As coal auctions
begin in Delhi, a splendid forest in Chhattisgarh awaits slow death
As coal auctions begin
in Delhi, a splendid forest in Chhattisgarh awaits slow death
Auctions might
introduce greater transparency in coal mine allocations but won't resolve the
questions over social and environment costs of mining.
Photo Credit: Raksha Kumar
Krishna Kumar remembers his father talking about how “the company” will
eventually take over their land and livelihood. Fifty years ago, Kumar’s father
Dhanraj was considered cynical. Today, the people of Pali village consider him
a visionary.
The village lies in Katghora block of Chhattisgarh's Korba district. South
Eastern Coalfields Limited, a subsidiary of the government company Coal India
Limited, has been mining in the district since the 1960s. With more than
70 million tonnes of coal excavated annually from 13 coal mines, including
three of the largest in Asia, and 10,000 megawatts of power produced in about
half a dozen thermal power plants, Korba is now one of India’s critically
polluted areas.
The juggernaut of mining has transformed the landscape so dramatically that
brown hills have sprouted around the city of Korba. These aren’t natural hills
– they are made of accumulated overburden, or the soil excavated from the earth
to get to the seams of coal.
Overburden
hills made of loose soil
Seventy kilometres north of Korba, the air becomes cooler, the sound of flowing
water is clearer and only tall green trees meet the eye. The forest, called
Hasdeo Arand, is spread over 1,200 square kilometres in north Chhattisgarh. It
is one of India’s last remaining biodiversity rich forests with an unbroken
canopy that acts as an important wildlife corridor. Amidst the generous natural
beauty rests the village of Salhi, which has not more than 500 homes.
Sitting cross-legged on a cane cot in front of his modest house, Seva Ram, the
sarpanch of Salhi village in Sarguja district, rubs dry tobacco on his left
palm, contemplatively. “When a wild elephant enters our village," he said,
"we know what harm it would cause us and we prepare ourselves accordingly.
But when the company entered our village surreptitiously, we didn't know how to
react.”
Ram was referring to Adani Mining, a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani
Enterprises, which came to the area in 2009 to mine the 450 million tonne rich
coal blocks of Parsa East and Kanta Basan. The two blocks were among the
20 coal blocks in the region that stood allocated to government and private
companies, until the Supreme Court in September 2014 struck down the
allocations of more than 200 coal blocks across the country, holding them
illegal and arbitrary.
For a while, the people of Sali breathed easy. But the reprieve was
short-lived. In October, the government passed an ordinance to make it possible
to reallocate the mines. The executive order was followed up with the Coal
Mines (Special Provisions) Bill, 2014, which received the approval of the Lok
Sabha in December. The bill awaits the final passage through the Rajya Sabha
before it can become law.
Seva
Ram, the sarpanch of Salhi village
The new bill seeks to make amends for India’s two decade-long history of
corruption-tainted coal mine allocations. Earlier, coal mines were allocated by
a committee of bureaucrats in a process that was riddled with irregularities.
Under the new system, companies have to bid to get mining rights. The
government has put 23 blocks for auction in the first round which began in
January and is expected to conclude in March.
While competitive auctions would introduce greater transparency in the process,
activists say they are not the panacea for the crisis that plagues the system
of natural resource allocation in India. Currently, the government first
allocates the mine to a company and then assesses the social and environmental
costs of the project. Well after companies have sunk funds into the project,
the views of local communities are sought. By then, the dice is loaded against
them, with both the government and the corporations pushing hard to see the
project through. At best, local people are able to stall the project for some
years. The resulting logjams extract both social and economic costs.
The cancellation of the coal mines by the Supreme Court presented the
government with a clean slate. It could have fixed the systemic flaws in the
allocation process, say activists. But it missed the bus.
Hasdeo
forest in the backdrop of the mine operated by Adani in Sarguja
For one, it overlooked the strong rationale to keep intact forests like Hasdeo
Arand. In 2010, the ministry of environment and forest superimposed forest
cover maps on coal bearing regions and marked out nine forests that were too
dense to be lost to coal mining. These forests were called “No-Go areas”.
Hasdeo Arand was one of them.
