This is especially relevant given that the coal ministry has circulated a Cabinet note espousing the possibility of mining in 90 per cent of the forest area ( 90 percent of no-go areas) of the country.
The conscience of the coal companies is taken care of with the coal minister generously adding that for every tree cut, “companies have to plant three such trees. Coal India is doing such things voluntarily.” Planting three such trees-if ever done-and with some 95 percent mortiality does not replace a ravaged eco-system, an old growth forest.
The Times of India quotes that the Union government has decided that 3,80,000 hectares of forest land will be open to mining in the future. But the coal lobby thinks this is peanuts—it wants, by some reports, five times that amount,
Mining , and other development projects as India races on the growth path is the biggest threat to the tiger today..
Mining in TigerLand
The tiger’s most unfortunate truth—besides the fact that Man wants to make a meal of its bones—is that the ground beneath his feet is rich with minerals, and greed has
cast its eye on it. Overtime, millions of hectares of ‘tigerland’ have been diverted for mining, and the demand to open up more forest for ‘black gold’ escalates. The latest horror story is from Rajasthan. The states' apathy is evident in the fact that tigers went extinct in Sariska in 2004. A massive effort, and hundreds of crores later the tiger staged a grand return, only to have its guardian, the state imperil its refuge by granting leases to no less than 40 mines around the reserve. Tadoba in Maharashtra fares no better, with 16 proposed mines, coal washeries and thermal power plants coming up in its fringes—in addition to the 25 that are already operating, threatening to reduce the landscape into one big coal quarry and overburden dumping ground. Maharashtra has also thrown open the rich forests of Sindhudurg for iron ore and bauxite, granting 49 leases in what is one of the world’s top biodiversity hotspots, and a crucial wildlife corridor connecting Radhanagri, Koyna and Anshi-Dandeli Tiger Reserve. Experts have minced no words in calling this “an ecological disaster.”
The forests of Jharkhand, Orissa, Karnataka, Goa and Chattisgarh have been ravaged by mines. Let’s focus on just one example: Saranda in Jharkhand, Asia’s largest and finest Sal forests, which has lost over 40 per cent of canopy cover to iron ore mines. Disaster awaits, with the big boys of steel ie Tata, Jindal, Arcelor-Mittal, Essar pushing their proposals. If these were to come through two-thirds of the forest will go under mines, and Saranda will be lost forever.
The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister’s vow to ‘save tigers’ as recorded on TV reeks of hypocrisy. MP has floated proposals for coal mines near Bandhavgarh, and the forest corridor between the Bori-Satpura and Pench Tiger Reserves. Six of these fall in Chindwara, a politically volatile minefield as it in the constituency of Roads and Highways minister Kamalnath, already at odds with the Ministry of Environment and Forests for refusing the expansion of NH-7. Incidentally, this highway cuts through the Kanha-Pench corridor slashing over 60 km of crucial tiger habitat.
Corridors are vital for the survival of long ranging species like the tiger. Mines in such close proximity will wreak havoc on the fragile ecosystem and isolate tiger populations eventually leading to a genetic dead end. Fragmented habitats also push tigers into human habitation escalating man-tiger conflict.
But efforts by the Minister of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh to rationalise, and restrict the opening up of forests for mining has met with severe criticism, not just from corporate and concerned ministries, but even from the Prime Minister’s office, even as the PM reiterates his commitment to protect India’s national animal. For those who accuse the environment ministry of being ‘activist’ here’s news: About 90 per cent proposals put before the ministry get the green clearances.
