The new Money plant

Biodiesel became big in India in 2002-03. For a country reeling under the burden of a large oil import bill and spiralling oil prices -- 70 per cent of petroleum used in India is imported, mostly from the volatile Persian Gulf region, at the cost of more than Rs 100,000 crore -- it promises an indigenous, renewable source of energy. It also transforms the poorest people and the most marginalised lands into the source for this energy.

Nirma loses wetland

THE union environment ministry has revoked the clearance it had granted to the detergent giant Nirma to construct a cement plant in Gujarat. The 1.91-million-tonnes-per-annum plant is under construction in Mahuva block of Bhavnagar district.

Court raps environment ministry

ON SEPTEMBER 9, the Supreme Court ordered detergent company Nirma to file its reply to the show cause notice issued by the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) within three months. MoEF had issued the notice in May, asking the company to explain within two weeks why the environmental clearance granted to its cement plant in Gujarat should not be revoked. The site is believed to be on wetlands.

Granite greed

Eighty-year-old Budda Muthyalu, a Lambada tribeswoman, does not know how much a cubic metre is or how much Tan Brown granite fetches in the market. All she knows is that quarrying for the stone near her hamlet in Hosnabad block of Karimnagar district spells disaster for her people.

Lessons from Kakarapalli

We were standing at the edge of what looked like a swamp—grass and pools and streams. On one side was heavily barricaded land with high walls, barbed wires and armed security. A board read: East Coast Energy, Kakarapalli. This was where a bloody battle had taken place a few months ago. People protesting the takeover of their wetland were shot at and three lost their lives. Now the site of the 2,640 MW thermal power plant is under siege—locked and in court.

Nirma plant in trouble again

THE Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) has asked detergent company Nirma to explain why the environmental clearance granted to its cement plant in Gujarat should not be revoked. The ministry issued a show cause notice to the company on May 11 after a report by a group of experts showed the plant was violating environmental norms.

The great wetland robbery in Kakarapalli

A village in Andhra Pradesh has become the epicentre of an eight-month-long fight against a power plant in neighbouring Kakarapalli. Following two deaths in police firing on February 28, people from 29 villages near the plant site thronged Vadditandra village in Srikakulam district to show support and mourn the deaths. “My brother gave his life to protect our livelihoods. None of us can give up the struggle now,” says Jeeru Murli, brother of Jeeru Nageshwar Rao of Vadditandra who was killed in the firing. “The plant will not happen on our land.”

Lies, deceit, half truths

False information. Wrong data. This is what sums up the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report of the power plant project at Kakarapalli, according to an analysis by non-profit Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) in Delhi.

Nirma whitewash

About a decade ago, farmers of 15 villages in Mahuva block in coastal Saurashtra could barely grow one crop a year. This was because the groundwater they used for irrigation was saline. Their fortunes changed in 2000 when the Gujarat government created a reservoir—Samadhiyala bandhara— by building a dam at the mouth of the river Shensuri that flows through Mahuva. The dam prevented sea water from entering the river. The reservoir’s sweet water helped farmers grow up to three crops a year and set up agro-processing units. But the good times were not to last. In 2008, the state government allotted part of the reservoir and its catchment area, totalling 268 hectares (ha), to detergent company Nirma to set up a cement plant.

Common assets given for exclusive use

To acquire village common land, the Gujarat authorities need to take consent of the gram panchayat under Section 96(4) of the state Gram Panchayat Act of 1961. For this they have to first issue a notice to the villagers.