Campaign Letters
Her Excellency, Mrs. Pratibha Patil
President of India
Rashtrapati Bhavan
New Delhi – 110
004
India
Fax : 91-11-23017290 / 91-11-23017824
Date: 24th July, 2009
Your Excellency,
PETITION FOR IMMEDIATE STOP TO NEW MINING OPERATIONS IN THE UPPER DAMODAR WATERSHED AFFECTING A MILLION PEOPLE IN 200 VILLAGES
We are a coalition of groups and individuals, both Indian and international,
who are concerned about the devastation being effected by the rapid
expansion of opencast coal mining in the Upper Damodar watershed, also known
as the Karanpura Valley in the Hazaribagh and Chatra districts of Jharkhand,
a richly forested and agricultural landscape with hundreds of ancestral
villages belonging to originally settled societies. We respectfully ask that
you order an immediate stoppage to mining operations and an open and
transparent review of how mine clearances are granted.
The State of Jharkhand was formed in 2000 to address the historical
discrimination and disenfranchisement of the original settlers who had lived
in the region before the establishment of present State boundaries, who are
defined by ILO Convention 169 as Indigenous Peoples. Instead of protecting
the land rights of these peoples the State is sadly failing to live up to
its objective. Instead, the first decade of the State’s existence has been a
free-for-all for mining companies, at a terrible cost to the original people
and the environment. Damodar river and its tributaries, whose watersheds
rise in the proposed new Karanpura mining region, which catchment gives
water supplies to West Bengal and Orissa , and which rivers will be further
poisoned by the new proposed mines. The mines will be followed by new
thermal power stations which will be a further source of carbon dioxide
proliferation in large quantities. New dams will be built for the coal fired
Thermal Power Stations and forced displacements of people from their homes
will be accelerated. The unique and ancient landscape of the Chotanagpur
Plateau is being sacrificed in a short-sighted rush for profit.
As an example of this, we would like to draw your attention to the coal
mining scheduled to start shortly at Pakri-Barwadih near Barkagaon and over
thirty other mines which have been allocated in Karanpura region. The rape
of Jharkhand’s indigenous rights, cultural and environmental heritage, is
moving into a final stage. The fertile lands of the ancient Barkagaon
landscape and the rest of the Upper Damodar catchment watershed now slated
for mining as Karanpura Coalfields are among the best agricultural lands in
Jharkhand and have been farmed since before recorded history. A unique
palaeo-archaeological stone-tool evidence of Early Man known as the Damodar
Valley Civilization, prehistoric megalithic sites, and one dozen Mesolithic
rock-art sites, the pride of Jharkhand, dated to over 8,000 years back which
have been recommended to UNESCO as a Threatened World Heritage Site by
INTACH, and over 200 villages where the famous Khovar and Sohrai art being a
continuation of the rock-art tradition of the region, and thousands of
square kilometers of forests which are wildlife corridors for tiger and
elephants, and scores of rivers flowing through the peaceful green
agricultural landscape will be gouged out into 300 feet mine pits running
shoulder to shoulder down the Karanpura Valley, which will become a stark
lunar landscape incapable of supporting human or animal life. The famed
forests which are reflected in the name of Jharkhand itself, the “Forest
State”, will be gone. Many of the proud Adivasi people in whose name the
State of Jharkhand was formed have already been reduced to being homeless
beggars, unable to farm as their predecessors did. The Karanpura Valley of
the Upper Damodar catchment has been recognized as a world heritage site at
risk by the International Council for Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) which is
the forerunner body advising UNESCO for World Heritage Sites. It has also
been declared an Endangered Sacred Site by Sacred Sites International, USA
in 2005. In 2000, leading environmentalists had petitioned President
Clinton to stop the mining in the valley being funded by the World Bank
which appeal was successful. In light of the present escalation of the
mining hundreds of thousands of villagers will now be condemned to their
fate and forced from their homes as has happened so often, sacrificed for
the profits of a few companies.
This expansion has a considerable effect in terms of global warming, to which India is particularly susceptible. Carbon dioxide from burning coal is the single greatest contributor to global warming and can be precisely related to the temperature in the atmosphere. At present with 387 ppm of Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere the temperature is moving toward 2 oC rise leading to eco-catastrophic climate change, which poses a severe threat to human life through heat waves, loss of seasonal rainfall, rising sea levels, melting glaciers in the Himalayas leading to drying up of Himalayan rivers including the Ganges and Indus, and thereafter self-induced global warming through a variety of factors scientifically predicted to lead to sudden rise of temperature at between 400-450 ppm to a threshold of 5o C where it is estimated to stabilize for two centuries. Dr.James E. Hansen, the world’s foremost climatologist and authority on global warming, has publicly stated that climate eco-catastrophe must be contained within 4-10 years to save this planet. According to Dr.Hansen the main cause of global warming is the burning of coal releasing carbon dioxide, and he and Ex-President Al Gore of the USA are calling for a complete ban on coal mining. 13-14 billion tons of carbon dioxide remain unabsorbed every year in the atmosphere leading to the present concentration of 387ppm. Leading climate authorities are calling for an immediate reduction of 80 percent carbon dioxide emissions and artificial withdrawal of 37 ppm from the atmosphere to bring the level to 350ppm (www.350.org) which is the maximum permissible by climate scientists post-IPCC. Extracting this amount of Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere has been estimated will cost 20 trillion USD. On the other hand in India coal mining is being opened to private bidding and clearances are being assured to all new mines in order to meet a target of 1061 million tons a year by 2025. We earnestly entreat you to stop this. Coal mining apart from escalating global warming destroys agriculture and green environment including forests which support human life in the present and in the future in the event of eco-catastrophe will remain pockets of human survival.