The battle will only intensify given that the demand for coal is set to touch about 2,300 mt per annum by 2030 from the current 600 mt. With India’s main energy thrust continuing to be thermal power plants—the worst offender in global warming—development pundits fail to comprehend the import of such projects. When we pillage the earth on which the tiger walks, when we mine its forests,—essentially water catchment areas—we poison our water sources, and the soil, leading to loss of livelihood, huge amounts of displacement and consequent unrest.
prerna singh bindra
In the hindustan Times : http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/618224.aspx
there is a detailed note on this in the October 2010 issue of TigerLink.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
on naxals and forests
At a conference on Forestry Administration in Leftwing Extremist Areas, the Union Home Secretary GK Pillai accused forest guards of “collaborating” with the banned CPI(Maoists). The forest department was encouraging extremism. What the Home Ministry suggested, nay demanded, was that the department should help the police and other para-military forces in fighting the naxal menace.
It appears that the ‘honourable’ secretary has never been in a forest pillaged and ruled by naxals. Certainly not met with the forest guard they accuse of collaborating with the naxals struggle, more often than not, without timely wages, basic facilities and weapons in a lonely outpost, trying to protect our national animal, and the eco-system.
A trip to Similipal, the tiger reserve in Orissa which suffered a naxal attack in March, 2009 is recommended. There were 25 simultaneous attacks by naxals in the reserve over two days—communication towers were blown up, staff threatened and beaten, chowkis burnt, Mahendra, the elephant and an ‘employee’ of the forest department shot at.
One year later, the staff is back on the field, but crippled with shortage, malaria. They fight unarmed, having surrendered their guns to the police since it is a ‘naxal area’. In which case, why does the state not provide the risk-zone allowance it accords to the para-military forces and the police deployed here?
The staff is routinely threatened, morale has dipped, and the park in dire straits. In the absence of proper protection and vigilance, over 15 elephants have been poached.
There have been repeated pleas to deploy the CRPF to support forest staff, but to no avail. Not that it matters—given that the well-equipped and well-armed Special Operation Group deployed hovers on the edge rarely venturing inside the core areas.
The powers to be in Delhi could go farther towards the south—in the proposed Sunabeda tiger reserve, where Maoists gunned down a forest guard in May this year, and chained his body to the checkpost. Or they could appraise Saranda in Jharkhand. The list of attacks on foresters and forest property is long and bleak. One senior officer barely escaped a bid on his life last year when his jeep was blown into bits. A few years back a ranger’s head was cut off by the naxals. Interestingly, while the forest infrastructure—all the rest houses and chowkis and camps have been burnt and ravaged, the iron ore mines that gouge Asia’ finest Sal forest thrive. Is it black gold that is oiling the naxal industry here? This calls for close scrutiny. It is well-documented that trade in timber and wildlife derivatives has fed insurgency in the north-east, and other areas. The issue is a complex one with murky undertones and links. For instance, according to intelligence information, extremists are linked to the ganja mafia at Sunabeda. Ganja is grown inside the forest. Repeated attacks ensure that the region remains unstable, and largely unprotected so that business-as-usual continues.
Another criticism at the meeting was of foresters attending a naxal ‘event’, giving the unlawful group legitimacy. I am unaware of the particular incident referred—but when you are working—defenceless and outnumbered—in a naxal area, the thumb rule is: They call, and you go. Knowing that you may never come back. And knowing with even more certainty that you will not live, if you don’t.
The forest staff operates in places where even the police fear to tread. They are browbeaten, and their life made difficult. In Similipal, the naxals even cut fruit trees—a form of sustenance in far-flung outposts—and poured lead into drinking water wells of anti-poaching camps. Admittedly, forest personnel are not the main target. One reason is the mandate. Their job is to protect the forest and wildlife, not usurp the extremists. This is perhaps the only reason that the forest staff is able to operate-even if under constant threat, and at the mercy of the LWE. If they join forces with the paramilitary, they won’t survive. And our forests will lose any semblance of protection further fueling insurgency. They must be allowed to function, not just for the forest, but also to maintain some administrative functionality in the field.
The roots of unrest is the subject of another story, but it must be said that lack of good governance has ensured that people in such areas subsist without even basic facilities; even after six decades of independence and despite many welfare and development schemes targeting rural and tribal populations. This has played its part, as has the lack of focus on protection and the rot of corruption, which has left our forests open for plunder.
