Sorry for posting this offtopic post - but this is a serious matter that
a few of us are trying to raise concern about.
Ashley
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: The Horror of the Hinterland, farmers say Sesa worse than
terrorists
Date: Tue, 15 May 2012 11:43:52 +0530
From: Bevinda Collaco <[email protected]>
To: Bevinda Collaco <[email protected]>
Hopeless farmers believe Sesa Goa is to be more feared than terrorists
2012-05-15
[BEVINDA COLLACO] No one is waiting with more anticipation for the
monsoons than the people living around the giant Sesa Goa mining dump at
Advai Nullah in Sattari. There are those who live in the direct path of
the muddy torrents that will stream down this giant dump bringing silt
and floods with it. They are already calculating how much compensation
they will demand – and get – from Sesa Goa. Affected farmers say Sesa
Goa should be ecstatic about the devastation the dump will cause once it
collapses, because the ruined land can be used for further dumps. The
farmers who have been running from pillar to post being ignored by
government agencies and civil society of Goa, are now waiting and
watching with sardonic humour for the silt from the giant dump to rush
into the Mhadei river and then into the Mandovi. It is not a small
amount of silt. Civil society will then have to sit up and take notice
that damage to the pristine forest areas of the hinterland will have a
domino effect on the entire state.
*
MONSTER DUMP 1.7 km long and 90 mts high*
*Monster dump blocks Advai Nullah*
The Sesa Goa dump is the largest OB (Over Burden) Waste dump in Goa at
Advai, in Sattari taluka. The dump is actually an almost 90-metre high
hill which is 1.7 km long. This dump has blocked the natural stream or
Advoi nullah which used to flow perennially and water the fields and
orchards in the area. Now it flows during the monsoons thick with mining
reject. It dries up completely in February. The dump consists of clay
soil on which nothing grows except acacia which sucks up all the water
in the area and destroys other trees in the vicinity. This, claims the
troubled farmers, is also the game plan of the mining company, since
once water in the area is depleted, the forest cover dwindles.
*CONVERTED ADVAI NULLAH Now used as a series of settlin ponds*
On the way to the Sesa Goa dump one sees the Chowgule dump partially
covered by Acacia plants. An entire section of the Chowgule dump
collapsed on itself.
When earth is dug up for mining, one part contains mineral ore while six
parts contain mud which has little or no value. That mud has to be
dumped somewhere. It cannot be dumped in the mining lease area, since
the area has to be exploited to the last centimetre, so the mining
company looks for land to dump the O B Waste. Sesa Goa’s Sonshi mine,
which is 8 kilometers away from the Advai Nullah signed an agreement
with the Revenue Secretary, Government of Goa to dump its O B waste in
government land, under survey number 35. The government land was leased
to Sesa Goa for a princely sum of Rs 10,000 to Rs 12000, say the
farmers. The agreement expired in October 2011 and no one knows whether
the contract has been renewed.
Survey No 35 was not enough for Sesa Goa, they extended their dump to
survey numbers 32, 34, 35, 36/1, 36/2and 38 which are government
properties encroached upon by others for cashew cultivations and other
agricultural purposes. The dump has already spread into protected
forested area. The mining giant is currently hunting for more parcels of
land to dump its rejects in.
Survey No 1 in Codiem is protected forested area. It contains a tract of
lush green forest (see photograph). If they are not stopped, this
forested area too will be buried alive.
*Sesa needs more land for dumping*
Considering that for every seven parts of earth that is dug up, one part
contains ore, the rest – six parts – is reject. Sesa Goa is going to
need much more land for piling up its OB Waste. In 2005-06 Sesa Goa
applied for permission to mine 12 lakh tones of ore per annum. This was
increased to 20 lakh tonnes in 2007-08 and 30 lakh tones in 2008-09.
This was when A Raja headed the Union Ministry of Mines. A Raja is the
same gentleman sitting in Tihar Jail for the telecom scam. Which brings
one to the conclusion that while digging a mine can and does inflict
serious damage on the land, the dumps inflict even more damage.
Especially when they keep adding ‘benches’ or tiers. In October last the
dump was 72 metres, two benches have been added bringing the height of
the dump to more than 90 metres.
*NEW DANGER Forest in Codiem ready for burial* ( below) *lush forest at
Codiem*
The farmers have accessed documents of Sesa Goa from the Mining
Department. Sonshi mining lease covers an area of 62 hectares. Their
first dumps for collecting the waste covered an area of 21 hectares, but
these dumps are getting filled to capacity. They are now planning to
take up three survey numbers in Codiem. The company is looking for 50
hectares more for dumping reject. They would then have effectively
destroyed 62+21+50 and even that is not enough. How can it be? Sesa
Goa’s annual turnover is more than the entire Budget of Goa.
*Safeguards look inadequate*
Sesa Goa was ordered by the High Court to stop dumping any more material
on the dump. Sesa Goa informed the Court that they would safeguard the
dump by contouring it and covering each bench with geotextile to prevent
landslides and damage to the surrounding forest land. The geotextile
sheets seem woefully inadequate and some of the lower levels of the
giant dump have already developed fissures. Sesa is building a concrete
wall around the dump to hold it in place, but would prove less than
useless against the enormous height of the dump, or the slope which is
55 to 60 degrees. The concrete wall will not hold the enormous mass of
loose mud.
