implies. Recent advances in evolutionary theory applied to economic structure and process may permit construction of both new economic theory and new tools for data analysis that can help in the design of more robust economic policies and practices, resulting in less frequent and less disruptive transitions, and enabling as well the designing of institutions that are, in turn, less disrupted. In brief this article deals with the dynamics of social entities of appeasing tribal land for discriminating development. A central and repeated feature of this work, however, is a cognitive paradigm with the embedding environment, producing a complicated intermeshing that confounds simple compartmentalizations of human endeavours.

1.0 Introduction

American Indian, Chief Seattle, wrote to President Franklin Pierce in 1854. “How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?” After a long history, Chief Seattle got his answer. Through the adoption of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the United Nations marks a major victory towards developing and establishing international human rights standards for Indigenous Peoples who actively took

part in crafting this Declaration. The 13th

of September 2007 will be remembered as an international human rights day for the Indigenous Peoples of the world, a day that the United Nations and its Member States, together with Indigenous Peoples, acquiescent with past painful histories and decided to march into the future on the path of human rights. Indigenous peoples along with the tribals in India around the world shared a common situation of loss of control of lands, territories and resources. The Declaration gives the Indigenous Peoples a guarantee that their rights to self determination, to their lands and territories, to their cultural identities, to their own representation and to their values and beliefs will be respected at the international level. The Declaration is a framework for States to link and integrate with the Indigenous Peoples, to

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initiate new and positive relations without exclusion, without discrimination and without exploitation. The rights in the Declaration are recognised in international law, but often the rights have been denied to Indigenous Peoples everywhere, India is no exception. The rights are seen by Indigenous Peoples as essential to their successful survival, dignity and well-being, and to maintain their strong cultural and spiritual relationship with mother earth and nature. It has, after all, been their determination to defend their identity and their lands, territories and resources which have helped to protect and preserve the biological diversity, the cultural diversity, and the environmental stability. The Declaration includes Indigenous Peoples’ right to freely manage their natural wealth and resources for mutual benefit, and their right to maintain and protect their own means of subsistence. 'Free, prior and informed consent' is what the Indigenous People demand as part of self-determination and non-discrimination from governments, multinationals and private sector. The indigenous peoples have suffered from historic injustices as a result of dispossession of their lands, territories and resources, thus preventing them from exercising, in particular, their right to development in accordance with their own needs and interests.

2.0 Tribals or Adivasis in India - ‘encroachers’ on their ancestral lands

Millions of adivasis or those belonging to the scheduled tribes have been denied their rights and access to natural resources, especially forests, whose products made up the chief source of their livelihood. Where they have not been labelled as encroachers and arbitrarily evicted, adivasis have also contributed to the ranks of people displaced by development projects. In the name of environment and wildlife protection the historical injustice has been committed to India’s tribal communities while the Constitution provides for environmental protection, it also binds the state to safeguard the resource rights, cultural traditions and well-being of its vulnerable tribal communities. Given the spatial overlap between tribal and forest areas, enforcing an alien exclusionary approach to conservation has led to a grave crisis in the countryside. Millions of adivasis have been deprived of access to their livelihood resource base, threatening their right to life itself.

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Very Dense Forest

Mangroves

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Moderately Dense Forest

Open Forest

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2.1 Coercive Laws

Although Schedule V of the Constitution provides for withholding laws considered detrimental to tribals from Scheduled Areas, the state extended all the coercive laws to them and became the biggest violator of the spirit of the Constitution by ‘vesting’ huge areas of tribal lands in itself as state ‘forests’.