Ignoring its own categorisation, however, the United Progressive Alliance
government gave clearances to three coal mines in Hasdeo Arand. The Bharatiya
Janata Party government has put one of those blocks for auction in the first
phase itself. Another two blocks, Parsa East and Kanta Basan, are likely to be
allotted to public sector companies soon. Speaking with Scroll, Anil Swaroop, the coal secretary,
justified the decision. "We will only auction those mines that have the
necessary permissions," he said.
But activists are dismayed at the decision. Contrary to popular perception,
they argue that preserving the No-Go areas involves little economic trade-off.
Put together, the No-Go areas represent only 8.11% of the total potential coal
bearing area of the country. "Even if current energy needs are tripled, we
can meet the demand for coal without venturing into ‘no-go’ areas for the next
66 years comfortably,” said Sudiep Shrivastava, a lawyer and mining
activist.
Not only does the forest of Hasdeo Arand house endangered species, it ensures
regular rainfall and maintains the water levels of the majestic Bango dam built
across River Hasdeo. The dam irrigates 630,000 acres of agricultural land in
Chhattisgarh and provides water to the coal mines and power plants in Korba.
“How will those objectives be met if the dam loses its catchment area?” said
Shrivastava.
“If you dig up coal in Hasdeo-Arand, you will ensure that the country
potentially risks losing 10,000 MW of electricity in the next 20 years,” said
Alok Shukla, the convenor of the non-profit, Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan.
The
Bango Dam on Hasdeo river in Korba
Closely linked to the environment are the lives and livelihoods of the people.
In January, before the auctions began, a group of people living in the villages
of Hasdeo Arand decided to make one last attempt to persuade the government to
not rush ahead with the coal mine bids. A contingent of a dozen people from
Chhattisgarh arrived in New Delhi. Armed with letters from 16 gram sabhas,
or village councils, that expressed strong opposition to mining projects, they
met union minister for environment and forests Prakash Javadekar.
Among the group was Jainandan Singh Porte. Until a year ago, Porte
used to grow rice and sell mahua seeds (a flower used to make liquor) in
Ghatberra village. But since Adani entered the region, disturbed by the future
threat of displacement, he jumped into activism.
“When I told the minister that I am opposed to mining in the Hasdeo region, he
smiled and said ‘Bring your son to me next time. I will ask him what he
wants.’” He chose not to argue with the minister, but the conversation left
Porte convinced that his 14-year-old son faces a bleak future. “He might be
doing menial jobs in the city, going at this rate.”
Porte
and other mining affected people in New Delhi in January
Not only does the new coal bill fail to empower local communities, activists
believe it legalises the excesses of private companies. Under the previous law,
the Coal Mines (Nationalisation) Act of 1973, a company was allowed to mine
coal for a specified end-use. That is, only as much coal as needed to run a power
plant that they had established. This clause was put in to restrict the
indiscriminate sale of a source of non-renewable energy in the open market. But
Prakash Industries, a private company mining coal from the Chotia block in the
Hasdeo region since 2006, extracted more than the amount of coal stipulated in
its licence. While this amounted to illegal coal pilferage under the previous
law, it might stand legitimised in the future since the new coal law has an
enabling provision that could allow private companies to sell coal in the open
market.
Similarly, the Parsa, Parsa East and Kanta Basan coal blocks were allocated
entirely to public sector power companies belonging to Chhattisgarh and
Rajasthan governments but Adani Mining found a backdoor entry into them by
getting a mining development and operations contract wherein Adani held a 74%
majority ownership of the joint venture. Joint ventures between government
companies and private sector players were illegal according to the 1974 law,
but the new law has found a way to make room for them.
Kante
village in Sarguja district of north Chhattisgarh
The Supreme Court’s verdict might have put mining in Hasdeo Arand on hold. But
Bajrang Singh, a 34-year-old farmer from Kanta village, has already lost the
world he grew up in. His village, not more than 10 metres from the open
cast mine, used to have ponds on three sides. But after the mining began, the
lush greenery and abundant water dried up. Even ground water levels have
fallen. When land is hollowed out to mine coal, the water from the
surrounding areas tends to flow down to the deeper excavation site, drying up
even ground water.
“The company sends water tankers to our homes everyday," said Singh.
"We are free to take as much water as we want, but how much can we
possibly store? So, we end up rationing the water by default.” An email to
Adani Mining seeking a response on the company's impact on the area went
unanswered.
