Making India's mining sector socially and environmentally viable

By Chandra Bhushan I learnt an important lesson on my travels in Orissa's Sundergarh and Keonjhar districts. One, the people of one of the most resource-rich areas of the country were also some of its poorest; and, two, this was because their land contained minerals that were important for industrial growth.

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.

A swami and sand mafia

Just a few days before Swami Nigamanand died while on a fast to protest state-sponsored sand mining and stone crushing along the Ganga near Haridwar, the Uttarakhand government ordered a ban on mining activities in the region considered sacred. Millions of pilgrims visit the place to take a dip in the Ganga during Kumbh Mela. But the ban came too late for the comatose ascetic and ecology of the river.

Letters

Relocated and damned It is disheartening to learn the plight of residents of Bikhnathori village in Bihar who don’t have basic facilities like water and electricity (‘Corridor of uncertainty’, March 1-15, 2010).

Bihar introduces green tax

Bihar  government’s budget has introduced measures to protect the environment. The budget passed for 2010-2011 includes sales tax and value added tax on old vehicles and halves the tax on battery-run vehicles. The state’s finance minister, Sushil Kumar Modi, also announced a blanket ban on mining hills for quarrying stones. He said leases of existing quarries will not be renewed.

South Asia

Building freeze: Bangladesh has banned construction activities on St Martin’s island to save the ecology of its lone coral island. The environment ministry has ordered an inventory of all existing buildings; those threatening the island’s ecology will be demolished. The island receives about 1¤500 tourists daily. This has led to construction of hotels and restaurants and a jetty which threaten the island’s biodiversity.

Last gasps

The story of Chinchurgheria, a village in West Bengal, is a chilling expose of the apathy of businesspersons, the government and politicians. In 1986, the people of Chinchurgheria and a few neighbouring villages joined a new stonecrushing unit. Within 2 years, villagers working as labourers started suffering from silicosis. With no clue about the identity of the killer, villagers died unmedicated and in agony. Only when a forest ranger visiting the area saw the symptoms and informed the people and some doctors that the disease was identified.

Closure of stone crushers leaves labour high and dry

ON MAY 15 this year, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark judgement in response to a public interest suit demanding the closure of the 300-odd stone-crushing units in and around New Delhi. Unlicensed units were immediately closed and the rest are to be shut down by August 15.