Between 1951 and 1988, the colonial Indian Forest Act (IFA), 1927, was used to enlarge the ‘national’ forest estate by another 26 million hectares (from 41 to 67 mha). Based on unreliable paper records, the non-private lands of ex-princely states and zamindars were declared state forests largely through blanket notifications without surveying their vegetation/ecological status or recognising the rights of preexisting occupants and users as required by law. Tribal areas, due to poor recording of adivasis’ customary rights, bore the brunt of this the state-controlling spree. Sixty per cent of ‘state’ forests today are concentrated in 187 tribal districts confined to only one-third of the country. While zamindari abolition freed tenants in the plains from landlord oppression, in hilly forested areas it threw millions of forest dwellers into the clutches of a far more oppressive zamindar – the forest department which today controls 23 per cent of the country’s territory. Large numbers of the most vulnerable scheduled tribes (STs) were disenfranchised of their customary resource rights without even their knowledge and labelled ‘encroachers’ on their ancestral lands. That even 64 years after independence many of these areas are yet to be surveyed, and rights of their preexisting occupants recognised, is a reflection of the poor state of the country’s governance and the total unaccountability of the state to its most vulnerable citizens. The forest department (FD) converted an estimated 3,500 to 5,000 ‘forest villages’ to revenue villages. These villages were created by FDs themselves in the past for ensuring availability of boned labour for forestry operations, to revenue villages. On paper, their land is ‘forest’, on the ground, these are legally constituted villages whose residents have no titles to their land, cannot obtain domicile certificates or benefit from social welfare programmes as other departments cannot work on ‘forest’ land and remain at the FD’s mercy for most needs. Millions have remained trapped in a semi-state of non-citizenship ever vulnerable to brutal evictions and displacement without any compensation. Not surprisingly, all such forest dwellers have become equated with ‘encroachers’ in the public mind. 3.0 Minerals, Mining, Tribals, Poverty, Malnutrition and Hunger

Conventional wisdom and geological evidence suggest that India is richly endowed with mineral resources. Explorations have found over 20,000 known mineral deposits and recoverable reserves of more than 60 minerals. 1 states account for 90 % of the total number of operational mines (Andhra Pradesh, Orrisa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Karnataka). If India’s forests, mineral-bearing areas, regions of tribal habitation and watersheds are all mapped together, a startling fact emerges – the country’s major mineral reserves lie under its richest forests and in the watersheds of its key rivers. These lands are also the homes of India’s poorest people, its tribals.

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3.1 Mining is linked with poverty, poor development outcomes and low economic

performance

The mining industry has been hard-selling dreams – of development, employment and growth. But, things appear to be different. Mining is linked with poverty, poor development outcomes and low economic performance. Of the 50 major mining districts, 60% figure among the 150 most backward districts of the country. Mining-dependant states such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa, demonstrate low per capita incomes as compared to states which do not depend completely on their mineral wealth (examples include Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Gujarat). Mineral-dependent states also have higher levels of poverty, lower growth rates and higher levels of mortality, malnutrition and morbidity.

Singrauli, on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, which is also called the power hub of India, is facing the ill effects of coal mining for the last 35 years. Residents of the area have been living in pathetic conditions. At Singrauli the tribal community is living in the shadow of coal mine burdens, with coal dust everywhere. They have given up their land for power that doesn’t reach them, and now have no reliable livelihood and their health has been ruined. This cannot be called development. The state continues to ignore the impact of such a large scale ravaging of the land and people without addressing their rights and pushing the environment to limits. The people living in Singrauli have multiple health problems like tuberculosis, skin diseases, polio, joint pains and many instances of sudden drop in energy and ability to carry out normal activity. The different mining and industrial operations have decimated village life but none of them have taken responsibility to mitigate the health impact or provide healthcare and basic facilities.

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3.2 Mining creates a massive dip in employment

Mining means progress: so believe the Indian government and industry. Mining would bring jobs, and jobs would usher in prosperity. However, mining offers fewer jobs now, with small-scale and public sector mining, both mass employers, systematically being replaced with large-scale, privately-owned, mechanised mines. This has led to a massive dip in employment. The formal mining industry in India employs just 5.6 lakh people and this number is coming down. Between 1991 and 2004, the number of people employed in mining came down by 30%, but the value of mineral production went up four times.

1994–95: 25 employed to produce minerals worth Rs. 1 crore

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2003–04: Only 8 employed to produce minerals worth Rs. 1 crore

= Employment potential of the sector decreased by about 70% in 9 years

Almost 3/4th of the total employed in mining are on the payroll of coal companies (mainly public sector). Jharkhand alone accounts for one-fourth of the total people employed in mining in India.