*this is an edited version of something i wrote on the subject. this was published in The Sunday Guardian. on 10/10/10
It appears that the ‘honourable’ secretary has never been in a forest pillaged and ruled by naxals. Certainly not met with the forest guard they accuse of collaborating with the naxals struggle, more often than not, without timely wages, basic facilities and weapons in a lonely outpost, trying to protect our national animal, and the eco-system.
A trip to Similipal, the tiger reserve in Orissa which suffered a naxal attack in March, 2009 is recommended. There were 25 simultaneous attacks by naxals in the reserve over two days—communication towers were blown up, staff threatened and beaten, chowkis burnt, Mahendra, the elephant and an ‘employee’ of the forest department shot at.
One year later, the staff is back on the field, but crippled with shortage, malaria. They fight unarmed, having surrendered their guns to the police since it is a ‘naxal area’. In which case, why does the state not provide the risk-zone allowance it accords to the para-military forces and the police deployed here?
The staff is routinely threatened, morale has dipped, and the park in dire straits. In the absence of proper protection and vigilance, over 15 elephants have been poached.
There have been repeated pleas to deploy the CRPF to support forest staff, but to no avail. Not that it matters—given that the well-equipped and well-armed Special Operation Group deployed hovers on the edge rarely venturing inside the core areas.
The powers to be in Delhi could go farther towards the south—in the proposed Sunabeda tiger reserve, where Maoists gunned down a forest guard in May this year, and chained his body to the checkpost. Or they could appraise Saranda in Jharkhand. The list of attacks on foresters and forest property is long and bleak. One senior officer barely escaped a bid on his life last year when his jeep was blown into bits. A few years back a ranger’s head was cut off by the naxals. Interestingly, while the forest infrastructure—all the rest houses and chowkis and camps have been burnt and ravaged, the iron ore mines that gouge Asia’ finest Sal forest thrive. Is it black gold that is oiling the naxal industry here? This calls for close scrutiny. It is well-documented that trade in timber and wildlife derivatives has fed insurgency in the north-east, and other areas. The issue is a complex one with murky undertones and links. For instance, according to intelligence information, extremists are linked to the ganja mafia at Sunabeda. Ganja is grown inside the forest. Repeated attacks ensure that the region remains unstable, and largely unprotected so that business-as-usual continues.
Another criticism at the meeting was of foresters attending a naxal ‘event’, giving the unlawful group legitimacy. I am unaware of the particular incident referred—but when you are working—defenceless and outnumbered—in a naxal area, the thumb rule is: They call, and you go. Knowing that you may never come back. And knowing with even more certainty that you will not live, if you don’t.
The forest staff operates in places where even the police fear to tread. They are browbeaten, and their life made difficult. In Similipal, the naxals even cut fruit trees—a form of sustenance in far-flung outposts—and poured lead into drinking water wells of anti-poaching camps. Admittedly, forest personnel are not the main target. One reason is the mandate. Their job is to protect the forest and wildlife, not usurp the extremists. This is perhaps the only reason that the forest staff is able to operate-even if under constant threat, and at the mercy of the LWE. If they join forces with the paramilitary, they won’t survive. And our forests will lose any semblance of protection further fueling insurgency. They must be allowed to function, not just for the forest, but also to maintain some administrative functionality in the field.
The roots of unrest is the subject of another story, but it must be said that lack of good governance has ensured that people in such areas subsist without even basic facilities; even after six decades of independence and despite many welfare and development schemes targeting rural and tribal populations. This has played its part, as has the lack of focus on protection and the rot of corruption, which has left our forests open for plunder.