The sarpanch of Salhi village, Seva Ram, is keeping calm in the face of the
impending storm. “Not only will we lose our lands, livelihoods, heritage and
freedom, but we will be forced to migrate to your cities, in turn crowding
them. Do you want that?” he said with an ironic smile.
The land acquisition
law itself needs to be rescued before it can save villages from mining
By amending the land acquisition law through
an ordinance, the Modi government has made it harder for people in
Chhattisgarh's mining areas to fight displacement.
You cannot reach
Kosampalli village without getting your feet wet. The village lies about 50 km
to the west of Raigarh town. Once accessible by roads on three sides, it is now
nearly marooned, buffeted by two expanding coal mines, which have eaten up all
the roads.
The only access to the village lies through the river Kelo. “That is how we
reach home every evening after work,” said Bhagwati Bhagat, a resident of
Kosampali, “by walking through waters that are knee deep during rainy season.”
The mines that surround Kosampalli are called the Gare-Pelma mines. They are
part of the Mand Raigarh coalfield which stretches over several kilometres in
the district of Raigarh in forest-rich eastern Chhattisargh. With total
reserves of about 19,000 million tonnes of coal, the coalfield is a goldmine.
In the late nineties, the private power company, Jindal Power Limited,
struck gold when the government allotted two of the blocks for its upcoming
thermal power plant in Tamnar.
When the company started the first round of land acquisition for the Tamnar
power plant, there was a public hearing with the district collector,
representatives of the company and the villagers. “The company brought some
people along with them who didn't let the villagers speak,” said Bhagat, who was
present at the meet.
Bhagwati
Bhagat with her sister-in-law Ramvati Bhagat
Once land was acquired for the power plant, getting land for the coal mines was
simple, said Rinchin, an activist who is helping the people of Kosampalli
fight the expansion of the mines. The land for the power plant was
acquired under the colonial land acquisition law, while the lands surrounding
the power plant were leased out for coal mining.
In the first round of land acquisition, one part of the village was taken. The
second round cordoned off another portion. When it appeared that the village
would be surrounded by coal mines on all sides, people decided they could take
it no more. As the protests gained strength, Raigarh was lifted into the wave
of unrest sweeping across the Indian countryside, which finally pushed the
United Progressive Alliance government into replacing the colonial era land
acquisition law of 1894 with the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation &
Resettlement Act of 2013.
But even before the new law could be implemented, the Modi government has
amended it through an ordinance. The amendments are likely to come up for
legislative approval in the forthcoming budget session.
If passed, what does the amended law hold for the people of Kosampalli and
those like them who are being edged out of their lands?
Only
one-third of the homes remain in the village of Kosampalli
Passed in September 2013, the new land acquisition law sought to empower local
communities by making it mandatory for the government and private companies to
seek the consent of 80% of those who stood to lose their land to industrial and
infrastructure projects. It also introduced the idea of social impact
assessment: that no land could be acquired without first taking into account
the impact of the upcoming project on the area and its people. Both the
provisions have been done away with.
The Modi government has maintained that consent and social impact assessment
would mire projects in needless delays and bureaucracy. Defending the ordinance,
it has pointed out that the compensation rates under the new law remain
untouched, as does the need to provide for rehabilitation and resettlement of
people.
But Sudha Bharadwaj, a lawyer based in Chhattisgarh, argues that without
consent, "where is the question of fair compensation?” Bharadwaj is
representing the people of Kosampalli in their fight in the High Court against
land acquisition by Jindal Power. The case is one among many that she has taken
up. "Are they (the government and the companies) scared of social impact
assessment because there will be open discussion on the information surrounding
the mines?” she asked.
In January 2015, the central government stopped foreign funding to four
environmental organisations who have said to have campaigned against the use of
coal as a source of energy or have questioned individual coal mining or
coal-based power projects. “When you scrap SIA and stop funding to those
organisations that can disseminate independent information about mining and
other projects, you have successfully kept all the information hidden,” said
Sudeip Shrivastava, a lawyer and activist.
“The main reason for opposition to the land ordinance is that the LARR Act of
2013 was never implemented. So, how do they know that it is not workable?”
asked Bharadwaj.