3.3 Forest degradation

• Most mining districts have more than 30% of their area under forest 1998-2005: Each year, the number of forest clearances granted to allow for mining averaged 216. This, despite the strict Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

• 1980-1997: 19 clearances granted per year 1995-2005: About 74,000 ha of forest land has been diverted for mining Average forest cover of the 50 major mineral producing districts is 28 per cent. The national average of forest cover in each state is 20.6%.

Tribals live in almost half of the 50 mineral-producing districts From 1951 to 1990 - 2.5 million (52% tribals) people displaced by mining projects Naxalism-affected area has now spread to 40% of the mineral-rich districts in the top six mineral-producing states.

3.4 Pollution, waste In 2006 - 1.84 billion tonnes of waste was generated from mining of major minerals 80% of total waste generated is from coal mining. 3-4 tonnes of wastes is generated for every tonne of coal extracted. 64% of abandoned mines in case of large-scale captive limestone mines are used for water storage. 80% of total mining accidents are from coal mines.

4.0 In focus: The mining industry

Globally, the mining industry is in boom time. World prices of minerals, ores and metals have soared to record levels, a trend that began in 2002 with unprecedented demand from China. In 2006 alone, global prices of all minerals skyrocketed up 48%. 2002-2005: Index of world prices of minerals, ores and metals doubles (price of iron ore increased by 118%; copper up by 136%; lead 116%; and aluminum by 41%).

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Indian mining is characterised by a large number of small mines, dominated by the public sector, which accounts for 75% of the total value of mineral production. Mining policy is pushing the industry to move toward privately owned, large-scale, mechanised mines. Foreign direct investors and multinational mining companies are being welcomed.After services and manufacturing, the mineral sector in India is fast emerging as the next boom sector, with the burgeoning Chinese demand driving up prices. In India, the value of mineral production has more than tripled since the sector was ‘liberalised’, from about Rs 25,000 crore in 1993-94 to more than Rs 84,000 crore in 2005-06, an astounding growth rate of 10.7%. Production of coal, lignite, natural gas, bauxite, chromite, iron ore and limestone has been ramped up.In 2003-04, India exported minerals worth Rs 49,911 crore (17% of the total value merchandised out of India). India’s exports of ores and minerals went up by 42% between 2001-02 and 2003-04; an increase mainly due to the rise in exports of cut diamonds and (76% of value of total minerals exported) and iron ore (10.5% of the value), the key minerals exported from India. However, mining’s contribution to the nation’s GDP is stagnating at a mere 2.2-2.5% for more than a decade now. The sector contributes very little to the exchequer through royalties and taxes -- minerals are cheap, and royalties low. Also, royalties are rarely used for the benefit of the mined regions.India produced 90 minerals in 2005-06, valued at an estimated Rs 84,211 crore. Fuel minerals – coal, lignite, crude petroleum & natural gas – constitute about 73% of the total value of minerals produced in the country. However, the contribution of fuel minerals is steadily dipping over the years. Metallic minerals are the next biggest contributors to the total value of minerals, and are the fastest growing segment of the mineral industry in India, with a compounded annual growth rate of 30%, among the highest in the world. Iron ore alone contributes three-fourth of the total value. Minor minerals, mainly sand, gravel, brick, earth and stone, are also important contributors (about 10% of the value of minerals produced in the country, although data is difficult to come by). Non-metallic minerals are minor players in the Indian minerals sector in terms of value, though they are big both in terms of area under mining and volume of minerals produced; their contribution to the value of total minerals produced in the country has remained at about 3.3 to 3.4% in the last few years. Limestone constitutes about two-thirds

4.1 Tribals and Vedanta project for bauxite mining in Orissa’s Niyamgiri hills The Vedanta mining project in the Niyamgiri hills is in the infamous hunger-death district of Kalahandi in Orissa. Tribal activists and green groups last August celebrated the landmark decision by environment ministry to stop British mining giant Vedanta Resources Plc’s move to mine bauxite in the hills of Orissa where about 8,000 people of two endangered tribes live.

Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh’s announcement was preceded by a stinging indictment of London-listed Vedanta by a four-member government-appointed panel which said that allowing the firm to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills, considered sacred by the indigenous people, would be betraying the tribal faith. Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh said, “There has been a very serious violation of laws. There has been violation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006, Environment Protection Act, 1966 and Forest Conservation Act, 1980. Therefore, the project cannot go ahead.”

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Environmentalists and local Adivasis point out that the mining project will throw hundreds of tribals living away from and within Niyamgiri into an uncertain future as well, causing irreversible damage to the local ecology. Sterlite, a subsidiary of Vedanta in 2006 built a refinery in the Niyamgiri hills, a reserved forest, with the intention of mining bauxite. The place is home to the indigenous Dongaria-Kondh tribes who are dependent on it for their livelihood. Niyamgiri is also the source of two rivers, the Bansadhara and Nagaballi. The refinery consumes 30,000 cubic metres of water per day, severely affecting access to water in the area. The toxic waste material from the refinery pollutes the air, ground and water too. The Rs 10,000-crore project was cleared with the full backing of the Orissa government, flouting environmental laws. Local, national and international groups garnered support and decided to fight to stall the project to protect the tribals whose ancestors have taken care and protected this eco-system for millions of years.

The Vedanta project had already appropriated 26 hectares of 660 acres of village land, in gross violation of the Community Claims Provision of the Forest Rights Act, 2006. If the lease were to get going, it would result in the cutting down of 120,000 trees and 330,000 shrubs, herbal plants. The project will destroy the rich wildlife comprising animals like the four-horned antelope, barking deer, spotted deer and the near-extinct species of gecko lizards which fall under Schedule I of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. The 36 streams that flow directly out of the two rivers are likely to dry up. Around 8,000 Dongria Kondh Adivasis, a Primitive Tribal Group notified under the Union government, would have been affected by Vedanta’s mining project. The people have lived and worked here for thousands of years. The bright colours in the lives of the indigenous groups whose entire life,culture and religion depend on and are determined by the Niyamgiri hills. The ritual of worshipping nature with songs to the beat of drums reverberates the lives of the tribals in a world of their own. Aluminum is obtained from bauxite. It takes millions of years to form bauxite-ore. It has been seen that wherever bauxite is found, the eco-system is very rich. A high percentage of the aluminum output, an estimated 30 per cent, goes to the arms industry.

Niyamgiri is an ecologically sensitive area. The work so far of the project has had serious effects on the health of the locals. Waste dumped in the ponds and land include effluents that are toxic, filled with heavy chemicals and are also radioactive. There is hope at the end of the dark tunnel. As the momentum against Vedanta began to escalate and gather strength from local, national and international corners, on 24 August 2010, based on the findings of the Forest Advisory Committee highlighting improper practices, including manipulation and use of coercion, the government rejected the company’s bauxite mining proposal and initiated further investigations into project discrepancies. The tribals — the forests, rivers, and streams – an eco-system basically wants to breathe undisturbed. It is a question of survival.

4.2 “The land doesn’t belong to us. We belong to the land” - assertion of a tribal

Victims of political intrigue and ‘green’ procedures launched in ignorance of an Act that guarantees their rights, tribals finds themselves reduced to a pitiful non-entity. Kanchan Bhokta

