Category Archives: Ecology/Environment

Dhinkia to Beladal: A Protest Padayatra to Make the Orissa Coast Free of Capitalist Investments

An Appeal to join this  Padayatra November 29 to December 5, 2009

(Mail sent by Mamata Dash)

Dear Comrades/Friends,

Coastal Orissa and hundreds of thousands of its inhabitants who have been living for generations on its precious resources such as agriculture, beetle-vines, fisheries and village art and craft industry are facing today a great crisis of existence imposed on them all over the coast by capitalist investors with the active patronage of the state at the centre and in Orissa.  Be it POSCO or Vedanta or any other name, the most favorite investment destination for everyone is our natural resources and our rich coast line. No iron and steel factory can manufacture sustainable livelihood systems and life centric ecology. No world class university can take care of education of economically deprived who can’t even afford minimum primary education. The Nabin Pattnaik government knows this truth. But they also know another truth-the amount of black money these corporations can pump in for the benefit of the ruling elites no other work in the state can ensure that much for them.  The farmers, the peasants, the workers protest and they take the shape of powerful people’s movements in the form of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti or Vedanta Viswavidyalaya Virodhi Sangharash Samiti. The people threatened by a project resolve not to give in, but they take the pledge to fight back even if they have to pay a price. Many fighters have been killed but the fight continues in Kalinganagar, Kashipur, Keonjhar, Sundergarh, Lanjigarh, Hirakud, Dhinkia and Beladal. Hundreds of false cases have been filed against the people resisting destruction. But it has only added their resolve to fight with determination. In order to spread the messages of continuing the fight against unjust capitalist aggression on our resources the PPSS has initiated along with the help of Vedanta Viswavidyalaya Virodhi Sanghrash Samiti and several other mass movements, a Padyatra which will start on 29th November 2009 from Dhinkia and culminate on the 5th of December 2009 at Beladal.

We request you to please join this Padyatra to raise your voice against the powerful corporations who are eying shamelessly on our resources. The coast is to protect our livelihood and also to protect the environment. Let us not allow any private investment in the coast of Orissa. Let us make Padayatra a great success. We meet at Dhinkia in the evening of 28 November 2009. The Dhinkia villagers have arranged for food and stay for every pad Yatri. On 29th, the Yatra starts from Dhinkia (Centre of anti POSCO struggle) which ultimately will end on the 5 December 2009 at Beladal (Centre of anti Vedanta University struggle) where everything will be taken care of by the Beladal villagers.

Yours Sincerely

Abhaya Sahu, Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti, Dhinkia, Jagasingpur-( Mobile 9437571547)

Pitambar Das, Jatadhar Bacao Andolan, Ersema

Babuli Behera, Devi Muhan Surakhya Samiti

Benudhara Pradhan, Vedanta Viswavidyalaya Virodhi Sangharsa Samiti,

Bhagaban Majhi, Prakrutika Sampada Surakhya Parishad, Kucheipadar

Lingaraj Azad, Niyamgiri Surakhya Samiti

Rabindra Jarika, Vistapan Virodhi Janmanch, Sukinda

Ashok Pradhan, Paschima Odisha Krushak Sangathan Samanwaya Samiti

Muralidhar Sardar, Mittal Virodhi Manch

Khirod Singh Deo, Hirakud-Rengali Budi Anchal Sangram Samiti

Akhaya Das, Jala Surakhya Jan Manch

Prafulla Samantra, Lok Shakti Abhiyan

Budha Gamango, Lok Sangram Manch

Sibaram, Jiban Jibika Surakhya Samiti

Natabar Sarangi, Prachi Chasi Meli

Narayan Redy, Gana Sangram Samiti, Ganjam

Jogendra Gadanayak, Sidheswar Anchalika Surakhya Committee, Naraj

Nikunja Bhutia, Odisha Jana Adhikar Mancha

Dandapani Mohanty, Odisha Forest Majdoor Union

Jayadeb Nayak, Basi Surakhya Manch

Nitu Chakhia, Rajdhani Basti Unayan Parishad

Editors and Journalists Must Declare Their Assets As Well

On 15 August, our favourite newspaper, the Indian Express, carried a lead article on the edit page by its editor, Shekhar Gupta. The learned editor tells his readers, in case they are feeling depressed with the drought scenario, to drive down to Punjab – to Shimla, Chandigarh or Amritsar. ‘Just drive out’ he says… don’t fly’.