*GEOTEXTILE SHEETS INADEQUATE close shot on the right* (below) *cracks
and fissures
*
*
*The mining company has begun constructing a concrete wall around the
base of the dump. This is too small to contain the mass of unstable mud.
Sesa Goa has constructed a temple some distance away from the dump. They
are taking all precautions to keep the temple safe by constructing a
wall around the temple.
*CONCRETE WALLS not enough for the dump, maybe just enough to save the
temple*
To make matters worse the Advai Nullah area which used to be thickly
forested, gets the heaviest rainfall in the district. This begs the
question: Did the pundits of Sesa Goa deliberately select this area over
the Advai Nullah to spread destruction far and wide. The farmers predict
that not just all of Sattari taluka will suffer once the dump collapses,
the Mhadei and Mandovi and those who depend on the rivers will suffer too.
*BURIED ALIVE! This is how you bury a forest*
*Trees were buried and more are at risk*
Since getting permits to fell trees in Government forest land is
impossible since trees are not allowed to be cut in Government forest
land. There is no law against burying the trees though. Sesa Goa merely
dumped the mud over the trees, burying them and raised the dump to a
height of almost 90 metres. The trucks drive up on roads tamped on the
contoured ‘benches’ and we saw that they were still dumping soil on the
dump. They have already started extending the dump into a local farmer
Tendulkar’s property. Tendulkar had already leased or sold land to the
mining company, he now owns several trucks for transporting ore and has
built a spanking new bungalow in the path of the floodwaters if or
rather when they arrive.
*TRUCKS STILL DUMPING despite court order*
Sesa Goa has bypassed the Government of Goa and acquired land from Other
Rights Holders whose names are included in Form I & XIV. Under the Right
to Information the complainants learned that the mining lease is in the
name of Cosme Costa & Sons, but the documentation says that the ore is
sold at the pithead to Sesa Goa. The Environment Plans and other
documents have been submitted by Sesa Goa.
*Farmers’ lawyer now works for Sesa Goa, claim farmers*
Not only has Sesa Goa killed a 1.7 stretch of forest at Advai, the
company also diverted the perennial nullah by digging out a nullah using
heavy earth moving machinery to divert the water. But the springs were
in the original Advai nullah now covered with mud. The farmers in the
area were dependent on the water from the nullah for irrigating their
kullaghars (betel nut plantations) banana, cashew and coconut
plantation. Once the water dried up, they learned that the ground water
too had depleted to such an extent that they could get water only by
boring a well 70 metres deep. Desperate now for redressal, 30 affected
farmers had taken the case to court in 2000. Judge Ferdino Rebello
presided over the case. In 2003 the judge gave the order that no more
mining reject could be added to the dump. Nothing much was said about
restoring the nullah. You will see how this is significant.
*WORRIED AND DEJECTED the last warriors fighting to protect their land*
The farmers asked their lawyer to get an order for its restoration, but
their lawyer told them that there was no need too. It is significant
that the lawyer is presently working in the legal department of Sesa
Goa. Of the 30 complainants, only two families – the Desais and
Sawaikars continue to fight against the monster dump that had destroyed
their nullah. What happened to the rest of the complainants? Most of
them own trucks and transport ore for Sesa Goa and other mine owners.
*No value in the soil of dump*
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has a plan to take over all the dumps in
Government and forest land, but this 1.7km, 100 mt high dump has no
monetary value at all. It has been exhausted of all ore. It is just
clay, say the farmers. The reject is mud shorn of all nutrients in which
no trees except acacia and scrub can grow. Acacia spells the death knell
of forested areas, since the trees are water guzzlers and deplete the
groundwater, even while spreading all over a forested area. Many
countries have discouraged the planting of acacia trees.
*Water scarcity where there was plenty*
There was a man named Chari who dug a well just 15 feet deep. In those
days, water was available at just 3 metres below the surface of the
land. Chari used to supply 15 – 20 trucks of potable water to the mining
company to spray water on the surrounding area and roads. Now Chari’s
well has dried up and he has to depend on the mining company’s tankers
to supply him with drinking water.
*SHOCKING CRUELTY what's left of the original nullah(left) and the new
Sesa Goa made diversion (right) neither carries any water in the months
water is desperately needed*
*Reduced to waiting for a mega disaster*
The farmers have given a file to the Mining Department, to the Chief
Minister, to the Indian Bureau of Mines, to the Forest Department (1.7
km of forest has been buried alive by Sesa Goa and another lush green
forested area, see photograph is due for burial soon). But the Forest
Department Officials famously stated that they can do nothing about
forests in Government lands. Each department of Government refuses to
take a decision saying that they have no powers to act against Sesa Goa.
Deputy Collector & SDO, Bicholim Sub-Division has directed the Mamlatdar
of Sattari Taluka to carry out the inspection and submit a detailed
checklist with plan and photographs. The farmers have submitted a
memorandum to the Chief Minister of Goa who is also the Minister of
Mines to do something about ht illegal dumping of mining rejects in the
villages of Vaghurem and Codiem villages. The farmers are happy but not
too hopeful that firebrand environment activist Claude Sir (Claude
Alvares of Goa Foundation) has taken the trouble to come and see the
impending disaster for himself. They know that destruction of fertile
lands is inevitable. As will be the choking of the River Mandovi. Only
then will the good people of Goa stand up and shout.
(*/Permission granted to use this article or parts of it including
photographs. All photographs clicked by Bevinda Collaco/*)
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