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became famous overnight. Several newspapers flashed his name after he was arrested on the suspicion of being a Maoist in the course of a raid carried out by joint forces in the jungles of Lokhiasole in West Midnapore early one morning. Beaten up and paraded in the village with a rope tied around his waist, he was to be produced in the court. That was the last Laxmi, his wife, saw of him. His fault? He’d gone to the forest to relieve himself. The draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention (Amendment) Act 2008 has turned the tribals of West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura into fugitives. Apart from the daily grind to make ends meet, the threat of arrest on false pretexts has robbed them of the right to claim what has always been their own. In 2006, the UPA government passed the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. It provides for recognising 13 different rights that are central to the livelihood of tribals and other traditional forest-dwellers across the country. But on Maoist turf, each and every amenity rolled out by the government is politicised. The Forest Rights Act ~ the first genuine attempt to reverse the wrongs perpetrated by British colonial rule that destroyed those who had preserved the rich ecosystem for centuries together has also been reduced to an instrument of political leverage. According to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, India has 2,474 forest villages (the majority of these are spread over total number significantly larger. The NC Saxena Committee found that in Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Maharashtra proper surveys of forest villages had not been carried out and their inhabitants were being denied the benefits of the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

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Tribal Regions in Pink Colour

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Mineral Resources

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Since the tribals have to venture deep into the forests to collect minor forest produce (MFP), they are subjected to frequent harassment by Maoists who use the deep forests to take cover. If that wasn’t enough, they are also beaten up by police bent on extracting information about Maoist hideouts. What has hurt the traditional forest dwellers most is the rampant destruction of forest cover. When Mr Jairam Ramesh was the Union environment minister, he said that fixing a minimum support price (MSP) for minor forest produce such as bamboo and tendu or kendu leaves would wean away tribals from Maoists as it would give them more economic independence. He said an MSP would put an end to the widespread exploitation of tribals. Mr Ramesh said that since the educational and economic interests of the tribals fell in the purview of Schedule V of the Constitution, the Centre had the power to step in and introduce MSP for minor forest produce. In West Bengal, survey of land and demarcation of boundaries is currently done by district-level committees and not the local gram sabha/forest rights committee as mandated by the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. This practice, which has no basis in law, lends itself to massive manipulation and denial of rights to the traditional forest dwellers of India. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 may be one of the most democratic legislations in post-Independence India but its implementation leaves much to be desired. Anthropologists say that there are 27 sets of relationships between a forest and a man and this was simplified by 57-year-old Rani Lodha, a saal leaf collector in Ambisole of West Midnapore of West Bengal . When asked whether she had land rights, she replied: “What’s that? That’s not for us. The land doesn’t belong to us. We belong to the land.” Forests in India have always been a home to one sect or the other, one tribe or the other. The tribals and forest dwellers worship the forest and depend on forest produce. The land is like a mother to them and they would be the last to harm it. Their livelihood depends on sustainable use of resources and they know its indispensability. They hold the bond so sacrosanct that they not believe in the concept of land rights as their cultural sensibilities hold that the need for a legal paper must arise out of mistrust. But such sentiments are obviously not honoured and many a time they find the land they have been tending for ages claimed by some prominent man in the village ~ a fellow tribal or the flagbearer of the party in power.

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Mining in Bellary

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Protest against land acquisition for Vedanta and Posco

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The Sardar Sarovar Dam: Tribal Land Submerged

4.3 "systemic failure" to the upliftment of primitive tribal group(PTG)

The governments at the state level have failed to give the Adivasi people, the poorest of the poor in India, their legitimate due. The tribal rights law enacted in 2006, to protect the land and forest-based resources of the tribal people has hardly been implemented. The Prime Minister admitted as much when he spoke of a "systemic failure" in giving the tribals a stake in the ongoing process of economic liberalisation, in his address to the chief ministers and state ministers for tribal affairs, in New Delhi on 4 November 2009. The exploitation of mineral resources in the Adivasi belt is central to the struggle for the control of the areas. This is clear from the ongoing tribal movements in Orissa. The Maoists have exploited the issue to gain people's confidence both tribal and non-tribal. The CPI(Maoist) document of 12 June 2009 argues that the government is planning to hand over the entire region to the comprador big business: the Tatas in Lohandiguda, Essar in Dhruli, the NMDC's proposed steel plants in Nagarnaar, the Rooghat mines and the Bodhghat projects. Illegal mining in

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Orissa has reached such a level that in October 2009, the government decided to reward those who would provide information for detection and seizure of illegally mined goods. It is indeed a telling commentary on India's skewed development policies that while it boasted of 7-8 per cent GDP growth rates over the past few years (prior to the global economic recession), the same period also witnessed the widening of the gulf between the rich and the poor. According to a report published in The Statesman (28 November 2009), when the UPA came to power, there were nine millionaires (in terms of dollars) in India, the number rose to 53 in 2008. During the same period, the corporate houses trebled their assets, and the number of crore-pati MPs doubled in the Lok Sabha.