For then you will like Ali Baba be able to enter the magic cave and lo and behold! you will see ‘Totally lush, bounteous fields of paddy stretch endlessly into the horizon on both sides of the highway.’ And he goes on: ‘So where is the drought? Where are the caked, cracked and dried mud-flats with withered saplings that characterise drought? And mind you, Punjab and Haryana are among the worst hit states this year, notching up a rainfall deficit of 50 to 70 percent…’

Lord’s Own Voice, speaking through its prophet, tells us that why this is so:

Continue reading Editors and Journalists Must Declare Their Assets As Well

Gaon chodab nahin

Habib Tanveer and the Gond Myth of Creation

Several years ago while shooting for “Urdu Hai Jiska Naam” Subhash Kapoor, the director of the series and I had gone to Bhopal because we wanted Habib Saheb to anchor the series. While location hunting we went to see the Museum of Man – a sprawling open-air campus, spread on one side of the famous Shaamla hills in Bhopal. One area of the museum is dedicated to tribal myths and their theories of creation. The Gond myth of creation fascinated me greatly and I narrated it to Habib Saheb in the evening. Habib Sahib liked the story and took it down in as much detail as I could remember. Sometime later when I saw a performance of Zahreeli Hawa, Habib Saheb’s play on the Bhopal Gas tragedy, I realised that he had woven the Gond myth in the preamble of his play and had very effectively incorporated contemporary environmental concerns and the pillage of MNCs in this primordial tale of great simplicity and beauty. Continue reading Habib Tanveer and the Gond Myth of Creation

Vaikom Viswan and Little Bo-Peep

If I weren’t aware of Kerala’s more vibrant political past,I’d have died laughing this elections. The election campaign in Kerala was impossibly funny. Just to give you an example  — in Thiruvananthapuram, in the middle of the campaign, we were treated to the spectacle of all the three major contenders — of the CPI, the Congress, and BJP — don the costume of the chivalrous knight — indeed, pushing and shoving each other quite unchivalrously– determined to rescue the damsel in distress. However, there was no damsel waiting to be rescued! Continue reading Vaikom Viswan and Little Bo-Peep

Olive Ridley Turtles still wait for Ratan Tata to spare them their lives

The Pigs Revolt; and the Mexicans are not Amused

Dearly loved children, is it not a sin?
To peel potatoes and throw away the skins?
For the skins feed pigs and the pigs feed you,
Dearly loved children is it not true?

Children, the elderly and even the otherwise hale and hearty, take cover.  There is an ill wind that blows, a virus is on the loose, a contagion stalks the citadels of the great cities of our world, an illness stalks us all.  Look closely at the sneezing stranger next to you; you could be staring at the face of death.

Hyperbole aside, the outbreak of the flu in its latest avtaar gives us all something to think about; particularly those of us who have the sniffles.  Of course, this is no  runny nose to be scoffed at; but while health professionals across the world scratch their heads; I am most intrigued by the subtle and not to subtle politics of the flu. Continue reading The Pigs Revolt; and the Mexicans are not Amused

An Eco-Anarchist Manifesto: Prasanta Chakravarty

Municipalizing Nature.

Guest post by PRASANTA CHAKRAVARTY

The introduction to Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, Peter Kropotkin’s masterly rejoinder to competitive social Darwinists published in 1902, recounts the following anecdote: “When Eckermann told once to Goethe—it was in 1827—that two little wren-fledglings, which had run away from him, were found by him next day in the nest of robin redbreasts (Rothkehlchen), which fed the little ones, together with their own youngsters, Goethe grew quite excited about this fact. He saw in it a confirmation of his pantheistic views, and said: — ‘If it be true that this feeding of a stranger goes through all Nature as something having the character of a general law — then many an enigma would be solved.’ He returned to this matter on the next day, and most earnestly entreated Eckermann (who was, as is known, a zoologist) to make a special study of the subject, adding that he would surely come “to quite invaluable treasuries of results.”

This is the Goethe of The Theory of Colors and Metamorphosis of Plants, a unique dimension of the savant known and appreciated by artists and morphologists since. But why does a classical anarchist like Kropotkin needs to cite Goethe, whose inclinations for the storm and stress can only be matched by his surpassing urge to produce enduring literature and critiquing dilettantism at all levels? How the connection between ecology, evolution and philosophical anarchism gets stitched in the first place—before the advent of chaos and complexity theories, long before Earth First and Sierra Club became hip tags? Is it sound to dismiss such hitching as one more instance of misguided and modernist humanism as many radicals of our time—deep ecologists and votaries of biocentrism, not to speak of more mainstream anti-utopians—often tend to do?

