Author: Mansoon Mohanty
Industries quantify economic impact in a state. The economic effects of POSCO- India’s investments in Orissa would contribute to growth in the state output. Orissa in the recent years has become an industrial hub, with a lot of industries coming up and flourishing within a short period. No doubt, Orissa will achieve the status of a developed state within a short span of time with POSCO creating an annual value addition of Rs. 12,100 crore, a lot of people gaining employment which will decrease backlog of employment in the state.
In the face of all these developments, let us pause and look around the other side of the coin. It is a known fact that Orissa is rich in natural and mineral resources and holds a rich cultural heritage as well, but is all this sustainable? This is question to reckon with, when profits are high and economy booms, nobody likes to think about the environment which sustains us or about our fellow human beings. Who has the time to think about our natural resources or the issue of displacement?
POSCO's name for the mines in iron ore rich Khandadhar hills of Sundergarh district was recommended by the state government. The Khandadhar region, about 350 km, is home to rare and endangered wildlife species like tigers, leopards, sloth bears and elephants. It also has a nearly 800 feet high waterfall. According to an MLA from Sundergarh, “For generations, villagers have been worshipping the waterfall as their mother. They won't allow the use of the mines”. He also said that the mining activities for the proposed steel plant could dry up the water, damage the environment and ruin the source of livelihood of the locals. People also protest the construction of the steel plant in Jagatsinghpur district, people mainly fight displacement. There are violations of human rights such as the use of state force and intimidation to quell dissent against the project, attempts to force evictions, involuntary and inadequate resettlement of villages in the project affected area, losses of land, housing and livelihood of the people, as well as serious harm to the land, forest, riparian and marine ecologies and environments in Orissa, as reported in newspapers.
Reports issued by the Government and by POSCO claim that about 400 to 500 families will be displaced by the project and POSCO argued that more people will get employed in the industries, but according to figures from the 2001 census, the three panchayats (villages) have 3,350 households, which adds up to 22,000 people who will be displaced. This discrepancy is partly due to paucity in the Government records which recognizes only 438 acres out of 4000 acres as being privately owned, but in reality, most of the land has been under betel, cashew and other cultivation by the tribal communities residing in the areas for several generations. The fertile land, helps in cashew farming and supports families; an average of about Rs. 20,000 ($500) per season. About 50% of the families are also involved in pisciculture (mostly prawns), for which the daily earnings per family can range between Rs. 100-5000 ($2.50-$125). In addition, there are many landless families that depend on ancillary employment like making baskets for packaging beetle leaves grown in the area.
Moreover, since according to the government records, only a small fraction of the total number of people are affected, most of them will not receive the compensation or rehabilitation they are entitled to. The residents of the area have been growing betel nuts, cashew nuts and paddy, and are also engaged in pisciculture. No other land in the immediate neighborhood is viable to grow these crops. The POSCO plant will disengage the farmers from a livelihood in which they are skilled and convert them to unskilled labor, and transfer them to non-guaranteed jobs in the construction of the plant, port and other factory related jobs.
The history of Orissa has many unfortunate precedents where mines have been set up in Fifth Schedule areas thus displacing tribal communities from their forest-based livelihoods. Poor working conditions in the mines have also led to respiratory and other water related problems since water is being poisoned due to industrial wastes and also the soil is losing its fertility. People living adjacent to the mines (Banspal block) will also suffer various health-related effects. Orissa is mainly an agrarian state, where the majority of the population depends on agriculture related activities for their livelihood but in the wake of industrialization, rice is being imported from the neighboring states of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.
The project also requires 286 million liters of water per day which will be extracted from Jobra and Navajo barrages of river Mahanadi, as a result of which the farmers irrigating the lands by the canals of Taldanda, Machhagaon, Birupa of Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, and Kendrapada district will suffer a great loss. Water extraction in these quantities will also lay additional stress on an already overloaded water system, imposing a threat on water security for the locals, in addition to the concerns about water pollution.
The impact on the environment is not unavoidable. Orissa is home to thousands of animals, fishes and rare variety of plants, it has some of the largest mass-nesting areas for the Olive Ridley Turtle, an endangered species. The proposed POSCO port site lies between the mass nesting beaches of Gahirmata and Devi River mouth where the offshore waters have a high density of turtles from November to April. Lighting, marine pollution, ship traffic and ancillary development of what is currently largely untouched coastline will pose a long term threat to the species. Similarly, the proposed port will endanger several species of fish in the Jatadhari estuary, additionally impacting the livelihoods of fishing communities.
The project also involves the felling over 280,000 trees which will directly affect the dense forest covers in the Gandhamardhan and Malangatoli areas. Mining will also affect the Kandadhar waterfall, a famed tourist destination. The new port might entail erosion, thereby threatening the existing government port of Paradeep. POSCO has applied for environmental clearance for different parts of the project separately rather than as a whole in the hope of expediting clearance.
Environmental degradation to a large extent will result in global warming, climatic variations and erratic rainfall. This will also contribute to hot summers and harsh effects of the rays of the sun caused due depletion of the ozone layer. Poisoned water will have long term effects on marine animals and finally on people. Treeless areas will be subject to wind erosion and drying up of the water table, which will finally take a toil on humans as a whole. Unfertile and unirrigated land will no longer be beneficial for cropping. Even industries on which government is spending crores today will be worthless and the building of the port will have adverse effects on the environment of Orissa. Before the unwise exploitation of natural resources in favor of setting of industries, let’s pause and think ‘Does Orissa really needs industries?’
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