Amita Baviskar on stopping Vedanta: Was there a ‘foreign hand’?
Conspiracy theories are a handy standby when one wants to avoid the effort of critical thinking. So Tavleen Singh would rather rely on “the foreign hand” — that old bogey out of Indira Gandhi’s box of tricks — than examine facts that reveal uncomfortable truths. Lamenting the closure of the Vedanta aluminium refinery at Lanjigarh, Orissa (‘Why India could remain forever poor’, IE, September 30), Singh asserts that, if Vedanta had been allowed to mine bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills, its aluminium would have been 25 per cent cheaper than the world price. To preempt this competition, the international aluminium industry got Amnesty International and Greenpeace to oppose the project “supposedly to protect the interests, and sacred hills, of forest-dwelling Adivasi tribes.”
See also: The modernisation of Orissa in pictures: Srinivas Kuruganti
In Singh’s view, Vedanta’s departure is a disaster for Lanjigarh, where people will lose jobs and access to schools, healthcare and clean drinking water. And it is a tragedy for the Indian economy, which needs increased foreign investment for growth and prosperity. The hero of the story is, of course, Vedanta, which took the tremendous risk of investing in darkest Orissa, only to have its refinery “bleeding to death,” thanks to a thousand cuts from “vested interests”. This noble corporate warrior has died for our sins, killed by the “foreign hand”.
First, Vedanta built the refinery knowing very well that bauxite from Niyamgiri was not guaranteed. Yet it went ahead and even expanded its capacity six-fold, illegally, from 1 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) to 6 mtpa. Do its present troubles then deserve our sympathy?
Second, it is impossible to say whether and how much Vedanta’s cheaper production would threaten its competitors. The market for aluminium is volatile, with prices fluctuating from $3,100 per tonne in 2008 to $1,400 in 2009. With demand for aluminium rising in the last three years, Vedanta is as likely to have raked in higher profits as lowered them for the industry. (Note: Vedanta’s price advantage is not because of efficient technology but from dirty mining practices — its environmental and labour violations have been indicted by the Norwegian government.)
Third, the total bauxite reserves in the Niyamgiri hills are estimated to be 72 million tonnes. It takes three tonnes of bauxite to make one tonne of alumina. Using 18 million tonnes of bauxite every year, Vedanta’s 6 mtpa refinery would exhaust the ore in less than four years. The profits would be repatriated abroad and the area devastated for ever. If that’s investing in India’s prosperity, we can do without it.
Fourth, international NGOs did not start the anti-Vedanta campaign. The resistance came from the Dongaria Kondh, whose entire population of 8,000 lives in the Niyamgiri range, and the Kutia Kondh who inhabit its foothills. For the Kondh, the hills are a sacred landscape, the source of their livelihood and social being. Mining would utterly destroy them and all that they cherish. The Kondh’s generations-old rights to the area are supported by the forest rights act. However, the state government ignored these claims, using armed forest and police officers to arrest and beat up villagers on the pretext that they were Maoists. NGOs did indeed support the Kondh, but the lead came from the latter since it was their lives that were on the line. No dupes of the “foreign hand”, these adivasis knew the fate of those displaced by the refinery and were determined to avoid it.
Fifth, far from being a benign presence bringing development to a deprived area, Vedanta’s record is a trail of illegal operations and environmental pollution. The existing refinery has polluted the local river. Clouds of flying dust from its waste red-mud pond choke the air. Villagers report new skin and respiratory diseases. The factory has forcibly enclosed 26 hectares of village forests. But the most brazen violation stands stark against the sky: a tall chimney for the 5 mtpa capacity built without environmental clearance.
Sixth, Vedanta has been able to function with impunity because it is supported by the Orissa government. For politicians, bureaucrats and other power elite, mining means big bucks: patronage, contracts and commissions. For some local people, there would be a temporary rise in wages, business for their small shops, contracts for transport and supplies. But the majority would be displaced, their agriculture and forests permanently destroyed. And the tragedy of Orissa is that mining is the only game in town, one that enriches the wealthy and well-connected by laying waste the land and those who live by it.
If there is a “foreign hand” out to undermine India, surely it is Vedanta. Vedanta’s ruthless pursuit of short-term gain would kill the hills that keep rivers alive, provide a habitat for elephants and orchids, and enable the Kondh their dignity and freedom. Singh asserts that Orissa would be poor without Vedanta. The facts show that, with Vedanta, Orissa would be sucked dry and left to die.
The writer is a sociologist and was a member of the N.C. Saxena Committee appointed by the ministry of environment and forests that recommended that the project not be cleared
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/there-is-no--foreign-hand-/1012603/0See also: The modernisation of Orissa in pictures: Srinivas Kuruganti