This year the monsoons have failed in many parts due to climate change and rising sea levels are expected. Under these circumstances adding to green house gases (GHGs) is dangerous. The immediate reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by 80% has become a global concern. In this regard new opencast coal mines and coal-fired thermal power plants without sequestration, which are acknowledged as among the greatest producers of carbon dioxide, are unjustifiable and unacceptable. India is a low latitude tropical country highly vulnerable to the consequences of temperature rise; climate variability is a major constraint in agriculture, and a hotter climate will result in dryer lands threatening famine. In view of these facts the new mining displacement of vast populations and destruction of fertile agricultural land, coupled with the burning of more coal with more coal-fired thermal power plants is a threat to the security of the Nation and the World.
Your Excellency, in view of the foregoing we request you to consider the
above actions as violations of the following national and international Acts
and Declarations for the security of society,
We
attach herewith the list of names of companies given allotments for coal
mining in Karanpura. The Piperwar, Ashoka I & II mines have already
destroyed a large, forested landscape originally being Indigenous and
Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs), and wildlife corridors used by tigers and
elephants between Hazaribagh and Palamau. The Pakri Barwadih mine to our
knowledge has received Environmental Clearance which requires to be
investigated in view of its damage to bio-diversity and social displacement.
The cumulative effects will make Jharkhand one of the most tragic
humanitarian and environmental disaster areas in the world. Today it has
been reported in the newspaper TOI, 24 July, 2009 that the Deputy
Commissioner of Hazaribagh visited village Arahara in the proposed
Pakri-Barwadih mine and told the villagers who are refusing to give their
land for the coal mine that the State Government’s stand is clear that if
the villagers do not relent, the government is bound to acquire the land for
the coal mining project in the larger interest of the nation. Mahatma Gandhi
had said that when the will of the majority infringes the rights of the
individual it is a transgression of justice. This is such an example through
forced displacement of indigenous land holders.
Your Excellency, it is time for India to live up to the vision of its
founders and put a stop to this. We respectfully request that a line be
drawn starting with this ill-conceived mine at Pakri-Barwadih, which we are
informed has been given environmental clearance despite huge damage to the
environment and social displacement, and that you order an immediate
stoppage to its operations. We also object to the recommendation for deemed
environmental clearance, that is of clearance obtained automatically. We
request that you order a moratorium and ban all new mining projects in the
Upper Damodar catchment watershed in the Karanpura valley and order an open
and transparent review of the way mine environmental clearances are granted.
In this way, you will be fulfilling your responsibility to future
generations who will otherwise be condemned to lives of unimaginable misery
and poverty.
Your name will also be recorded by history as a leader who acted with vision, wisely considering the needs of the future both globally and locally. You will be acting in the finest traditions of Mahatma Gandhi, who said “The world provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”
This letter is supported and signed by Dr.James E Hansen the world’s foremost climatologist and founder of the concept of “global warming induced climate change”. Dr.Hansen (Director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies) who signs in his affiliation to Columbia University Earth Institute; the letter is also signed by Dr.Jeff Goldstein, Director, National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, Maryland, USA; German affiliate of the World Wide Earth Charter; FIAN organization for Human Rights, Heidelberg; Pacific Indigenous Peoples Environment Coalition, New Zealand; Adivasi Koordination, Germany; Vandana Shiva, Navdanya, New Delhi; and other important national and international individuals and organizations, and several thousand local village people of Karanpura in the Upper Damodar valley.