4.3.1 Vulgarly rich and the PTG

The salaries earned by the CEOs of leading private sector banks and MNCs ~ anywhere between Rs 1.96 crores and Rs 2.44 crores for the three leading private sector banks ~ make them vulgarly rich when placed against the existential reality of 836 million Indians surviving on less than Rs 20 per day. When it comes to the question of exploitation of the poor, all political parties are at fault. This is evident from the Vedic Village episode in Kolkata. It revealed the nexus that exists between a section of political leaders and the land mafia, acting with the connivance of some officials of the state government.

Residence Antilia of businessman Mukesh Ambani with multiple swimming pools on multi rise building and a helipad on the top for helicopter landing makes this building a unique and very rich place to be, specially with respect to Mumbai. Tina Ambani and Mukesh Ambani are the Queen and King of the modern world.

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Mukesh Ambani new house ANTILIA at Sea Wind,Cuff Parade

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5.0 Forced clearance of Posco, Scam Larger Than Spectrum In The Making

Jairam Ramesh, as the Union minister of state for environment and forest granted the final forest clearance to Posco’s Rs 54,000-crore 12 million tonne integrated steel plant near Paradip in Orissa. ignoring resolutions passed by the gram sabhas of Dhinkia and Gobindapur that the Orissa government had failed to implement the Forest Rights Act, which promises tribals and other forest dwellers legal land rights. The enquiry committee appointed ministry of environment and forest had described the project as an “environmental disaster in the making”. The Indian Council for Social Development in its summary report on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act has said: “All the key features of Forest Rights Act have been undermined by a combination of apathy and sabotage during the process of implementation. Unless immediate remedial measures are taken, instead of undoing the historical injustice to tribal and other traditional forest dwellers, the Act will have the opposite outcome of making them even more vulnerable to eviction and denial of their customary access to forests. The testimonies made it clear that this is not merely a result of bureaucratic failure; both the Central and the State governments have actively pursued policies that are in direct violation of the Act.”

5.1 Posco’s impact on biodiversity

The project is said to bring prosperity and well-being to the people of Orissa through industrialisation based on exploitation of its natural resources and the UPA government is committed to remove all hurdles on its path. Coming up on 1,620 hectares of land spread over eight villages in Jagatsinghpur district, 1,253 hectares is forest land. A South Korean multi-national corporation, the Posco steel plant will have the combined capacity of Bhilai, Bokaro, Durgapur, Rourkela, Burnpur and Salem steel plants. Unmindful of the project’s irreversible and widespread social, environmental and ecological consequences, the Centre and the state government rushed through clearances. The Orissa government suppressed the fact that the area was home to about 4,000 tribal families comprising more than 20,000 members. Instead of certificates from gram sabhas, as required under the Forest Rights Act, certificates from the district magistrate were relied on while granting clearance. Instead of treating this massive project as a whole, it was broken up into smaller units for purposes of granting clearance. The steel mill is treated as three separate ones of four million tones each. The captive port, to come up at the ecologically sensitive Jatadhar creek, was fraudulently termed “minor” whereas it will be larger than the largest port in the country with a capacity to berth Capesize 170,000 DTW capacity ships 280 m in length. This would require 12 km channels and massive sea walls. The creek is an important nesting site for the endangered Olive Ridley turtles. 5.2 Posco’s impact on Coastal Regulation Zones

