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Displacement
Displaced by fencing
Issue Date: Dec 31, 2010
THE Mizoram and Tripura administrations have served notices to families occupying land along the India-Bangladesh border. The land has to be vacated for fencing the border. Nearly 3,900 families along nine border sub-divisions in Tripura have been left homeless as state government failed to rehabilitate and compensate them. The remaining 500 families of Tripura and 700 families of Mizoram have refused to move out. They are demanding they first be paid compensation.
Caught in crossfire
Issue Date: Dec 15, 2010
Twenty six-year-old Soyam Hunga has stayed in the Errabore Salwa Judum camp in Chhattisgarh for six years. He is from village Morguda in Dantewada district and moved to the camp, 30 kilometres away, to escape Naxalites.
In the name of the tiger
Issue Date: Nov 30, 2010
The struggle to protect the rapidly vanishing tiger is getting murkier by the day. Up to 100,000 families are slated for displacement, ostensibly to secure India’s tiger habitats. Unfortunately, most of the relocation taking place violates the law and may end up creating more conflicts that cause the tiger’s decline.
POSCO review body divided
@sugandh84 Issue Date: Nov 15, 2010
A COMMITTEE set up by the government to investigate POSCO India’s compliance with the forest rights act (FRA) in its steel plant in Orissa’s Jagatsinghpur district has presented two divergent perceptions in its report. The committee, constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to examine the company’s proposal for a captive port and steel plant, presented its report on October 18. The members of the committee are Urmila Pingle, tribal affairs expert; V Suresh, activist and advocate; and Devendra Pandey, former director of the Forest Survey of India. The chair is Meena Gupta, former environment secretary.
Chair v members
Forest clearance Chair does not want to disturb clearance already granted Members say revoke clearance and register claims afresh Resettlement and rehabilitation Good package: chair Poor compensation: members Environment clearance No delays: chair Revoke clearance: membersPromised land turns arid
Issue Date: Oct 31, 2010
PEOPLE displaced by the Pong dam are still waiting to be rehabilitated, forty years after the dam was built. They were promised canal-irrigated land in Ganganagar district, but the Rajasthan government is now offering them semiarid land in Bikaner. The dam in Himachal Pradesh supplies water to Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.
Orissa wants stay on Polavaram
Issue Date: Sep 30, 2010
THE Orissa government has moved the Supreme Court seeking stay on the forest clearance granted to a multipurpose project in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. It is being constructed by the Andhra government on the Godavari at Polavaram. Orissa fears the dam that is part of the project will submerge parts of the state and displace people.
It’s my land, not yours
Issue Date: Sep 15, 2010
Land for industries is acquired either through the government or through private negotiations with land owners. The government categorises agricultural land as single crop, double crop or barren. Compensation is determined depending on the category.
Thin end of wedge
Issue Date: Jul 15, 2007
Vedanta isn't the only company eyeing Orissa's highquality bauxite. At least two more companies—Utkal Alumina India Ltd and multinational giant BHP Billiton— have mining and refinery projects in the pipeline. NALCO, one of the companies mining bauxite in the state, is mulling expansion of its mines.
Bending rules
Issue Date: Jul 15, 2007
How did Vedanta complete its refinery on schedule amid this fuss? With a little bit of help from the Orissa government and MoEF, it seems. Despite being aware since October 2004 of the company's violations of forest laws, it was only on March 23, 2005, after CEC questioned MoEF about the validity of an environmental clearance, that the ministry directed VAL to halt construction work till clearance was given for the 58.9 ha of forestland within the refinery compound.
