olivia's place

first published at www.conservationtoday.org, 22nd August 2009

The Dongria Kondh tribespeople have lived in the hills of Orissa, a state on the Eastern coast of India, for generations.  They are a self-sufficient community of around 8000, sharing the dense forests of the Niyamgiri Hills region with a numerous plant and animal species.  The Dongria were understandably concerned when in 1997 a mining company were given preliminary approval to open a bauxite mine and refinery on the sacred hillsides – demanding relocation of hundreds of families and destruction of an important wildlife habitat.  Struggling to hold onto their way of life with the help of environmental and human rights NGOs, the Dongria believe the miners are pushing ahead with development without full consent.

The mining company are Vedanta Alumina Ltd, a UK based company who wish to tap Orissa’s bauxite-rich hills to make aluminium.  Aluminium production in the developed world has dropped due to expensive production costs and environmental restrictions – but in India, the raw bauxite is plentiful, labour is cheap and development often takes precedence over environmental concerns.

Vedanta were granted clearance from the Indian Supreme Court to build a refinery in the Niyamgiri area at Llanjigarth, but have not yet been allowed to commence mining work, as there have been concerns about the project’s environmental impact. The mine complex will require 1,500 hectares of land wich currently holds forest, farmland and village areas.

Villagers in the Niyamgiri hills claim that on several occasions, Vedanta employees have tried to illegally mine bauxite from the local vicinity. One night in January this year, heavy vehicles from the refinery were seen moving into the forest – villagers were alerted and by 3.30am 800 people had formed a human wall to prevent the vehicles going any further.

The refinery insisted the vehicles had been sent for road repair work, and the plant gets their raw material from further afield so have no need to mine illegally.  Vedanta need environmental clearance before mining can commence, as there is doubt surrounding the effects mining will have on the natural habitat which need to be investigated.  Several studies are taking place into potential environmental damage.

Activists and villagers are not convinced the mining company are being honest, and have formed a front line defence to protect the hills – with camps set up in the forest to stop vehicles, and a round the clock vigil held on the forest road. The villagers are gaining support as news of their struggle spreads.

Fortunately the Indian Government are aware of possible foul play – India’s environment and forest minister, Jairam Ramesh, has warned the mining company they will be prosecuted if they open mines without full permission. Speaking in India’s Upper House on 5th August, the minister said, ‘they have not got full forest clearance. If mining is taking place in Nyamgiri, then it is illegal.’  In India now, applications for mining in forests need to have evidence the rules of the Tribal Rights Act have been followed. Ramesh remarked, ‘had the tribal rights been in place, the chances are that this project would not have been cleared in the first place.’

Initial plans for the mine and refinery were accepted by the Orissa government in 1997, and a notice was served to the people of Niyamgiri Hills.  The notice warned that  60 tribal families would be displaced, and 302 families would lose their farmland.  The community were quick to petition, but in July 2003, 12 villages had their land repossessed and 64 tribal families of Jaganathpur Village were evicted to clear space for the Llanjigarth Alumina Refinery.  Most received no compensation as they could not provide proof of ownership for farmland – land records are virtually non-existent for tribal Orissa, so their land officially belongs to the government.

Forest wildlife is also under threat from the proposed plans. A report by the Wildlife Institute of India warned that bauxite mining would destroy a ‘specialised wildlife habitat’. The forest has already been earmarked for a wildlife sanctuary and elephant reserve. The Environmental Protection Group, Orissa, say the forests shelter many species of animals including some from the Red list of endangered species, and over 300 varieties of plants and trees.

Orissa government’s principal chief conservator of forests is less damning – if 600 to 700 hectares of land is lost, he says, it is a small fraction of the 20,000 hectare forest, and animals will learn to adapt. Unfortunately, allowing one company to open what they hope will be the world’s largest aluminium production plant, might set the precedence for other companies to come in and strip away more of the landscape.

Golden Peacock Award

Despite the controversy surrounding Vedanta’s Nyamgiri Hills refinery and mining project, the company were set to receive a Golden Peacock Award from the World Environment Foundation (WEF), for best practices in environmental management.