*this is an edited version of something i wrote on the subject. this was published in The Sunday Guardian. on 10/10/10
Monday, October 11, 2010
a million trees in Ladakh?
here is what Bittu Sahgal has to say...and i second him:
Please rethink the idea of planting one million trees in Ladakh. This is an arid zone and artificially changing the ecology of the landscape, for which massive water diversion and care will be needed, will adversely affect this, one of the most beautiful, austere wildernesses on our planet. To understand the impact of trying to green a desert, you need look no further than the Thar Desert, which has been wounded by one of the worst developmental projects imaginable -- The Rajasthan Canal. This has harmed the fragile lifeforms, which had adapted to dry conditions and it has encouraged new diseases including malaria. Please. Leave Ladakh the way it is. Humans are amongst the least experienced "Gardeners of Eden". And nature is a very unforgiving mother when its wards disobey its instructions.
Please rethink the idea of planting one million trees in Ladakh. This is an arid zone and artificially changing the ecology of the landscape, for which massive water diversion and care will be needed, will adversely affect this, one of the most beautiful, austere wildernesses on our planet. To understand the impact of trying to green a desert, you need look no further than the Thar Desert, which has been wounded by one of the worst developmental projects imaginable -- The Rajasthan Canal. This has harmed the fragile lifeforms, which had adapted to dry conditions and it has encouraged new diseases including malaria. Please. Leave Ladakh the way it is. Humans are amongst the least experienced "Gardeners of Eden". And nature is a very unforgiving mother when its wards disobey its instructions.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Editorial, TigerLink, October 2010
A new study reiterates what we already know: India has the
maximum number of source sites and breeding populations:
The future of the tiger rests with us; India is the tiger’s best
hope.
So are we living upto our responsibility as the guardian
of the tiger? We have much to be proud of: India committed
to the cause nearly four decades back, and has set aside
land and resources—difficult, given the spiraling populationand
the race for growth. Our fund commitment is more than
all range countries put together.
Yet the crisis worsens by the day…and the Tiger
Doomsday Clock ticks on.
Here’s why:
The tiger’s most unfortunate truth—besides the fact that
Man wants to make a meal of its bones—is that the ground
beneath the tiger’s feet is rich with minerals, and greed has
cast its eye on it.
Tiger habitat is just about one per cent of India’s
landscape, and even this tiny domain is not safe. The gravest
threat is the pressure to open up forests for coal and thermal
power plants, in pursuit of a double digit GDP, never mind
that tigers, its forests, and water catchment areas are
destroyed in the process. Mines and coal projects have
ravaged the landscape around Tadoba. And there are still
more in the pipeline, inspite of the fact that coal has made the
region inhospitable for humans with high levels of pollution,
falling water tables, poisoned soil, water, air. There is a slew
of proposals for mines in the central Indian tiger landscape,
some bang on crucial tiger corridors. Equally worrying are
the highways, hydel-power projects, dams, that will fragment
and devastate tiger habitats. The much publicised expansion
of the NH 7 through the Kanha-Pench corridor slashes over
60 km of crucial tiger habitat, isolating and dooming sections
of India’s most viable source populations. The Supreme Court
has been silent on the issue for nearly two years, encouraging
the highways authority to bring the expanded highway right
upto the edge of Pench. The devastation need not be spelt
out.
Why this doublespeak? The government has stressed
its commitment to save the tiger. But the same government
also presses for mines, thermal and hydel-projects,
highways—even if they impinge on the tiger’s forests.
The cause of the tiger is not an isolated one, it must be a
concerted effort-taken up by the Ministry of Environment
and Forests supported by the ministry of roads, mines, coal,
power, agriculture etc. led by no less than the Prime Minister’s
office. Preserving our ecosystem must be a mainstream
issue—a preoccupation as much as a galloping economysimply
because on it rests our future. There can be no
economic security without ecological security.
I have said it before, and I will stress it again—
commitment is the key, from the state, the polity, bureaucracy
and the citizens of the country. .
There are other issues.
Man-tiger conflict: It is a miracle that the tiger survives
in a country of 1.3 billion, with their growing needs and
aspirations. This also means that tigers and people live cheekby
jowl, resulting in constant—and sometimes fatal-faceoffs.
But we still haven’t taken on board the gravity of the issue.