Power
plants have transformed the landscape of Raigarh
Simultaneous to the changes made in the land acquisition law are the amendments
to the coal mine allocation process. After the Supreme Court cancelled the
allocation of more than 200 coal blocks in 2014, holding the process illegal
and arbitrary, the government has put up 24 blocks for auctions. The auctions
are expected to be wrapped up in March. At the end of the month, the mines
would change hands. The clearances given to the mines would be automatically
transferred to the new allottee, but not the liabilities, which includes
pending disputes and litigation.
“This essentially means that Bhagwat and others, who have filed a case against
Jindal Power, would have to file a case against the new allottee all over
again," said Rinchin. “Where will they get the resources from?”
Sudha Bharadwaj said the changes to the land and coal laws should be seen
together. “After all, the most valuable lands are those that have mineral deposits
in them,” she said. “In totality, these ordinances disregard the poor’s
constitutional right of owning property.”
From her small hut less than 10 metres away from the edge of the mine, tired of
fighting what seems like a losing battle, Bhagwat offers a startling new
perspective: the government need not acquire her land at all. People in her
village will be forced to move out sometime soon, she said, due to the health
hazards of living next to a
Another article in
this series (for the third consecutive day) this time picking the issue of
commercial mining after exploring the points of No-Go & clearances in 1st
article and Mining impact & Land Ordinance in second article...... This is
turning out to be probably amongst the best coverage of issues with the Coal
Ordinance using all the specific examples from Chhattisgarh......
Between the government
and private companies, a coal mining town picks the bigger enemy
People living in the coal bearing areas of
north Chhattisgarh are opposed to privatisation of coal mining.
Photo
Credit: Raksha Kumar
From where she lives with her four sons, Nirupa Bai can stare down the abyss of
the mammoth Kusmunda coal mine which sprawls over 10 square kilometres in Korba
district of Chhattisgarh. Not only does she breathe in the soot, but also
drinks water that has traces of the mineral.
In 1993, when Nirupa was 24, her father was given Rs 50,000 by South Eastern
Coalfields Limited, the government company that runs the Kusmunda mine. SECL
acquired the family’s land and did not ask them to move. Twenty years ago, the
Kusmunda mine was not even visible from Nirupa’s house in Barkuta village. She
married a man in the neighbouring village and moved away.
A year ago, she returned to her father’s house after she separated from her
husband and found that their tiny abode is under threat. The mine has now
reached their backyard, and neighbours have vacated their pieces of land.
But Nirupa’s family is holding out, in the hope for a better deal from the
company. The compensation they got two decades ago has run out. The company has
failed to give permanent employment to a member of the family. As per
provisions of the Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition and Development Act, 1957,
under which the land was acquired, people are expected to vacate their houses
only after getting permanent employment in the company. Nirupa’s family has
challenged SECL in the high court.
“I am not sure how we will sustain if the house we live in is taken away from
us by force,” she said. "Our lawyers say that the government has the right
to do so under the law. They explain to us that coal is extracted for national
interest. Tell me, don't our interests matter?”
Nirupa
Bai, outside her house in Barkuta village
But SECL claims it can no longer provide jobs to the people displaced by its
mines. Economic realities have changed. Over two decades, the company’s staff
size bloated, which reduced the efficiency and profitability of its mining
operations. The troubles in the government coal companies led to the clamour
for the privatisation of coal mining.
In the 1990s, the government transferred some coal blocks to private companies,
but they were allowed to mine coal only for use in their factories, and not for
sale in the market. The transfer of mines further depleted the land available
with the government coal companies. As they fell short of meeting production
targets, the demand for privatisation of coal mining have only grown louder.
The Coal Bill 2014, which is pending in Parliament, has an enabling provision
that could open up commercial coal mining to the private sector in the future.
Oddly, despite being locked in battle with SECL over land disputes and rising
pollution, people in Korba vehemently oppose the privatisation of coal mining.
“When we point out the problems of the government organisations, it does not
mean we are asking for privatisation,” said Lakshmi Chauhan, a mining activist.
Many people blame the private sector for the lack of jobs in the government
owned coal mines. Few outside the coal mining areas know the extent of work
that the government companies have outsourced to private players. “Apart from
sensitive jobs like blasting on the mine sites, which requires the use of
explosives, almost everything else is outsourced to smaller private companies,”
said Gopal Narayan Singh, a senior mechanic at SECL, who is also the president
of the trade union.
