Goa’s activists show they can bite
Claude Alvares, 63, likens himself to a mosquito biting away at Goa’s powerful
miners, whom he blames for damaging the environment, overproduction and the
loss of livelihood to thousands of farmers.PHOTOGRAPHS
ABHIJIT BHATLEKAR/MINTAlvares—who set up the Goa Foundation in 1986 after his
stint as a lecturer at St Xavier’s College in Mumbai and reporting for the
Illustrated Weekly of India and The Indian Express— and other prominent
activists, including Ramesh Gauns, are battling to stop rampant mining that has
threatened the forest cover and farming, and has posed serious health and
safety hazards to the local people.Alvares and Gauns are using a combination of
detailed research, global networking with experts, and frequent lawsuits to
counter the Goan miners, who have used the windfall profits from a surge in
demand for the state’s low-grade iron ore from China to gain clout with
government officials and breach environment and safety norms.“Earlier activists
used to do charity work like dig wells,” said Alvares, explaining how their
activities have expanded to resist illegal mining. “Now we are all nicely
balanced out. And like mosquitoes, we’ll keep biting.”Alvares has reasons to
feel pleased. Exposes by him and other activists to a great extent forced the
government to stop issuing new mining leases in February 2010 and to order an
investigation by the Justice M.B. Shah Commission later in the year.Still,
Gauns and Alvares aren’t ready to claim victory. They are filing a steady
stream of lawsuits aimed at restoring Goa’s environment and its way of living.
Already, Alvares says, he has had several victories, including the closure of a
beneficiation plant in a forest, apart from mines that were involved in
accidents.“Courts have passed orders granting huge amounts of compensation,”
said Alvares, sitting in his office lined with files from floor to ceiling. The
cases relate to violations of norms by mines that have resulted in villages
going without water for paddy fields and silting of rivers.In Goa, miners have
overproduced ore as demand from China surged in 2005. The number of mines has
also increased as new leases were granted and illegal mines mushroomed in the
coastal state.As a result, about 95 mines produced 750 million tonnes (mt) of
dumps, or low-grade iron ore rejects, that lie scattered across the state,
threatening the environment and the safety of people who live around the mines.
The huge dumps have piled up as the miners typically reject 75% of the earth
dug up. Six decades of mining have lowered the grade of the state’s iron ore
reserves, which means the remaining ore is of a poorer quality.Ageing mines
also mean that miners have to dig deeper, lowering water tables—bad news for a
growing population that has seen boundaries of villages merging with those of
the mines.For Gauns, the turning point in his life came when a mining lease was
granted four years ago to Zantye and Co. in Sarvan in Bicholim, close to the
school where he taught. Gauns, a 60-year-old teacher at the Govind Gunaji
Sawant High School, read up mining and environment laws to prepare himself to
fight the establishment of the mine.“I then realized that having a mine in the
school’s vicinity was a big blunder,” Gauns said. “I had a basic question—if a
mine can be allowed to come up near the flood-prone Bicholim river, then will
it not be a free-for-all in Goa?”Gauns said he was convinced the environment
ministry had granted clearances without knowing the grass-roots reality of the
region and why villagers were opposing it. He added geological studies to his
research that showed to him that it was wrong to have mines that run north to
south, criss-crossing Goa’s 11 rivers that flow from east to west.Mines in such
river basins could tamper with the flow of a river and even carry the risk of
bringing in seawater inland, he said, though geologists haven’t substantiated
the claim.Alvares and Gauns took up the fight against the miners in Goa when
faced with their moment of truth.“I used to report very graphically the trouble
of the people and I knew I wasn’t an objective journalist. For me, corporates
were just a bunch of smooth liars,” Alvares said.Companies such as Sesa Goa
Ltd, Fomento Resources and Chowgule and Co. have not escaped Alvares’s wrath
and a host of long-drawn items of litigation come up for hearing nearly every
day involving these prominent miners.In September, 40 mining leases were
suspended for not conforming with air and water laws.Goa’s big miners deny that
they have broken rules or mined illegally. They have, however, said that some
errors may have been made inadvertently.“At the most, there could have been
irregularities,” P.K. Mukherjee, managing director of Sesa Goa, the largest
miner in the state, told reporters recently. “But these are not mala
fide.”Mukherjee, who is also president of the Federation of Indian Mineral
Industries, did not say how Sesa Goa or other miners have made those errors.
Activists said three big accidents in the past two years, including one at
Fomento Resources’ mine, which took three lives pointed to bad
practices.People’s awareness of their rights has also aided the activists in
fighting the spread of the mines in India’s richest state.“We used to have a
field where we grew rice. One year’s crop would give us a supply of rice for
two years,” said Anand Gaokar, a 40-year-old farmer in Sirigao village, where
the water table has sunk, destroying fields and wells due to mining. Sesa Goa,
Rajaram Bandekar and Chowgule have mines in the vicinity. “Now we have no
income and no water, and we have to buy rice.”Norma, Alvares’ lawyer wife, is
fighting Gaokar’s case to seek closure of the mines.“People are quick to pick
up the phone and dial the numbers of the authorities even if a bulldozer is
simply levelling a field,” said an official in Goa’s mines ministry, who
declined to be named.With the Shah Commission report due, a set of
recommendations to clean up Goa’s mining industry may soon be a reality,
activists said.Faced with an adversary that has substantial resources,
activists are using research more than ever before. Alvares has two researchers
who pore over data and statements in balance sheets, reports of the Indian
Bureau of Mines (IBM) and other government mining regulators, and speeches of
lawmakers in the assembly and Parliament to pick out discrepancies.They also
use the government’s own statements from various quarters to highlight errors
and inefficiencies.“The government took the point of view of the high court in
an affidavit, saying that we have done our investigation and only one mine in
2010-11 produced 6,000 tonnes in excess of environmental clearance. This was
said on oath by the mines director,” Alvares said, recounting a recent case.
“Now the latest data from IBM says 31 mines are in violation of their
limits.”The Goa Foundation’s own calculations show 35 mt out of total exports
of 55 mt in 2010-11 was illegally extracted, according to Alvares.“We keep on
filing cases continuously, practically one every week. Each case takes a lot of
preparation and documentation, but they (companies) know that they are going to
have to explain,” says Alvares, whose latest strategy has been to file lawsuits
targeting the entire mining industry.With action on miners imminent, the two
activists want restorative work to be paid for by the miners.Gauns and Alvares
have varying views when asked if they want the mines to be shut permanently or
just exports to be halted, or whether they just want the miners to carry on
mining at a more measured pace as was the case in the past.One point they are
unanimous on is the export of iron ore.“There has to be an export ban. They can
do production on a low scale without over-theground mining,” Alvares said.Gauns
said he is not against industrialization and the use of metals for
infrastructure development, but Goa needs to be left alone.“Goa’s miners have
gathered enough wealth and done enough damage for six decades and it is time to
pull the curtains on them,” said Gauns.
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