Sincerely yours,
Bulu Imam
Regional Convener
INTACH, Hazaribagh Chapter
Attached:
http://www.international.icomos.org/risk/2001/indi2001.htm / http://www.international.icomos.org/risk/2002/india2002.htm
Copy for Information to:
1. His Excellency Mr
Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, South Block, Raisina Hill, New
Delhi, India-110 011
2. Hon’ble Mrs.Sonia Gandhi, President, All India Congress Committee, 24
Akbar Road, New Delhi
3. His Excellency Shri Kateekal Sankaranarayan, Governor of Jharkhand,
Ranchi 834001, Jharkhand
4. Hon’ble Mr.Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary, All India Congress Committee,
24 Akbar Raod, New Delhi
Sign Online Petition at : www.ipetitions.com/petition/Karanpura
To: His Royal Highness, Prince Charles
12 July, 2009
Subject: Spate of new opencast coal mines being given guaranteed environmental clearance in six months in sensitive pristine ecological areas in Jharkhand State, India
Your Royal Highness,
I write to thank you for your courage in openly stating in your recent Richard Dimbleby Lecture at St James’ Palace that we have 96 months to save the planet. The Indian Press, where I read the report (Times of India, Ranchi, Jharkhand, 10 July 2009, front page), reported it stating you had calculated that humans have just 96 months left to save the planet, but that it was not clear on what basis you had arrived at the estimate. The Indian Press is being gagged about openly reporting the threat of global warming and climate change you were referring to. The reason is easy to understand. The government is gearing up to usher in an open-bidding regime and set up a regulator in six months to open up coal mining with environmental and forest clearance assured to private companies. The move is aimed at ramping up coal production to 1061 million tones a year by 2025. In view of the increasing danger to the atmosphere and global warming by such massive additional input of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere we had written on 18th June 2009 to the Governor of Jharkhand to stop clearance to 31 new opencast coal mines in Karanpura, Jharkhand, which have been assured environmental and forest clearance by him in six months. The letter was given to the Governor by the State Convener of INTACH at a meeting of the Governor with the Union Minister for Coal at Government House, Ranchi on 26th June. I have written our request to stop clearance to the new proposed mines to Mr.Jairam Ramesh the Union Minister of Environment and Forests on 2nd July, 2009. Mr S.K.Misra, Chairman of INTACH, whom you know, has also written to the Governor of Jharkhand, Mr Jairam Ramesh, and the Union Minister for Coal Mr.Prakash Jaiswal for urgent action in the matter. I have also taken up the matter of the validity of the deemed clearance to the new mines with the Ministry of Environment under the Right to Information Act 2005.
Your Royal Highness, in view of the grave seriousness of the matter and bring about greater awareness and support for our campaign against the mines we have set up an internet Campaign Site http://sites.google.com/site/savethebarkagaonlandscape which is supported by Dr.James E.Hansen the wellknown climate researcher and Dr.Vandana Shiva the wellknown environmental activist from India. Here full details of the issues as well the steps so far taken by us, including letters to the various heads of government, are l available for public scrutiny. We are in the process of uploading pictures on the site of Karanpura the area proposed to be mined, which is in the catchment valley of the upper Damodar river where 3000 sq. kilometers of forests accepted as tiger and elephant corridors and the rich agricultural lands which are threatened are waiting destruction. The region was recommended some time back to UNESCO by INTACH for being declared a Threatened World Heritage site on account of its rich heritage of one dozen Mesolithic rockart sites , megaliths, and over two hundred tribal villages where the famous Khovar and Sohrai mural art derived from the rockart as a continuing tradition are located. The region has been described as the “Catal-Hoyuk of India” and it has been four times featured in reports in the ICOMOS Heritage at Risk World Report. The full report of the campaign titled “Art Fighting Coal Mining” is scheduled to appear in the Resurgence-online to coincide with the November-December issue of the Resurgence magazine.
It is my request to you to write to The President of India and The Prime Minister of India of the threats involved in giving clearance to the new mines proposed for the Karanpura valley and requesting they be stopped immediately. Your voice will add unprecedented authority to our demand to stop the mines.
If I may add, in 1988 I had guided on the request of INTACH your brother-in-law Mr Mark Shand through the above Karanpura valley with his elephant Tara on our way from Konarak in Orissa to Hazaribagh where I live. He continued to Gaya and then to the Sonepur animal fair on the Ganges.
I am awaiting information of your support to our campaign against the new mines.
Respectfully yours,
Bulu Imam
Convener, Hazaribagh Chapter, INTACH
Attached: List of new opencast coal mines assured clearance by the Government in Karanpura, Upper Damodar Valley, Jharkhand, India
Copy for information to
Shri Pankaj K. P. Shreyaskar,
Deputy Secretary & Joint Registrar
#301-A, August Kranti Bhawan,
Central Information Commission, New Delhi 110066
Telephone & Fax: 011-26717354
Email:
pkp.shreyaskar@nic.in,
rti@india.gov.in
12th July, 2009
Dear Mr.Shreyaskar,
The undersigned is the Convener of the Hazaribagh Chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). Herewith attached is my letter of 18th June to the Governor of Jharkhand to stop the clearance for 31 new opencast coal mines in Karanpura, Jharkhand.
2. On 26th June the Governor assured the Union Coal Minister Shri Prakash Jaiswal fast track environmental clearance within six months on the lines of the pattern adopted by the Union Government.
