FRIDAY, MAY 10, 2024
AGNELO FURTADO
John Steinbeck’s award winning novel, ‘The Grapes of Wrath’, gives a vivid insight into the horrendous living conditions of the labourers, in an event called the “Dust bowl” of America. The novel written in the period of the ‘Great American Depression of the 1930s, describes the horrifying scenes of the migrant labourers, of births and deaths, joys and sorrows, elders being buried in makeshift fruit crates, new-born children kept cuddled in fruit baskets, vivid scene of a lactating mother feeding a man dying of hunger, which became a central theme of many famous American paintings.
Here in India, we see much more horrifying scenes: labourers sleeping on the railway tracks after exhaustion were run down by a speeding train. There were countless road accidents. A family of labourers travelling on a cycle were knocked down by a speeding truck, in the tragedy, parents died and children survived. A 12-year-old girl, after walking for miles, collapsed and died out of exhaustion, just before reaching her house, which was in her gazing sight, a tragic home coming.
We would require the literary prose and prowess of Arundhati Roy to bring out the laments and torments of the poor farmers and labourers to awaken our government.
It is pertinent to note at this point, that the slew of innovative measures taken by the great American President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, himself a pandemic polio victim, to recover from the great American depression of the 1930s, he aided agriculture and employment.
DESTROYED ECOSYSTEM
We can learn from history, in reference to our own context. Mining can be compared to, as the ‘Dust Bowl of Goa’.
Indiscriminate ‘open cast’ mining has wreaked havoc on the ecology, deep pits and craters are caused on hillsides.
During monsoons, landslides and muddy water runoffs cascade into the paddy fields, making them uncultivable and causing irreparable damage. The mining dust settles on the leaves of trees thereby choking the vegetation of the forest. Mining trucks transporting iron ore through the villages cause air pollution, which settles on the houses, triggering allergies and respiratory ailments.
Some mining pits have gone so deep that they have reached below the sea level, draining the water and drying up the springs and wells. Rivers have become polluted; drinking water supplies in dams have been contaminated with heavy metals and let us not speak about the enormous deforestation.
Mines are operating close to wildlife sanctuaries and parks, without a proper buffer zone; in fact, mining has stopped because there is no mining policy.
SUGGESTED REMEDIES
For every tonne of iron ore extracted, there are 3 tonnes of mining rejects, together with the topsoil; the least that could be done is to put back the soil in the mining pits to maintain the hydrostatic pressure. Large scale afforestation should be undertaken, utilizing the District Mineral Fund and the CAMPA fund. Locals from mining zones who suffered must be helped through these funds. There have to be new innovative ways adopted for iron ore transportation such as rail, covered conveyor belts, overhead cable baskets etc.
Ore can be converted into slurry by adding water and pumped into pipelines for long distances, which is now proved to be quite cost effective. A separate corridor, bypassing the village, has to be implemented to transport the ore. Mining has been going on for more than half a century and all have recovered their investment and have made profits. Mining licences should now be given for a short period of say five years and if any illegality is observed, licenses should be revoked, especially if damage is caused to the environment.
Iron ore is a finite resource, which needs to be preserved for the future generations. It has to be regulated and mined judiciously with sustainable targets every year. It is prudent to have a permanent ‘Corpus Fund’ and utilize only the accruing interest.
The poor only get the crumbs that fall off the mining table, while the barons feast on the loaves. This wealth has to trickle down to every Goan family and not to a selected few, as this is community wealth.
JUDGES’ VIEW
The Courts have emphasized that the mineral wealth belongs to the people and the govt acts only as its trustee and caretaker. Community wealth should be used judiciously and optimized. At this point, we need to laud the relentless efforts made by the activists and NGOs, especially Goa Foundation, and others to protect the environment by filling PIL after PIL, often called the bitter PIL, at their own expense under very stressful conditions.
In this cloak and dagger game, the activist and the NGO is cunningly portrayed as the villain but in reality is the saviour. Then came the ‘Justice Shah Commission report’, which said the govt was hand in glove with the mining lobby, in the mining scam and that there was a revenue loss of Rs 35,000 crores. The bogey of illegal mining was first raised by ex-CM (late) Manohar Parrikar to red flag the erstwhile Congress govt. However, when he came to power, he watered down the losses to Rs 3,500 crores.
The latest indictment comes from Lokayukta ex-judge P K Misra, for allegedly illegally renewing 88 mining leases by the govt. The report is collecting dust as no action is taken, which prompted the Lokayukta to state sarcastically that only God can save Goa in these circumstances.
In a hurry to resume mining, we may have to apply the brakes, as majority of the workers are from outside Goa. We might be able to export the ore but might end up importing COVID-19. Let us tread on this mine field cautiously. In this mining imbroglio, who will untie the ‘Gordian Knot’? Or will it have to be cut open? Only time will tell.
The State should not beg the Centre to allow restarting of mining; using the current anti-ecologic methods of extracting the ore as a way to fill the gaps in revenue. Instead, it should ask to borrow funds, which can be partially repaid from the revenues generated from a new start of mining but only after investment in the implementation of a new ecological mining strategy.