Steel plants are not permitted in areas coming under Coastal Regulation Zones. A National Institute of Oceanography study, commissioned by Posco itself, found the plant falls within such zones. The plant will be constructed in an area raised by five metres by dumping millions of tonnes of sand dredged from the sea to protect it from supercyclones like the one that lashed Orissa coast in 1999 with wind speeds of 260 kmph and waves 5.6 m high in which nearly 15,000 people perished. The dredging is bound to increase vulnerability of surrounding areas. A road on stilts, a concrete structure 18 ft high and 80 ft wide, has been added to the CRZ draft

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notification which has the potential to devastate the coastline by opening it up to huge construction and real estate development. What has not been revealed so far in this joint venture is the attempt to short-sell India’s natural resources to corporate moneybags helping them to minerals worth $50 billion in collusion with corrupt politicians and bureaucrats. 5.3 Posco’s gain is loss to the nation

Posco needs 600 million tonnes of iron ore for a capacity of 12 million tonnes of steel per annum. The current international price of iron ore is about Rs5,000 per tonne and is likely to go much higher in the next 30 to 50 years. The cost of mining, transport, cess, duties and royalty works out to about Rs 1,000 per tonne which means the cost comes to Rs 60,000 crore for 600 million tones. The profit on iron ore alone after meeting all costs will be Rs 240,000 crore per annum. Posco’s gain is loss to the nation. The project is to produce 12 million tonnes of steel per annum for 30 years with an option to renew for another 20 years. Hot rolled steel coil sells for Rs 30,000 per tonne and has a margin of about Rs 10,000 per tonne. The value addition almost doubles the profit. Posco would bring foreign capital of Rs 54,000 crore, spread over a nine-year period. Steel is a decontrolled item and does not figure in the list of essential commodities. Giving valuable iron ore virtually free to the Korean MNC and making the Indian consumer pay international price for the finished product may be Manmohanomics socialism the UPA wants to usher in to scale new heights in corruption.

A Tribal Family in Orissa

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Tribal Family of Bastar

5.4 The biggest losers of Bellary

Karnataka contributes about one-fourth of the country’s annual iron production, which is 245 million tonnes. Sixty per cent of this comes from Bellary district, which has 124 mines, most of these within the forest area. The frenzy to extract iron ore started in 1999 and with it began the saga of an unholy collusion between the political class and the mining and steel industries. Joining hands, they gifted new leases and renewed defunct ones. Largescale mining led to massive environmental destruction. The report the Lokayukta of Karnataka detailed the irregularities committed in granting mining leases, mining, stacking, transporting, trading and exporting the iron ore. Numerous cases of illegal activities were also found — that of mining without lease or after expiry of lease period, encroachment of forests and even others’ mines, transporting ore without permits or with fake permits, overloading trucks, under-invoicing and benami transactions. Over the past decade, the forest around Bellary has been destroyed by mining companies. The Central Empowered Committee, advisor to the Supreme Court of India on issues pertaining to forest diversions, says nearly 45 per cent of the green cover around Bellary may have been lost. The recorded forest area was 138,000 hectares, but in 2009 the Forest Survey of India could find only 77,200 hectares under forest cover. Of this, 11,000 hectares comprised moderately dense forests and the rest was regarded as degraded. “As a result of mining and associated activities,

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what was once an area with green, scenic, undulating hilly terrain, today presents a barren and dismal picture akin to a war-ravaged zone with huge ugly scars,” the CEC report stated.