3. As per the Right to Information Act I would like to know on what basis such deemed clearances are being given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to facilitate open bidding in coal by year-end.
4. We know that coal mining for coal-fired thermal power generation leads to the release of carbon dioxide which is the most dangerous greenhouse gas leading to global warming which is the greatest environmental threat to the planet at present.
5. The region where the mines are being made is rich agricultural and forest land inhabited by ancestral societies described as indigenous people in the terms of ILO 169 and I would like to know how the government is automatically granting clearances to all the mines arbitrarily.
6.Further, the Karanpura mines will lead to passive toxic pollution to the Damodar and other rivers whose waters are being supplied to West Bengal and Orissa. In view of this hazardous nature of the mines on what basis is the clearance being given.
7. The Valley area which is being mined is the catchment of the Damodar river over approximately 3000sq.kms and through the clearances are being given individually the damage to the environment and the river is over the whole area covered by the 31 mines which is not being taken under consideration by the Ministry.
I would be thankful for your answer to my above queries.
Yours sincerely,
Bulu Imam
Copy to:
1. Mr.Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment and Forests with reference to my letter of 2nd July.
2. Mr.S.K.Misra, Chairman, INTACH, New Delhi with reference to his letter to Minister for Coal, Shri Prakash Jaiswal, Shri Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment as well as the Governor of Jharkhand to look into the matter urgently.
To:
Mr.Jairam Ramesh
Minister for
Environment and Forests
Government of India, Ministry of Environment & Forests
Paryavaran Bhavan, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road
New Delhi - 110 003. (INDIA).
Telephone:+91-11-24361669,24360605,24360570,24361147,24360519
E-mail:
envisect@nic.in
2nd July, 2009
Dear Mr.Jairam Ramesh,
I am to draw to your attention that 31 new opencast coal mines are to be given fast-track environmental clearance from between two weeks to six months as per the report of the meeting between the Governor of Jharkhand and the Coal Minister Shi Prakash Jaiswal a copy of which is attached herewith. The Governor has agreed to remove bottlenecks regarding mine clearings within 15 days. “The State has agreed to issue Forest and Environmental Clearance within 6 months on the lines of the pattern adopted by the Union Government” Sri Jaiswal said adding that no proposal would be delayed further for clearance.
We are a
coalition of groups and individuals, both Indian and international, who are
concerned about the devastation being effected by the rapid expansion of
opencast coal mining in the Upper Damodar watershed, also known as the Karanpura
Valley in the Hazaribagh and Chatra districts of Jharkhand, a richly forested
and agricultural landscape with hundreds of ancestral villages belonging to
originally settled societies. We respectfully ask that you order an immediate
stoppage to mining operations and an open and transparent review of how mine
clearances are granted.
The State of Jharkhand was formed in 2000 to address the historical
discrimination and disenfranchisement of the original settlers who had lived in
the region before the establishment of present State boundaries, who are defined
by ILO Convention 169 as Indigenous Peoples. Instead of protecting the land
rights of these peoples the State is sadly failing to live up to its objective.
Instead, the first decade of the State existence has been a free-for-all for
mining companies, at a terrible cost to the original people and the environment.
The Damodar River has become further polluted. Forced displacements of people
from their homes have been accelerated. The unique and ancient landscape of the
Chotanagpur Plateau is being sacrificed in a short-sighted rush for profit.
As an example of this, we would like to draw your attention to the coal mining
scheduled to start shortly at Pakri-Bawardih near Barkagaon and over thirty
other mines which have been allocated in Karanpura region. The rape of
Jharkhand’s indigenous rights, cultural and environmental heritage, is moving
into a final stage. The fertile lands of the ancient Barkagaon landscape and the
rest of the Upper Damodar watershed now slated for mining as Karanpura
Coalfields are among the best agricultural lands in Jharkhand and have been
farmed since before recorded history. A unique palaeo-archaeological stone-tool
evidence of Early Man known as the Damodar Valley Civilization, prehistoric
megalithic sites, and one dozen rock-art sites, the pride of Jharkhand, dated to
over 8,000 years back which have been recommended to UNESCO as a Threatened
World Heritage Site by INTACH, and over 200 villages where the famous Khovar and
Sohrai art being a continuation of the rock-art tradition, and thousands of
square kilometers of forests which are wildlife corridors for tiger and
elephants and scores of rivers flowing through the peaceful green agricultural
landscape will be gouged out into 300 feet mine pits running shoulder to
shoulder down the Karanpura Valley, which will be in a stark lunar landscape
incapable of supporting human or animal life. The famed forests which are
reflected in the name of Jharkhand itself, the “Forest State”, will be gone.
Many of the proud Adivasi people in whose name the State of Jharkhand was formed
have already been reduced to being homeless beggars, unable to farm as their
predecessors did. Many more will now be condemned to this fate, forced from
their homes as has happened so often, sacrificed for the profits of a few
companies.
