Governance Now, Sept 1-15
No point in having a ministry and sundry laws to protect environment, forest, forest rights and tribal self-rule in the Scheduled Areas if these were to be sacrificed in the name of development
By rejecting the proposal to mine the Niyamgiri hills in Orissa for bauxite, environment and forests minister Jairam Ramesh has upheld the rule of law, which is what good governance is all about. Logically, after two panels of his ministry and several independent studies incontrovertibly established that all relevant laws of the land have been flouted in allowing Vedanta Alumina Ltd to set up its refinery in Lanjigarh and then seek, through the Orissa Mining Corporation, mining rights to the Niyamgiri hills, that was the only recourse left. But as we are well aware, logic or rule of law has hardly inconvenienced the private corporate bodies in our country.
Take a fresh look at Vedanta Alumina Ltd’s Lanjigarh project. Ramesh’s own ministry was playing footsie until now. Not once did it consider the project in its entirety. First it gave “environment” clearance only to the one million tonne refinery in 2004, but slept over the “forest” clearance. Now it transpires that the refinery has occupied 26.123 hectare of village forest land “illegally”. The mining part of the project came into picture in 2005. The ministry granted “forest” clearance to this in 2007, but called it “in-principle” clearance subject to certain conditions (it is violation of these conditions that the ministry has cited to deny “final” forest clearance. The “environment” clearance for mining came two years later, in 2009. In the meanwhile, Vedanta sought expansion of its refinery to six million tonne capcity in 2008. The same year, the ministry granted “in-principle” “environment” clearance, but slept over the “forest” clearance. What do you make out of all these anomalies?
Now, let us look at the state government’s role. It has granted all the necessary clearances and duly submitted all compliance reports in connection with Vedanta’s project. But as the MoEF panels, particularly the N C Saxena Committee, has pointed out, the state government not only flouted every law of the land but also misrepresented facts. It said, wrongly, that the primitive tribes of the area, Dongaria and Kutia Kondhs, didn’t stake claim to the proposed mining area as is their right under the Forest Rights Act. It said, wrongly again, that the tribals’ “informed consent” had been taken as per the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act to acquire their land. It said, wrongly yet again, that proper Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project had been done, when it was only a “rapid” EIA. And after, the Saxena Committee said mining Niyamgiri will be “illegal” because it had been “established beyond doubt that the area proposed for mining and the surrounding thick forests are the cultural, religious and economic habitat of the Kondhs”, the state said, again wrongly, that the Supreme Court had given “forest clearance” to the project in 2008. In fact, the apex court’s next and concluding line was: “The next step would be for the MoEF to grant its approval in accordance with law.”
As for Vedanta Alumina, it violated several laws - by encroaching 26.123 hectare forest land without MoEF clerance, expanding refinery without MoEF clearance, building mine access road without MoEF clearance, wrongly concluding from public hearings that its project had wide support of the tribals, falsifying EIA report to say that the proposed mining area is “unproductive and tree deficient area not useful for wildlife and forest” and sourcing bauxite from 14 mines outside Orissa, 11 of which, it is now realised, don’t have environment clearance!
The issue here is not of development, as the Orissa government and Vedanta Alumina would like everyone to believe. It is nobody’s case that mining shouldn’t be allowed. A poor state like Orissa does need to mine its natural resources to propel economic growth and a corporate body like Vedanta Alumina to bring investment from outside.
The issue is really of good governance. All environment, forest and tribal related laws are to make development sustainable, humane, equitable and just. And that is what Jairam needs to prove. He needs to prove that his environment laws apply to all equally and Vedanta has not been made an example of for political purpose.
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