Battle against dams building up :: HINDU

MUMBAI, May 6, 2012

Environment Ministry rejected forest clearance to Kalu dam in Thane district

While irregularities were surfacing in irrigation projects around Mumbai in early April, the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) rejected forest clearance to the Kalu dam in Murbad taluka of Thane district, which would have submerged around 1,000 hectares of forest land.

Work started last October without permission from the MOEF, and Indavi Tulpule of the Shramik Mukti Sanghatana said hundreds of trees were chopped, in blatant violation of the Forest Conservation Act. The dam didn't have approvals from the MoEF, there was no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), or rehabilitation and resettlement plan, or a public consultation, according to a statement from the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP) and the Sanghatana, both of which have been raising this issue.

Public interest litigation

It isn't Kalu alone that is fraught with irregularities. In the case of the Kondhane dam in Karjat, similar violations have been raised in a public interest litigation in the Bombay High Court, filed by Anjali Damania of India Against Corruption (IAC) and some other groups, which is coming up for hearing on May 11. Kalu is just one of the 15 or so dams coming up in the adjoining Thane and Raigad districts of Mumbai, aimed at increasing the drinking water provision in areas under the Mumbai Metropolitan Development Region Authority (MMRDA) and Navi Mumbai.

According to activists of the Shramik Mukti Sanghatana, 18 villages, with around 18,000 inhabitants, mostly tribals, would be displaced by the Kalu dam, financed by MMRDA. The FAC's rejection is based on the premise that there is ‘no respect for the laws of the land,' according to a site inspection report in January by the Regional Chief Conservator of Forests.

After the Sanghatana filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Bombay High Court, the construction on the dam was stayed in March. According to SANDRP and the Sanghatana, when the Regional Chief Conservator of Forests, Central Zone, visited the dam site, he was shocked by the extent of destruction. In his report submitted to the MoEF, he said the project proponents had no respect for the laws of the land and ‘took permissions from the MoEF for granted.' The statement said the Konkan Irrigation Development Corporation (KIDC) gave the work order to a contractor in May 2011, but submitted the proposal to the MoEF only in August 2011. In addition, KIDC grossly underestimated the number of trees to be felled, and the villages that would be affected. It didn't even consider those villages which were to be cut off by the dam.

Displacement of tribals

The FAC said “it has taken note of the complaints received regarding this dam, and also that the State government hasn't submitted any of the reports requested by the MoEF.” SANDRP said there were multiple dams coming up in the ecologically-sensitive Western Ghats around Mumbai, and a punitive measure would set an example for the remaining dams coming up too. Most of these dams have no EIA, environmental clearance, public consultations, Social Impact Assessment, or independent monitoring and scrutiny. They all displace tribals without their consent, or without any rehabilitation plans.

In March, tribals led by the Kashtakari Sanghatana took a morcha to the MMRDA offices in Bandra to oppose these dams, which were to supply water to the cities. Brian Lobo of the Sanghatana said the government must first create an efficient water distribution network, plug all leakages and misappropriation of water, and conduct a Water Audit for the entire MMRDA area. A recent report by the Paani Hakk Samiti and YUVA States that while 3,350 million litres of water is supplied to Mumbai daily, approximately 1,000 million litres is lost due to leakages, rusted pipes, or from pipes that have been sabotaged.

The Sanghatana opposed dams to provide water to the entire area falling under the MMRDA, including the Municipal areas of Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli, Ulhasnagar, New Mumbai, Vasai-Virar, Mira-Bhayandar, and called for immediate cancellation of the Kalu, Susari, Shai and Balganga dams.

For the past hundred years, dams, which have been constructed in the rural areas of Thane and Raigad districts to supply water to Mumbai, destroyed the lives and livelihoods of Adivasis and farmers, the Sanghatana said. It criticised the “skewed policies of the government, which displaced Adivasis while providing the mega-cities of Mumbai-Thane and its suburbs with an uninterrupted supply of water from these dams.”

