In the past seven years, more than 30 million tones of iron ore was illegally exported from the state of Karnataka alone. At a conservative price of $ 150 per tonne, these illegal exports would value a staggering Rs 22,500 crore or more. There is immense `collateral damage’ to the country, it has been estimated that over 1.6 lakh hectares of forest land have been diverted for mining. Iron ore mining alone has used up 77 million tones of water in just one year, 2005-06. In 2006 alone, 1.84 billion tones of waste was dumped on the fertile land of our country due to such indiscriminate mining.
The government of India had declared that Vedanta has seriously violated all the major laws like the Environment Protection Act, the Forest Conservation Act and the Forest Rights Act. It has ordered a further investigation into the allegation that the bauxite currently being sourced by Vedanta from 14 Jharkhand mines comes from at least 11 that do not have a valid environmental clearance. It is estimated that if the clearance had been given, in this instance, it would have led to the destruction of seven kilometers of forests that await inclusion in the Niyamgiri wildlife sanctuary. This would also have dealt a devastating destruction of livelihood and habitation of the Dongaria Kondh and Kutia Kondh tribal population who inhabit these forests.
Not withstanding the charges of `politicisation’ – one citing that this decision has come on the eve of Rahul Gandhi’s visit to the area to uphold the rights of the tribals, while another citing the fact that if such a permission was granted, then Anil Agarwal’s Vedanta would have outstripped Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance as the richest Indian – this decision once again brings to the fore the crucial issue of the loot of our country’s mineral resources.
The loot of our mineral resources, particularly illegal mining and illegal exports of such resources constitutes the worst case of `crony capitalism’ in India today. Bellary and illegal iron ore exports have been figuring in the news for a long time now. Worse is the fact that such loot of our mineral wealth is not confined to any one mineral or to any one state. There is literally a mine of information in the answers given to parliamentary questions on the widespread loot of the country through illegal mining and illegal exports in a large number of states. This represents a gigantic loot of the resources of our country.
The issue of safeguarding our country’s rich mineral resources is no longer an issue of only preventing the loot of our precious resources or to bring to book the culprits who are making enormously huge profits through illegal means.
Source: Times Of India Newspaper dated 7/09/2010
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