This expansion has a considerable effect in terms of global warming, to which India is particularly susceptible. Carbon dioxide is the single greatest contributor to global warming leading to eco-catastrophic climate change, posing a severe threat to human life, including rising sea levels, melting of glaciers in the Himalayas leading to drying up of Himalayan rivers including the Ganges, and extreme sudden rise of temperature in the sub-continent. Monsoon and other climate characteristics are feared to change. Carbon dioxide particles in the atmosphere are already 50 parts per million in excess of world atmosphere danger levels and eminent scientists agree that the count-down to eco-catastrophe has already begun, with sea levels rising several meters. To avoid global eco-catastrophe in the near future experts are calling for an immediate reduction of 80 percent carbon dioxide emissions and withdrawal of 50 ppm Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere at a cost of 20 trillion USD. The immediate reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has thus become a global concern. In this regard new opencast coal mines and coal-fired thermal power plants, which are acknowledged as among the greatest producers of carbon dioxide, are unjustifiable and unacceptable globally.
We request you to consider the above actions as violations of the following national and international Acts and Declarations,
We attach
herewith the list of names of companies given allotments for coal mining in
Karanpura. The Piperwar, Ashoka I & II mines have already destroyed a large,
forested landscape originally being Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs),
and wildlife corridors used by tigers and elephants between Hazaribagh and
Palamau. The Pakri Barwadih mine to our knowledge has received Environmental
Clearance which requires to be investigated in view of its damage to
bio-diversity. The cumulative effects will make Jharkhand one of the most tragic
humanitarian and environmental disaster areas in the world.
It is time for Jharkhand to live up to the vision of its founders and put a stop
to this. We respectfully request that a line be drawn starting with this
ill-conceived mine at Pakri-Bawardih, which we are informed has been given
environmental clearance despite huge damage to the environment and that you
order an immediate stoppage to operations. We also object to the recommendation
for deemed environmental clearance, that is of clearance obtained automatically
if the Ministry of Environment and Forest fails to complete the clearance
process within an identified time period. We also request that you reject
environmental clearances of all new mining projects in the Upper Damodar
watershed in the Karanpura region and establish an open and transparent review
of the way mine environmental clearances are granted. In this way, you will be
fulfilling your responsibility to future generations who will otherwise be
condemned to lives of unimaginable misery and poverty.
Your name will also be recorded by history as a leader who acted with vision, wisely considering the needs of the future both globally and locally. You will be acting in the finest tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, who said “the world provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”
Sincerely yours,
Bulu Imam
Convener,
INTACH Hazaribagh Chapter
Coordinator, Karanpura Campaign
Copy to:
To:
Mr.Jairam Ramesh
Minister for Environment and Forests
Government of India, Ministry of Environment & Forests
Paryavaran Bhavan, CGO Complex, Lodhi Road
New Delhi - 110 003. (INDIA).
Telephone:+91-11-24361669,24360605,24360570,24361147,24360519
E-mail:
envisect@nic.in
10th July, 2009
Dear Shri Jairam Ramesh,
Instead of diverting our attention by importing Cheetahs why don’t you consider their fate in a few years as global warming and climate change will destroy them also like the tigers. Fifty percent of the world’s migratory bird species are now at risk due to climate-change caused sea-rise, and hundreds of animal species, fish species, whales and coral reefs are also threatened by climate change. Climate change has already caused the disappearance of the mangrove forests of the West African coast, East Asia, Australia, Papua New Guinea and Sunderbans. Coral reefs are dying from South America to Australia and the oceans are 50 percent warmer threatening to become a source rather than a sink for carbon. The forests of South Asia are drying up. The rivers and reservoirs have dried up with the failure of the monsoon and exploitation of catchments. Monsoon failure was predicted due to climate-change, and the process will not only continue but yearly get worse in the countdown to eco-catastrophe. Delivering the Richard Dimbleby Lecture at St.James’ Palace in London on Wednesday 8th July H.R.H. Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, stated clearly that “We have 96 months (i.e.8 years) to save the planet”. This was with reference to the global warming and climate change leading to eco-catastrophe threatening billions of human lives, particularly in the lower latitudes (i.e.South) due to extreme heat expected to rise to 5-6 degrees Centigrade in a few years.
In view of these facts we request a strong and sustained focus on the effects of the coal mining in Karanpura now receiving deemed environmental clearance in view of their effect on the Damodar river and its tributaries, whose watersheds rise in the proposed new Karanpura mining region, which catchment gives water supplies to West Bengal and Orissa , and which rivers will be further poisoned by the new proposed mines. As seen in the case of Mumbai recently the city’s water supply was cut by 30 percent due to monsoon failure. In the present crisis poisoning and drying-up of these rivers is an immediate and realistic fear of death in the near future the brunt of which will be borne by the people depending on these rivers. Vast areas of forests and rich agricultural lands stand to be mined in Karanpura, and hundreds of villages will be affected and wildlife habitats and corridors irretrievably destroyed. And above all the mines and proposed new thermal power stations will be a source of carbon dioxide proliferation in large quantities./ It is well known that this gas is the prime agent of global warming, the lethal effects of which through warming of the planet are stated to be within eight years and will cause a national tragedy in which millions of lives may be lost as stated by the most eminent scientists and intellectuals. I presume that you are fully aware of these situations and will not allow environmental and forest clearance at any cost to the thirty-one new mines proposed in Karanpura in the upper Damodar river catchment, in Jharkhand and assured clearance within six months by the Governor.