For instance, in Asia’s largest opencast coal mines in Gevra, owned by SECL,
the trucks that transport coal, those that clear the overburden and coal
washing are all run by smaller private companies.
This has reduced the capacity of SECL to provide jobs for the displaced
villagers. In the mid-80s, when coal mining was not as mechanised, Coal India
had a policy of providing one job per displaced farmer. “They needed our hands
then,” said Krishna Kumar. “Today, large machines do most of the work, and they
need us lesser and lesser.”
Mechanisation
has reduced the jobs available in coal mines
Trade union leaders claim the private companies in the mining belt have already
tilted the scales against workers. Instead of permanent jobs, workers are hired
on short contracts. They are paid lower wages, and they are not allowed to
unionise. “We have the tools of forming a trade union and voting in the
elections against the state-owned company, but if we allow private firms to
take over, we will have no leverage over them at all,” said Singh.
Activists believe that by allowing private players to enter the market to
extract coal for profit, as the latest Coal Bill does, the profit-making public
sector company Coal India Limited will be pressured to conform to market
economics. “This is unfair,” said Chauhan. “The private players do not play by
the rules – they pay their employees less, do not ensure safety of
their workers and therefore have a leverage to sell coal at a lower rate. This
will push CIL out of the market.”
In early September 2014, the government approved the sale of 10% stake in Coal
India Limited and some other government-run energy companies. According to the
government, the decision to sell off stakes in major public sector enterprises
is a way of meeting its fiscal deficit target of 4.1% by March 31.
Trade unions are also opposed to any dilution in the government’s stake in Coal
India Limited. In January 2015, they went on a three-day strike against the
disinvestment of CIL. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley gave them
assurances that the government did not plan to sell off parts of the company.
Anil Swaroop, the coal secretary, maintains that private sector participation
in coal mining will be limited. “We do not want to divest CIL,” he said.
"We are just keeping in line with the SEBI guidelines on how much stake a
public limited company should put out."
Swaroop says that the priority of the government is to reduce the import of
coal. “The people of this country have three options in front of them,” he
said, “either CIL mines, private Indian companies mine or we import.” He says
even though the best option is for CIL to mine, it is better to let Indian
private companies mine where it is not possible for the government to step in
instead of importing the mineral.
In order to avoid imports, Swaroop says, the total coal production needed in
this country is 1.5 billion tonnes by 2020. One billion out of this would come
from CIL, according to the estimates by the Ministry of Coal, and the balance
500 from non-CIL mines. India currently imports about 180 million tonnes of
coal. “If we manage to mine 1.5 billion, we would not need to import any coal,”
he added.
Gevra
mines is Asia's largest open cast mine
But those who stand to lose their land to mining fear that the private sector
would edge them out of their lands even more unceremoniously. The compensation
would be less than that offered by government companies. The government
acquires land under the Coal Bearing Act of 1957. The private companies will
acquire lands under the Land Acquisition Act, which has been amended in 2014
through an ordinance. This ordinance excludes the need for any social impact
assessment on the areas to be mined.
“If there is no one to assess what impact a mine in the neighbourhood can have,
on what basis do you compensate the evacuees?” asked Sudha Bharadwaj, a lawyer
and activist. “Therefore, they will no longer acquire lands from the poor
farmers, they would just buy them off with no responsibility taken after that.”
In the neighbouring district of Raigarh, where there are large reserves of
coal, nearly a dozen coal mines had been allotted to private companies. But
those companies will have to give up the mines on March 31 abiding by the
2014 Supreme Court order which cancelled all mine allocations made since 1993,
holding them illegal and arbitrary.
In Raigarh, many people said they wanted government companies to bag the mines
in the auction that is taking place in Delhi. “People here say they will
distribute sweets jubilantly if SECL comes in, instead of any of the private
guys,” said Rinchin, an activist who works extensively with the villagers of
Kosampalli.
Beyond their narrow concerns over compensation and jobs, people also invoke
larger principles of the ownership and control of a country’s natural
resources. Prem Jasiwal, 35, has 15 acres of thick mango groves that
uncomfortably embrace Gevra mines. “It is just a matter of time,” he said. “But
if I have to give up the land of my ancestors, I would rather give it for the
nation than place it in the hands of private companies.”
Prem
Jaiswal stands to lose his 15 acres of mango groves to a coal mine