Protestors took this opportunity to capture the stage at the awards ceremony, held at Palampur Agriculture University in June.  20 activists held up the event for half an hour, shouting at the audience and Foundation members, and resisting being removed from the stage.

This was a high profile event and embarrassing for the WEF, who decided to temporarily withdraw the award while accusations into Vedanta’s practices were looked into.

The WEF are not the only organisation who doubt the legitimacy of Vedanta’s actions.  The Norwegian Government Pension Fund have withdrawn investment in the mining company, on a recommendation from the Council of Ethics for the Fund.  The council believed the risk of severe environmental damage and human rights violations was too high to justify investment.

This struggle is long running, and highlights India’s tensions between conserving environments and traditional communities, and pushing for development and economic gain.  Though Vedanta are being warned by the Indian Government to follow all protocol, they are still only a few steps away from gaining full permission to carry out the full mine project.  It may well go ahead if Orissa’s government decide the economic benefits outweigh the cost to wildlife and indigenous communities. The future of the Niyamgiri hills and its inhabitants is, for now, uncertain.

See article at conservation today.

Survival International are working hard to prevent this, and have put together a video about the problem.
All the above images are their copyright

Wind and solar energy are the most environmentally friendly alternative fuel options, whilst biofuel crops and carbon capture may not be worth the effort, according to Dr Mark Z. Jacobson of Stanford University.  His research, published in this month’s Energy and Environmental Science journal, coincides with the announcement of a new multimillion pound biofuel development project funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), involving scientists from Imperial College.

Jacobson assessed each major alternative energy source, as if it were to power every vehicle in the US.  He looked at factors such as impact on global warming and human health, space requirements and sustainability.  The winner in all areas was wind power, which if used to run the entire US vehicle fleet, would reduce carbon and air pollution emissions by 99%.  The vehicles would all be electric, therefore removing exhaust pollution, saving over 15,000 lives a year from air pollution related deaths in the US alone.  The Stanford team estimated that an area of 3km squared would be enough land to contain all the wind turbines required.

However, the rating system, the first quantitative, scientific evaluation of alternative energy sources, found biofuels, nuclear power and coal with carbon capture to rank high on environmental impact.  Jacobson comments ‘some energy alternatives that have been proposed are just downright awful’, and with regards to biofuels he warns ‘Ethanol-based biofuels will actually cause more harm to human health, wildlife, water supply and land use than current fossil fuels’.  He has calculated that the land required for enough biofuel to power the US vehicle fleet would be 30 times that for wind turbines.  Air pollution and carbon emissions would not be cut substantially.

Meanwhile, scientists from Imperial College’s Life Sciences Department are part of a new venture for biofuel development, the Sustainable Bioenergy Centre.  The BBSRC have just announced funding for the centre, which at £27m is the biggest ever public investment in bioenergy.  They believe bioenergy to be a significant source of ‘clean, low carbon and secure energy’ and the biofuel sector has the potential to provide thousands of new ‘green collar’ jobs.

Dr Thorsten Hamann is one of Imperial’s scientists involved in the Centre, and has a different take on the feasibility of biofuels.  He believes a mixture of energy supplies is required to replace our current fossil fuel reliance, and cars cannot be run exclusively on wind generated electricity.  ‘Wind farms look fantastic on paper, but I don’t see the potential to use wind to power the world.  We don’t have the technology yet to power cars on electricity.  Current electric cars have to be recharged every night and the life-span of the battery is unknown.  We already have the technology for biofuel run cars, and the infrastructure for a liquid fuel transport system.’

As for the space issue, he assures that the biofuel plants developed at the Sustainable Bioenergy Centre will be intended for land unsuitable for edible crop agriculture.  For the time being, our priority is to move away from fossil fuels, and crop based fuels are ‘significantly better’.  Dr Hamann believes in the distant future, electricity may be the solution to power transport, ‘but for the next 20 to 30 years, we are looking at liquid based fuel.’

Published in the Imperial College student newspaper, Felix, 13^th February 2009