I am aware that India is not prepared to make substantial emission cuts but the pollution of a world atmosphere is also unacceptable, particularly when human life on the planet is at stake. We can no longer afford to take the matter lightly as has been done since the IPCC and Al Gore received the Nobel Prize four years back fighting the pollution of the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. This is a crime against humanity and should not be put to the test.
Thanking you,
Yours sincerely,
Bulu Imam
Copy to:
His
Excellency Shri Syed Sibtey Razi
Governor of Jharkhand
Raj Bhawan
Ranchi - 834001
Jharkhand
Phone: 0651 - 2283465 / 66 / 67
Fax: +91-651 – 2201101
28 June, 2009
Your Excellency,
Two letters have been sent to you before this, on 18th and 27th June with regard to our request to ban new opencast coal mine projects in Karanpura. Since then two important events occurred, namely on 26thth June at Raj Bhawan, Ranchi, you assured the Union Minister of State for Coal you would remove bottlenecks to the mining within a fortnight and agreed to give forest and environmental clearance, land acquisition etc. clearance within six months to the new opencast coal mines planned in Karanpura.. Contrarily on 27th June you inaugurated a three-day international seminar at Vinoba Bhave university on protection of environment and human welfare but where global warming and climate change was overlooked and no mention was made to the new opencast coal mines being offered fast-track environmental clearance in Karanpura.
The connection between coal mining and global warming has been avoided and there is no mention of global warming and delayed monsoon even in the newspapers when schools and colleges have had to be closed recently by the local administration due to the extreme heat in Bokaro and Sindri. Hadida Yasmin has said,
“Reading the NAPCC report, it seemed that the government is very much reluctant to let the nation know the devastating effects of climate change”.
India is an uncommonly soft target for climate change due to its tropical temperature, huge population, dependence on regular monsoons for agriculture, Himalayan ice-fed rivers and long coastline all of which threaten to be a problem in the near future due to global warming.
. Your Excellency, I think you have understood that fast-track clearance to opencast mining to destroy nearly 3000 sq km of forest, agricultural , and village land through 31 new opencast mines in Karanpura is incompatible with saving the natural environment, and promoting human welfare. The dangers faced by the Earth’s environment through coal mining and coal-fired thermal power stations putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when it is already 550 ppm above the danger level, is all too well known, even though we are aware of the acute shortage of coal and drying up of reservoirs causing difficulty to meet electricity demands in Madhya Pradesh and other places. This is the result of global warming and climate change. Massive new opencast coal mines in North Karanpura will further lower the water table through loss of forests and green cover and vast mine pits and will increase water shortage and poisoning of ground water and Damodar river. Destroying the environment to improve the energy scenario is not a workable solution, apart from the massive human displacement and violation of Human Rights. Rather, we should be looking at some workable solution such as has been attempted in Germany through decoupling economic growth from the consumption of natural resources, and where economic growth has not been disrupted but has grown.
Sigmar Gabriel, German Federal Minister for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, has recently said,
“Almost no other country has succeeded as well as Germany in decoupling economic growth and the consumption of the natural resources: although economic power in Germany is continuing to grow and people are consuming more than ever before, resource consumption and environmental pollution are now only increasing moderately.”
All countries following a resource-extractive industrial economic pattern of development like India are facing similar environmental and administrative crises at the present moment, including America. On the other hand, in the words of eminent climate researcher Dr.James E.Hansen in his letter of June 22, 2009 to President Obama to stop opencast coal mining for energy, he has written,
“The science is clear. Burning of fossil fuels will destroy the future of young people and the unborn. And the fossil fuel that we must stop burning is coal. Coal is the critical issue. Coal is the main cause of climate change, it is also the dirtiest fossil fuel – air pollution, arsenic, and mercury from coal have devastating effects on human health and cause birth defects.”
There can be no political bargain with climate change. Its effects are too close. The Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh has said,
“Today, climate change, generated by the cumulative accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, through human economic activity, threatens our planet. There is a real possibility of catastrophic disruption of the fragile life-sustaining ecological system that holds this world together. Science is now unequivocal on this assessment.”