6.0 Conclusion: The Task Ahead

In certain areas the Maoists have undertaken welfare activities in tribal areas such as digging of irrigation canals, to gain popular support. But their real aim is not to solve the problems being faced by the poor, but to use them as an instrument to turn them against the state. This, they hope, will facilitate the setting up of the Red Corridor through an armed revolution. Maoist insurgencies are no longer viewed as a mere law and order problem. Nor are they confined to any particular state. What is required, therefore, is a comprehensive policy to be developed in close cooperation between the Central and state governments, since the responsibility for implementation of these policies will devolve largely on the state governments. For a long-term solution, the basic dignity of the poor villagers, tribal and non-tribal, must be restored, and the tribal rights law, enacted in 2006, be properly implemented. India's development policy should be inclusive and more equitable; the basic needs of the people ~ food security, access to clean drinking water, minimum health care, housing and education facilities ~ must be met. The administration, above all, should be humane, impartial, and free from corruption to gain the people's confidence. A look at the map of Central India, where “Naxalism” or “Maoism” is widely prevalent, will reveal that the bulk of the area is covered by Fifth Schedule of the Constitution. Ignoring the problems of the tribals in the proposed amendment would only add fuel to the already raging fire. Displaced tribals statistical data will substantiate the point. According to Walter Fernandes, scholar and social activist, about 60 million Indians were compulsorily evicted from their hearth and home between 1954 and 2004 because of the land acquisition process. They included 20 million members of the Scheduled Tribes. Further, according to government’s own admission only 28 per cent of the ousted ST population was rehabilitated. What happened to the remaining 72 per cent of unrehabilitated tribal people? To put it bluntly, they had become the flotsam and the jetsam of our development process. The displaced tribals constitute 25 per cent of the 80 million tribal population. The map of the area where Maoists are active and the map of the displaced tribal belt broadly coincide. The Union minister of environment & forests, Mr Jairam Ramesh spoke on several issues relating to his ministry, says the country's experience in implementing big dams, has been a painful one ~ in the case of the Narmada and Maheshwar projects, he says, the track record in fulfilling promises made on environment clearance has been horrible. The minister also spoke up against the basically insensitive attitude to the plight of tribals in the country, reflected in shoddy adherence to environmental regulations and poor implementation of rehabilitation schemes in big projects totally negating the concept of welfare of the poor and downtrodden. “As a human being I feel anguished about Narmada”, said Mr Jairam Ramesh, “I think it is basically because of the lack of sensitivity. We are basically insensitive to the plight of tribals in our country. Naxalism has not come about accidently. Naxalism is an off shoot of our insensitive and callous attitude towards tribal populations of India that we have taken for granted. Narmada is reflective of this

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callous attitude: ‘oh what are these 20,000 - 30,000 tribals when so many millions of people are benefitting.’” Degradation of forests and hills, the construction of dams, and unplanned mining displace thousands of farmers every year. Over the years, the curse has persisted to the detriment of farmers, tribals and PTG. Displacement causes large-scale pauperisation. To contain migration, conservation of agriculture, sustainable development, conservation of natural forests, conservation of natural resources particularly water should be the supreme concern. 7.0 References

American Indian, Chief Seattle, wrote to President Franklin Pierce in 1854. United Nations General Assembly, United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous

Peoples, 7 September 2007, Sixty-first session, Agenda item 68,

Madhu Sarin, Scheduled Tribes Bill 2005 A Comment, Economic and Political Weekly May 21, 2005 The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act,

2006 under the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs number G.S.R.437(E), dated the 19th June, 2007 in the Gazette of India, Part II, Section 3,

Aldrich, R. G. Hodgson, D. Hull, T. Knudsen, J. Mokyr, V. Vanberg, In defense of generalized

Darwinism, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 2008, 18:577-596. K P Battacharjee, Land and Life, Equity, Justice And Development, The Statesman, Kolkata,29 August 2011 Santanu Basu, Behind the screen, The Statesman, Kolkata,1 April 2011

Suma Josson’s film, Niyamgiri, Whose hills are they, anyway? The Statesman, Kolkata, 4

February 2011

Soma Basu, Alienation, The Statesman, Kolkata, 14 August 2011

The draft national land acquisition and rehabilitation & resettlement bill, 2011, Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India, July 27th 2011

Sam Rajappa , Forced clearance of Posco, Scam Larger Than Spectrum In The Making, The

Statesman, Kolkata, 6 May 2011

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Arun Kumar Banerji, Impressive GDP and The Rich-Poor Divide, The Statesman, Kolkata, 11

January 2010

M Suchitra and Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava, How Bellary was laid waste , The Statesman, Kolkata, 8 August 2011

Shailender Pandey , Singrauli residents bear the brunt of coal mining, The Statesman, Kolkata,

16 September 2011