Support Letters

Her Excellency. Madame Navi Pillay
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Office of the UN-OHCHR
Geneva, Switzeland
npillay@ohchr.org
                                                                                                               Thursday, 02 July, 2009

Dear High Commissioner for Human Rights:

The Adivasi-Koordination in Germany, a network of groups and individuals, is concerned about the news from India which indicate that the expansion of the open cast coal mining in the Upper Damodar watershed is going to devastate the Karanpura Valley in the Hazaribagh and Chatra districts of Jharkhand, a richly forested and agricultural landscape with hundreds of ancestral villages mostly belonging to Adivasi people.

There are also a unique palaeoarchaeological stonetool evidence of Early Man known as the Damodar Valley Civilization, as well as prehistoric megalithic sites, and one dozen rockart 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. In addition, there are over 200 villages where the famous Khovar and Sohrai artists are continuing the rock-art tradition. All this landscape will be transformed into 300 feet mine pits running shoulder to shoulder down the Karanpura Valley making it unsuitable for human or animal life. Jharkhand, the ‘Forest State’, will be gone.

We respectfully ask you to contact correspondingly the Governor of Jharkhand State. Thank you in advance for your efforts.

If any further information is needed, please, do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,
Dr. Theodor Rathgeber
Board Member
--
WEBSITE     www.adivasi-koordination.de    WEBSITE
Adivasi Koordination Deutschland e.V.
c/o Dr. Theodor Rathgeber
Jugendheimstrasse 10
D- 34132 Kassel
ph.: +49-(0)561-47597800 / Fax: +49-(0)561-47597801

His Excellency Shri Syed Sibtey Razi
Governor of Jharkhand
Raj Bhawan
Ranchi - 834001
Jharkhand
Phone: 0651 - 2283465 / 66 / 67
Fax: +91-651 – 2201101

                                                                                                             Heidelberg, 1 July 2009

 Your Excellency,

FIAN International is an international human rights organization, with consultative status at the United Nations, that works towards the worldwide implementation of the right to food. We would like to express our concern about the devastating effects the rapid development of the opencast coal mining is having on the Upper Damodar watershed, also referred to as the Karanpura Valley in the Hazaribagh and Chatra districs of Jharkhand. According to our information coal mining is scheduled to start shortly at Pakri-Bawardih near Barkagaon and over thirty other mines which have been allocated in the Karanpura region.

This region is composed of extremely fertile land that has been cultivated since pre-recorded history. However, this abundant land is now being converted into a mining site, taking away vital farming land and forests from the native residents of the area. Furthermore, the river is being polluted.

By displacing the original settlers of the area, mainly Adivasis, from their land and destroying their resources of food and water, their human right to food and water is being violated.

As a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, India, and therefore the state of Jharkhand, is duty-bound under  international law to respect and protect the human right to food. In the light of these obligations I am concerned about your plans to massively expand mining activities at Pakri-Bawardih as well as other places in the Karanpura region. By supporting this process, India and the state of Orissa are violating their people’s right feed themselves.

 I would, therefore like to ask you to:

-          take action by ordering an immediate stoppage to mining operations.

-          enforce a suspension on all new mining projects in the Upper Damodar watershed in the Karanpura region

-          allow for the open and transparent review of the way mine clearances are granted.   

Please inform me of any measure you intend to do in this regard.

Respectfully yours,

Sabine Pabst
South Asia Coordinator
********************************
FIAN International Secretariat
Tel +49 (0)6221 65300 45
Fax +49 (0)6221 830545
e-mail: pabst@fian.org
www.fian.org
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