Mining and Movements - Causes of Tribal Militancy - Indian Social ...

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226SOCIAL ACTION VOL. 60 JULY – SEPTEMBER 2010In brief, “benefits” of mining and metal projects pushed by Tata, Posco,Vedanta, Essar, Hindalco, Mittal, Jindal and others include huge sumsof foreign investment, the creation of numerous jobs, and the“development” of new roads and construction projects, including newports, as well as local projects, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)of local/peripheral development, to be paid for out–of– company profits.Against this is the mass displacement of small-scale skilled cultivatorswho are classed as “unskilled labour” and invariably lose to incomers inthe job market, as shown by a long history of demonstrations by localpeople on the jobs issue, in the Lanjigarh, Kashipur and perhaps everyindustrialising area. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) essentially buysup rights to India’s non-renewable resources (land, mountains, minerals),while the primary intention of new ports appears to be the mass-scaleexport of these minerals.The real costs of these projects need assessing in terms of huge subsidiesoffered to the industries for electricity, land, water, transport etc –costs, which are essentially borne by the local people and state, throughfurther loans aimed at financing the infrastructure for the mining industry– in a situation where Orissa is already India’s most highly indebtedstate.Also in terms of impacts on the environment in a situation where e.g.producing one tonne of steel consumes an estimated 44 tonnes ofwater, and producing one tonne of aluminium consumes an estimated1,378 tonnes of water. These figures underlie recent massdemonstrations by west Orissa farmers against the new steel plantsand aluminium smelters taking water from Hirakud dam at farmers’expense. Mines and metal factories damage the reserves and circulationof water at many levels, in a context where ground water is goingdown almost everywhere, and availability of fresh water is rapidlyassuming crisis proportions.The mining/metal’s industry’s “externality costs” are prohibitive, e.g.producing one tonne of aluminium emits between 6 and 20 tonnes ofCO 2, each tonne of which is costed at about $85. Attempts have beenmade to calculate some of these costs in monetary (chrematist) terms.But overall costs in terms of damage to the environment are impossibleto quantify or put a price on. Economists and engineers are not taught
MINING AND MOVEMENTS – CAUSES OF TRIBAL MILITANCY 227to understand – let alone take responsibility for the impacts of theirprojects on the environment.‘Economics’ and ‘Ecology’ have the same root from Greek the word‘oikos’, meaning ‘house’, indicating the laws (nomos) or logic (logos) ofcorrect ‘housekeeping’. Yet ecology is not even part of economists’and engineers’ training. In fact, science of nature is split up betweendiscrete branches – geology, soil science, botany, hydrology, meteorologyetc., so even here the holistic understanding of ecology necessary foran appraisal of industrial impacts is lacking.This lack is all too evident in assessments of the impacts of big dams:what does it mean when rivers’ flow over the land is drasticallycurtailed? Obviously, fish populations and many other life forms die...What are the effects when industrial waste is released into rivers, ashas been well documented from Nalco’s Angul smelter, and already,within months of their starting up, from Vedanta’s Lanjigarh refineryand Burkhamunda smelter? Obviously, more fish and other life formsdie, and human communities that have always depended on these riversfor bathing, drinking and cultivation suffer immensely..... But are therivers themselves dying? The destructive effects of big dams, documentedat length by the World Commission on Dams, have not been officiallyrecognised in India. The country is trying to maximize its hydro-potentialby building a huge number of new mega-dams, including 150 in ArunachalPradesh alone, despite massive evidence of big dams’ destructive effectson many levels.This lack is also evident in the inadequacy of studies of the impact ofmining on the water regime of mountains. The drying of thousands ofstreams in iron-ore mined mountains in north Orissa is well known, andthe drying of perennial streams around Panchpat Mali, the mountain inKoraput that forms Orissa’s major bauxite mine, is attested by localAdivasis. But in its report on likely impacts of Vedanta’s OMC-Sterlitemine planned on Niyam Dongar, the Central Mining Planning and DesignInstitute made the absurd argument that micro-cracks forming on theside of the mountain during mining will “facilitate run-off” and help“recharge ground water”. When water runs straight off a mountainduring the monsoon, this means that streams will run dry in the hotseason, and indicates that the mountain as a reservoir and source ofperennial streams is damaged beyond repair.
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