Your Excellency, we are facing more than a human or land rights problem, we are facing a great national and international security risk. We are facing the poisoning of not only India’s air-space and atmosphere, but the world’s air-space and atmosphere by permitting more burning of fossil fuels which are pumping more and more carbon dioxide into Earth’s atmosphere. This is not a moment for compromise or weakness but a moment for strength and right decision. In considering our petition for a ban on all new opencast coal mining in North and South Karanpura valley you will be performing an act of mercy for the natural environment still existing there today, and for all the poor village people who have lived there on subsistence farming and foraging in the forests for untold generations. You will be remembered by future generations in a perhaps burning planet as one of the great figures of human history who acted with conscience and strong will in the interests of mankind at a moment when it was desperately needed, even though in the face of seemingly insuperable odds.
Respectfully yours,
Bulu Imam
His
Excellency Shri Syed Sibtey Razi
Governor of Jharkhand
Raj Bhawan
Ranchi - 834001
Jharkhand
Phone: 0651 - 2283465 / 66 / 67
Fax: +91-651 – 2201101
27th June, 2009
PETITION FOR IMMEDIATE STOP TO NEW MINING OPERATIONS IN THE UPPER DAMODAR WATERSHED AFFECTING A MILLION PEOPLE IN 200 VILLAGES THROUGH THE ALLOCATION OF 31 NEW MINES IN KARANPURA, JHARKHAND
Your Excellency,
I am informed that the letter to Your Excellency dated 18th June, 2009 signed by an international coalition of scientists, global warming experts, environmental and social activists was presented to you by the State Convener of INTACH Shri Shree Deo Singh yesterday at Raj Bhawan in the presence of the Union Minister of State for Coal, Shri Prakash Jaiswal. Reporting the letter in Times of India, Ranchi Edition, 27th June, reporter Jaideep Deogharia noted all points raised in the Letter including violations of various Human Rights Declarations, and Rights of Forest Dwellers Acts but omitted to mention the main clause of the appeal that a moratorium on all mining in Karanpura be placed in view of the serious danger of mining of coal which is a fossil fuel producing carbon dioxide on combustion which is the main cause of Global Warming which in itself is the cause of the predicted ECO-CATASTROPHE the world is currently facing in the opinion of eminent scientists like James E.Hansen and Stephen Schneider. Mr.Hansen is a signatory to the above mentioned letter. In his opinion the world atmosphere is at the moment in a state of serious environmental change, which he feels will lead to climate breakdown in 4 to 5 years followed by eco-catastrophe in the world environment around ten years from now. Eco-catastrophe means severe electric and fire storms sweeping the world laying devastation in their wake, unprecedented rise of global temperature, hurricanes and typhoons of un-imaginable intensity affecting air travel, and sea levels rising several metres. Due to Global Warming the seas are already 50% warmer and the hydrological cycle is threatened. In the opinion of Prof. Stephen Hawking of Cambridge the melting of ice-sheets and death of the seas will lead to rising temperatures which will make life impossible on the planet. Thus, the full implication of mining and burning cheap coal has to be seen in this context which the authorities are refusing to do. This is a moral issue, the information of which has to be made public, and in a democratic nation decided by the public. I may draw to your attention that the unprecedented rise of temperatures in Jharkhand and other States, drought, and delay of the monsoons is the direct cause of climate change which is being worsened by the infusion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through fossil fuel burning, the worst of which is the burning of coal.
Your Excellency is himself a scientist and I would request you to disseminate this information as widely as possible, especially among the youth of our schools and colleges who will be the victims of the present folly of making vast new opencast mines with fast-track Environmental Clearance being assured by the government.
In Solidarity,
Bulu Imam
Copy to :
Shri
S.K.Misra, Chairman, INTACH, New Delhi
Shri Shree Deo Singh, State Convener, INTACH, Ranchi
All signatories to the letter of 18th June to His Excellency,
Governor of Jharkhand
P.S.
Important new films on global warming available in DVD form:
His
Excellency Shri Syed Sibtey Razi
Governor of Jharkhand
Raj Bhawan
Ranchi - 834001
Jharkhand
Phone: 0651 - 2283465 / 66 / 67
Fax: +91-651 – 2201101
18 June, 2009
Your Excellency,
PETITION FOR IMMEDIATE STOP TO NEW MINING OPERATIONS IN THE UPPER DAMODAR WATERSHED AFFECTING A MILLION PEOPLE IN 200 VILLAGES
We are a coalition of groups and individuals, both Indian and international, who
are concerned about the devastation being effected by the rapid expansion of
opencast coal mining in the Upper Damodar watershed, also known as the Karanpura
Valley in the Hazaribagh and Chatra districts of Jharkhand, a richly forested
and agricultural landscape with hundreds of ancestral villages belonging to
originally settled societies. We respectfully ask that you order an immediate
stoppage to mining operations and an open and transparent review of how mine
clearances are granted.
The State of Jharkhand was formed in 2000 to address the historical
discrimination and disenfranchisement of the original settlers who had lived in
the region before the establishment of present State boundaries, who are defined
by ILO Convention 169 as Indigenous Peoples. Instead of protecting the land
rights of these peoples the State is sadly failing to live up to its objective.