Rice bowl turns bare for farmers in West Bengal :: The HINDU - ANANYA DUTTA / The RICE TRADE to fall 5pc in 2012

They are being forced to sell their produce at prices much below those of last year

the Hindu

The wife of Bhootnath Pal, a marginal farmer who committed suicide, waits at home in Kauri village in Bardhaman district for the arrival of her daughter and her first grandchild, born a day after her husband hung himself. The district has been witness to 21 of the 31 reported farmer suicides Photo:: Sushanta Patronobish


February 1, 2012 :: The HINDU

Baishakhi Ghosh sits at the threshold of her home at Kauri village in Bardhaman district with her new-born son, but breaks into tears as her mother feeds her a sweetmeat — part of the rituals of bringing her first grandchild to the home for the first time. Alternating between wailing and consoling each other, the women of the household of Bhootnath Pal, a farmer who was found hanging from the branch of a tree on Saturday, do their best to come to terms with the tragedy.

THE LAST STRAW

 “He was overcome with worry these last few months. The thought of another addition to the family must have pushed him over the edge,” said Attanti Pal, Bhootnath's wife.

The worry over his grandchild, born in by a cruel twist of fate just a day after Bhootnath committed suicide, may have been the last straw, but there is no denying the fact that he owed nearly Rs. 30,000 (Rs. 7,500 borrowed as an agricultural loan from the Bank of India more than two years ago, which remains unpaid, Rs. 10,000 taken from a local moneylender and sundry sums elsewhere) or that he had not received the money for the little surplus grain he had harvested this season.

Bhootnath joined a few other farmers from Kauri village to sell their grain to the rice mill on January 20 but they were not given any money. A day after his suicide, the cheque in the name of Swapan Pradhan was issued.

 “We sold our paddy to the rice mill on January 6 and are yet to receive our cheques,” said another farmer from the village.

 Bhootnath Pal is one of the 31 farmers, who according to media reports committed suicide in the State in the last four months. Twenty-one of these have been reported in Bardhaman district alone, considered the rice bowl of West Bengal.

 According to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee none of them, with the exception of one, is a farmer.  After a major disagreement with his father over the purchase of a pair of buffaloes, 20-year-old Prosenjit Mondal hanged himself from a tree. Prosenjit worked on the five bighas (less than two acres) of land – two owned by his father and another three that they tilled for a landlord. Over the years, his father has run up a debt of Rs. 40,000.

LOWER PRICES

Already burdened with debt, farmers are being forced to sell their produce at prices much below those of last year. While small farmers like Bhootnath Pal and Prosenjit Mondal have always relied on middlemen to transport their grains to the rice mills, the prices offered by the traders this year are less than those of last year, even as the cost of fertilizers and pesticides has doubled in the same period.

 “Last year the traders would give us up to Rs. 600 per sack (of 60 kg) of paddy. This year it was as low as Rs. 450,” said Khokon Mondal.

BUMPER CROP 

According to Food and Supplies Minister Jyoti Priya Mallick, there has been a bumper crop of 150 lakh tonnes of paddy in West Bengal this season. As a result, the price of paddy in the open market has dropped substantially.

 The Left parties and the Congress have been stating that if the State government procured more grain, the farmers would be assured of the minimum support price of Rs. 1080 per quintal of paddy (Rs. 648 per sack of 60 kg) announced by the Centre.

 However, Mr. Mallick claims that the State already procured over four lakh tonnes of rice, which is more than the three lakh tonnes that the previous Left Front government had procured.

Rice trade to fall 5 pc in 2012: FAO

February 1, 2012 :: The Hindu

The global rice trade is expected to decline 5 per cent year-on-year in 2012 due to falling demand, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Wednesday.

Last year’s rice exports reached a record 34.5 million tons but are expected to drop to 32.8 million tons in 2012, according to FAO estimates.

“Among the countries expected to import less rice in 2012 are Bangladesh, Indonesia, Nepal, Nigeria and the Philippines,” the FAO said. Production is up in those countries, reducing the demand for imports.

Thailand, the world’s leading rice exporter for five decades, shipped 10.5 million tons last year, but the kingdom will ship less in 2012 due to a government price-guarantee scheme that makes its export prices uncompetitive, the FAO predicted.

The policy has already reduced rice shipments by 50 per cent year-on-year since November, according to the Thai Rice Exporters Association.

The association predicted Thailand’s rice shipments will fall as much as 40 per cent this year, to about 6.5 million tons.

Shipments from Cambodia, China, India and Pakistan appear set to increase this year, the FAO said.

The U.N. agency noted that rice prices had dropped 7 per cent since October, and the trend was likely to persist in 2012.

“The downward trend in rice prices is expected to persist in coming months as demand continues to weaken, and harvests in Northern Hemisphere countries and those along and south of the equator add supplies to the market,” the FAO said.