Our action is reactive, in response to a desperate, difficult
situation, usually to trap or tranquilise the animal and release
it elsewhere, or pack it off to the zoo. In rare cases, the mankilling
tiger is ‘disposed off’. But such ad-hoc measures lack
long term perspective. The plague of conflict is spread all
across tiger country and is further aggravated by degraded
fragmented habitats. Conflict takes a terrible toll on both
people, and tiger. Its impact goes beyond the immediate loss
of life and livelihood. It leads to loss of support for the tiger
and fuels poaching.
Why is it that there continues to be a paucity of funds
even after 35 years of conservation efforts, and much ado
over ‘Saving the Tiger’? Why has the situation on the ground
remained static even after three decades? Why is it that
reserves have no fuel for patrolling vehicles, to fight forest
fires or to pay frontline staff? Why is it that we cannot even
meet basic needs of tiger reserves and managers have to beg
and borrow to maintain some semblance of protection? The
point is: is there actually a paucity of funds? Or is it that
huge amounts of money is being poured on dead-end and
lucrative plantation and afforestation schemes rather than
the crucial task of protection? Why is the CAMPA fund—
hundreds of crores, primarily marked for restoring degraded
forests and wildlife protection, being allocated to the old
favourites—afforestation and plantations? And why is there
focus on civil construction works within PAs at the cost of
protection? Tigers do not need defunct check dams or fancy
watch towers within their sanctuary. If park managers fail the
tiger, how can we expect support from outside?
Why is it that we have not created sound management
systems and enabled protectors? Why do we not support
good, committed managers and hold those fail in their duty
(remember Panna?) accountable? Why is our frontline staff
highly inadequate, unequipped, untrained? Can we expect a
forest watcher, unpaid and unarmed, to take on well-armed
gangs of timber smugglers and poachers. They must be
enabled, so that they can be taken to task when they fail in
their duty.
Why is it that we have let fecund tiger habitats wither
away and die? There are plenty of examples: Hazaribagh in
Jharkhand, Shivpuri in MP, Suhelwa in Uttar Pradesh, Kawal
in Andhra Pradesh. Why are there no efforts to conserve
tigers in these protected areas? Why is the main focus largely
concentrated on celebrated tiger reserves, while the lesserknown
ones suffer due to lack of much-needed attention
and support even from the centre? Why are we ‘ignoring’
tigers outside the reserves-good breeding populations that
survive, for instance, in Lansdowne forest division close to
Corbett or the Moyar Valley near Mudumalai? Why is there
no strategy for tigers outside PAs, or efforts to take such
viable areas under Project Tiger? Are they the ‘Tigers of a
lesser God’?
Prerna Singh Bindra
maximum number of source sites and breeding populations:
The future of the tiger rests with us; India is the tiger’s best
hope.
So are we living upto our responsibility as the guardian
of the tiger? We have much to be proud of: India committed
to the cause nearly four decades back, and has set aside
land and resources—difficult, given the spiraling populationand
the race for growth. Our fund commitment is more than
all range countries put together.
Yet the crisis worsens by the day…and the Tiger
Doomsday Clock ticks on.
Here’s why:
The tiger’s most unfortunate truth—besides the fact that
Man wants to make a meal of its bones—is that the ground
beneath the tiger’s feet is rich with minerals, and greed has
cast its eye on it.
Tiger habitat is just about one per cent of India’s
landscape, and even this tiny domain is not safe. The gravest
threat is the pressure to open up forests for coal and thermal
power plants, in pursuit of a double digit GDP, never mind
that tigers, its forests, and water catchment areas are
destroyed in the process. Mines and coal projects have
ravaged the landscape around Tadoba. And there are still
more in the pipeline, inspite of the fact that coal has made the
region inhospitable for humans with high levels of pollution,
falling water tables, poisoned soil, water, air. There is a slew
of proposals for mines in the central Indian tiger landscape,
some bang on crucial tiger corridors. Equally worrying are
the highways, hydel-power projects, dams, that will fragment
and devastate tiger habitats. The much publicised expansion
of the NH 7 through the Kanha-Pench corridor slashes over
60 km of crucial tiger habitat, isolating and dooming sections
of India’s most viable source populations. The Supreme Court
has been silent on the issue for nearly two years, encouraging
the highways authority to bring the expanded highway right
upto the edge of Pench. The devastation need not be spelt
out.
