Tuesday, September 21, 2010

For you Niyamgiri, I am happy....

 I am writing this as a happy reaction to the National Environment Appellate Authority's decision to revoke the clearance given to Vedanta for Bauxite Mining at Niyamgiri hills...The story of tribals in the Niyamgiri hills are projected by the humanist organizations over the world as a real life screen play of the James Cameroon's Oscar WInner "AVATAR"..The only difference in plot here is that the affected people are human itself..the Dongra Kondh tribe who for centuries are inhabiting in holy lap of Niyamgiri....And upon them the eagle eyes of Vedanta found bauxite deposits.. Rest is history...

 NEAA verdict states that the clearance was granted on the basis of an environment impact assessment (EIA) report of Vimta Labs, which was never placed before the Dongria Kondh tribal community for consideration....

My concern is here...There are a lot of Niyamgiris still in India , who are going to ripped off their greenery...who are going to be made naked so that the profit thirstness of Anil Agarwals can keep the Indian growth story ahead....

   Going back a little into the Environment Impact Assessment Notification , 2006 by MoEF, Public consultation is made mandatory for every projects ..be it mining, nuclear, wind power..any thing... But companies are getting clearances through the implemenation loopholes of the bureaucracy without proper public scrutiny as envisaged... The act says the EIA report shall be placed in public scrutiny for 30 days and the authorities shall widely circulate the conduction of public consultation .

  The wider circulation of the EIA study reports are seldom being done by the state authorities or the pollution control watchdogs. This may be due to the lack of empathy of District Administration OR Pollution Control Authorities towards the cause of the people who are going to be affected due to project implementation. And as a result the project proponents manage the public hearing smoothly ride through the surface with the silent and active nods of the authorities in charge. Hence it wont need an Einstein's grey cells to deduct how these projects succeed in bagging the clearances from MoEF well in time.

  As the beaurocracy lacks the empathy , the need is prevalent for a better EIA Act which shall enact provisions so that the authorities will compulsorily educate the Project Affected mass regarding the whole details of the project . This enables them to participate in the public consultation and raise their livelihood concerns in the event of the proposed project activities, what ever it may be.... 

  And thereby we may can prevent the real life portrayals of "AVATAR" occurring again and again in this great democracy.....

So for you Niyamgiri, I am happy....I am happy very much...