Instead, the first decade of the State existence has been a free-for-all for
mining companies, at a terrible cost to the original people and the environment.
The Damodar River has become further polluted. Forced displacements of people
from their homes have been accelerated. The unique and ancient landscape of the
Chotanagpur Plateau is being sacrificed in a short-sighted rush for profit.
As an example of this, we would like to draw your attention to the coal mining
scheduled to start shortly at Pakri-Bawardih near Barkagaon and over thirty
other mines which have been allocated in Karanpura region. The rape of
Jharkhand’s indigenous rights, cultural and environmental heritage, is moving
into a final stage. The fertile lands of the ancient Barkagaon landscape and the
rest of the Upper Damodar watershed now slated for mining as Karanpura
Coalfields are among the best agricultural lands in Jharkhand and have been
farmed since before recorded history. A unique palaeo-archaeological stone-tool
evidence of Early Man known as the Damodar Valley Civilization, prehistoric
megalithic sites, and one dozen rock-art sites, the pride of Jharkhand, dated to
over 8,000 years back which have been recommended to UNESCO as a Threatened
World Heritage Site by INTACH, and over 200 villages where the famous Khovar and
Sohrai art being a continuation of the rock-art tradition, and thousands of
square kilometers of forests which are wildlife corridors for tiger and
elephants and scores of rivers flowing through the peaceful green agricultural
landscape will be gouged out into 300 feet mine pits running shoulder to
shoulder down the Karanpura Valley, which will be in a stark lunar landscape
incapable of supporting human or animal life. The famed forests which are
reflected in the name of Jharkhand itself, the “Forest State”, will be gone.
Many of the proud Adivasi people in whose name the State of Jharkhand was formed
have already been reduced to being homeless beggars, unable to farm as their
predecessors did. Many more will now be condemned to this fate, forced from
their homes as has happened so often, sacrificed for the profits of a few
companies.
This expansion has a considerable effect in terms of global warming, to which India is particularly susceptible. Carbon dioxide is the single greatest contributor to global warming leading to eco-catastrophic climate change, posing a severe threat to human life, including rising sea levels, melting of glaciers in the Himalayas leading to drying up of Himalayan rivers including the Ganges, and extreme sudden rise of temperature in the sub-continent. Monsoon and other climate characteristics are feared to change. Carbon dioxide particles in the atmosphere are already 50 parts per million in excess of world atmosphere danger levels and eminent scientists agree that the count-down to eco-catastrophe has already begun, with sea levels rising several meters. To avoid global eco-catastrophe in the near future experts are calling for an immediate reduction of 80 percent carbon dioxide emissions and withdrawal of 50 ppm Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere at a cost of 20 trillion USD. The immediate reduction of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has thus become a global concern. In this regard new opencast coal mines and coal-fired thermal power plants, which are acknowledged as among the greatest producers of carbon dioxide, are unjustifiable and unacceptable globally.
Your Excellency, in accordance with your responsibility according to the Constitution Vth Schedule and PESA Act we request you to consider the above actions as violations of the following national and international Acts and Declarations,
We attach
herewith the list of names of companies given allotments for coal mining in
Karanpura. The Piperwar, Ashoka I & II mines have already destroyed a large,
forested landscape originally being Indigenous and Community Conserved Areas (ICCAs),
and wildlife corridors used by tigers and elephants between Hazaribagh and
Palamau. The Pakri Barwadih mine to our knowledge has received Environmental
Clearance which requires to be investigated in view of its damage to
bio-diversity. The cumulative effects will make Jharkhand one of the most tragic
humanitarian and environmental disaster areas in the world.
Your Excellency, it is time for Jharkhand to live up to the vision of its
founders and put a stop to this. We respectfully request that a line be drawn
starting with this ill-conceived mine at Pakri-Bawardih, which we are informed
has been given environmental clearance despite huge damage to the environment
and that you order an immediate stoppage to operations. We also object to the
recommendation for deemed environmental clearance, that is of clearance obtained
automatically if the Ministry of Environment and Forest fails to complete the
clearance process within an identified time period. We also request that you
order a moratorium on all new mining projects in the Upper Damodar watershed in
the Karanpura region and establish an open and transparent review of the way
mine environmental clearances are granted. In this way, you will be fulfilling
your responsibility to future generations who will otherwise be condemned to
lives of unimaginable misery and poverty.
Your name will also be recorded by history as a leader who acted with vision, wisely considering the needs of the future both globally and locally. You will be acting in the finest tradition of Mahatma Gandhi, who said “the world provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.
Sincerely yours,
Bulu Imam
Regional Convener
INTACH, Hazaribagh Chapter
Attached:
http://www.international.icomos.org/risk/2001/indi2001.htm
http://www.international.icomos.org/risk/2002/india2002.htm