Why this doublespeak? The government has stressed
its commitment to save the tiger. But the same government
also presses for mines, thermal and hydel-projects,
highways—even if they impinge on the tiger’s forests.
The cause of the tiger is not an isolated one, it must be a
concerted effort-taken up by the Ministry of Environment
and Forests supported by the ministry of roads, mines, coal,
power, agriculture etc. led by no less than the Prime Minister’s
office. Preserving our ecosystem must be a mainstream
issue—a preoccupation as much as a galloping economysimply
because on it rests our future. There can be no
economic security without ecological security.
I have said it before, and I will stress it again—
commitment is the key, from the state, the polity, bureaucracy
and the citizens of the country. .
There are other issues.
Man-tiger conflict: It is a miracle that the tiger survives
in a country of 1.3 billion, with their growing needs and
aspirations. This also means that tigers and people live cheekby
jowl, resulting in constant—and sometimes fatal-faceoffs.
But we still haven’t taken on board the gravity of the issue.
Our action is reactive, in response to a desperate, difficult
situation, usually to trap or tranquilise the animal and release
it elsewhere, or pack it off to the zoo. In rare cases, the mankilling
tiger is ‘disposed off’. But such ad-hoc measures lack
long term perspective. The plague of conflict is spread all
across tiger country and is further aggravated by degraded
fragmented habitats. Conflict takes a terrible toll on both
people, and tiger. Its impact goes beyond the immediate loss
of life and livelihood. It leads to loss of support for the tiger
and fuels poaching.
Why is it that there continues to be a paucity of funds
even after 35 years of conservation efforts, and much ado
over ‘Saving the Tiger’? Why has the situation on the ground
remained static even after three decades? Why is it that
reserves have no fuel for patrolling vehicles, to fight forest
fires or to pay frontline staff? Why is it that we cannot even
meet basic needs of tiger reserves and managers have to beg
and borrow to maintain some semblance of protection? The
point is: is there actually a paucity of funds? Or is it that
huge amounts of money is being poured on dead-end and
lucrative plantation and afforestation schemes rather than
the crucial task of protection? Why is the CAMPA fund—
hundreds of crores, primarily marked for restoring degraded
forests and wildlife protection, being allocated to the old
favourites—afforestation and plantations? And why is there
focus on civil construction works within PAs at the cost of
protection? Tigers do not need defunct check dams or fancy
watch towers within their sanctuary. If park managers fail the
tiger, how can we expect support from outside?
Why is it that we have not created sound management
systems and enabled protectors? Why do we not support
good, committed managers and hold those fail in their duty
(remember Panna?) accountable? Why is our frontline staff
highly inadequate, unequipped, untrained? Can we expect a
forest watcher, unpaid and unarmed, to take on well-armed
gangs of timber smugglers and poachers. They must be
enabled, so that they can be taken to task when they fail in
their duty.
Why is it that we have let fecund tiger habitats wither
away and die? There are plenty of examples: Hazaribagh in
Jharkhand, Shivpuri in MP, Suhelwa in Uttar Pradesh, Kawal
in Andhra Pradesh. Why are there no efforts to conserve
tigers in these protected areas? Why is the main focus largely
concentrated on celebrated tiger reserves, while the lesserknown
ones suffer due to lack of much-needed attention
and support even from the centre? Why are we ‘ignoring’
tigers outside the reserves-good breeding populations that
survive, for instance, in Lansdowne forest division close to
Corbett or the Moyar Valley near Mudumalai? Why is there
no strategy for tigers outside PAs, or efforts to take such
viable areas under Project Tiger? Are they the ‘Tigers of a
lesser God’?
Prerna Singh Bindra
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