A third of Goa will sink if mining leases are cleared http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Apr272008/editpage2008042664870.asp
"The apex court stayed its own order sending a wrong message to offenders. Environmental clearances, through public hearings happened en masse..."Dr Claude Alvares, Environmentalist. Environmentalist Dr Claude Alvares is Director of the Central Secretariat of the Organic Farming Association of India (OFAI) and also heads the pro-active Goa Foundation. A member of the Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Wastes, Alvares has written several books including De-Colonizing History: Technology and Culture in India, China and the West, 1500 to the Present Day, Science, Hegemony and Violence and The Blinded Eye, which he co-authored with Ashish Nandy . Dr Claude Alvares spoke to Devika Sequeira of Deccan Herald after the recent release of his new book Goa Sweet Land of Mine on how the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and its expert committees have ranged themselves with Goa's mining barons and abdicated their responsibility to protect the environment. Deccan Herald: Is it true that if all the applications for mining leases are cleared, as much as one-fourth of Goa would be under mining? What would be the implications if a majority of these applications were cleared for operation? Claude Alvares: At least a third of Goa would be affected. More than 75 mining leases have been cleared by the MoEF, another 25 are in the immediate pipeline including several leases located within the Netravali Wildlife Sanctuary. The implications for enhanced mining are not just felt in the mining belt, they are spilling over into the tourist belts in the coastal area. Several towns like Sanvordem have suffered the worst excesses of mining now for 25 years with no respite. In several villages, ground water is so thoroughly depleted, mining companies are forced to supply it in tankers just to keep the public from rebellion. If all the leases get cleared, some villages like Colomba, Rivona, Maina, Curpem, Vichundrem, Sarvona and Advalpale will completely disappear. The Portuguese government handed out 792 leases. Of those 75 have been granted environment clearance. But the Mines Department is talking in terms of more than 400 leases being eventually cleared. DH: You petitioned in a case before the Supreme Court against the environmental destruction by the mining industry. Tell us a bit on the outcome of that case. CA: We filed a petition in the apex court in 2004 complaining that the MoEF was granting environment clearances after projects, industrial units and mining leases had begun operations! Technically, it's called a "post-facto" environment clearance. We got immediate relief: the Ministry assured the Court that no more post-facto clearances would be issued. The Court decided to stay all operations and industries without environment clearances. The following weeks, the Court was flooded with number of applications, as it transpired that more than 2000 mines and industries were actually operating without environment clearances. The apex court stayed its own order, fearing that if the order was implemented, the economy would go into a tailspin. But it insisted that the Ministry ensure that these industries get their clearance and ordered the Ministry to file cases against all those who were working without such clearances. The fact that the apex court stayed its own order appears to have conveyed the wrong message to the offenders. They lined up in queues to go through the process of environment clearance which includes a public hearing. Public hearings were held en masse. They degenerated into a farce. DH: You say in your book Goa Sweet Land of Mine that the MoEF simply squandered the opportunity to bring mining in Goa under stringent provisions of the Environment Protection Act 1986 and that mining operations in the Western Ghats continue with impunity. CA: That's polite language really for something far more serious. The people in charge simply exploited the opportunity for enriching their coffers. The people who wanted clearances had first to meet the Minister. Thereafter, the Ministry ensured that no company or mine was denied environment clearances. In Goa, all the mines that had damaged the environment in the most callous ways were granted clearances first. The largest number were cleared in the critical one-km buffer zone of Goa's major wildlife sanctuaries. Some were cleared even within sanctuaries. DH: At least 90 wildlife sanctuaries and national parks have been impacted with mining activity across the country. What are the implications of this? CA: Nothing can be done in any wildlife sanctuary or national park today because of two absolute orders passed by the apex court which does not allow any mining in any wildlife sanctuary today. For example, the Goa government, despite the apex court's orders, had permitted more than 12 mines to operate in the Netravalli wildlife sanctuary. We moved the Central Empowered Committee in November 2003 and got them all shut. DH: Goa is being increasingly wedged in between the expanding demands of tourism along the coast, developers on a land grabbing spree and environmental exploitation. Where are we headed? CA: The extinction of Goa as we know it; I never thought it would seem so immediate even within my lifetime. But it is staring at us as a prospect in the face. Only public stirring against the SEZs, against huge housing developments in their villages, and street battles against the Regional Plan under various banners gives me hope. If we all are found wanting, there will certainly be no Goa as we know it or knew it for the enjoyment of the next generation. Feedback to Devika Sequeira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>