Continue reading An Eco-Anarchist Manifesto: Prasanta Chakravarty

Some images do not disturb

CBI-employed manhole workers in Noida
CBI-employed manhole workers in Noida

guest post by S. ANAND

There are times when our critical antennae do not perk up. We do not wish to decode certain signs because we are all implicated in them. Following the 14 September blasts in Delhi, suddenly the media found a new value in ragpickers, street vendors, auto drivers and others who live on the fringes of the city and are generally looked down upon by people who inhabit apartments, blogs, cars (and autos, I must add).

Suddenly, by 15 September, ragpicker Krishna was canonized as a ‘hero’ by the media, the police and the state (the Delhi government claims credit for saving some lives with its ‘eyes and ears’ policy). Yet, Times of India prefaced its report about Krishna thus: Continue reading Some images do not disturb

On dealing with fuss-tration

So for those of us who thought that frustrated, naive and aggressive car drivers are a caricature, Hey we at Kafila found one just for our readers.  He is loud, aggressive and fuss-trated as they come. Read on …

The wonderful thing about blogging, I am told, is that it allows everyone to publish their opinions.  At times however, forgive me for saying this, I wonder if everyone should.  My most recent reason for this harsh indictment of the blogging world, is based on this recent post titled “This is what the fuss is about (you twit)”. The title stems from a spot of witty wordplay on one of my recent posts.

The “you twit”, I might hasten to add, is not my addition. it is the author’s impression of my arguments.  While his post is reasonably, if somewhat naively, argued; his frequent abuse stems, perhaps, out of the need to get his blog read. Or maybe it is a style that is much appreciated by his readers.  I will however, thank him for his incisive – if somewhat excessively enthusiastic – critique of my work.

Continue reading On dealing with fuss-tration

Of “Killer” Buses and Car Lobbies: The Coincidental Death of the BRT

The sustained campaign by the elite press to jettison Delhi’s first mas transit bus system has been remarked upon and documented on Kafila. Today morning’s newspapers carries news of an accident in which 32-year old Poonam Sharma was killed as she tried crossing the road and was hit by an oncoming bus. Delhi’s record when it comes to road safety is abysmal and this is yet another instance of the the terrible and tragic fate that befalls many pedestrians every year on Delhi’s roads. What is interesting though is the way in which accidents on the BRT are reported compared to the reportage of other road fatalities. Here are some headlines from the recent past:

BRT Corridor Claims One More Life

BRT Delhi: Death Toll Continues, Pedestrians Blamed

Delhi BRT has it 10th Victim

BRT Claims another Life: Woman run over by Bus

Continue reading Of “Killer” Buses and Car Lobbies: The Coincidental Death of the BRT

Bye Bye Reliance: Pen Tehsil Says No SEZ!

In our continuing concern with the strange times that seem to have befallen our cities, lets not lose sight of the historic battle underway in the countryside. In the first instance of its kind, the referendum on the Maha-Mumbai Special Economic Zone being set up by Reliance has unambiguously returned the verdict of the farmers of Raigad- no SEZ in Pen! As Sanhati notes, the Tata’s 1500 crore investment in Singur sounds like loose change when compared to the one lakh crore that Reliance is planning to sink into 10,000 hectares. 22 villages in the Pen Tehsil voted against the acquisition of their lands at the paltry sum of 10 lakhs per acre. Unsurprisingly, Reliance Industries Limited has said the referendum is “not genuine”:

Continue reading Bye Bye Reliance: Pen Tehsil Says No SEZ!

Mediotics, Industrialization and the Angel of History

[Being a sequel to ‘Singur, Mediotics and an NGO Called Indian Express‘]

“There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which he is staring at. His eyes are opened wide, his mouth stands open and his wings are outstretched. The Angel of History must look just so. His face is turned towards the past. Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet. He would like to pause for a moment…to awaken the dead and to piece together what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise, it has caught itself up in his wings and is so strong that the Angel can no longer close them. The storm drives him irresistibly into the future, to which his back is turned, while the rubble-heap before him grows sky-high. That which we call progress, is this storm.” Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History.”

These prophetic words were written in 1920 1940, when modernity’s arrogant faith in Progress was still pretty much intact. The rubble-heap of Progress has since piled up like never before. The world is now engaged in battling the effects of modernity that threaten humanity’s very existence. We know, for instance, that global warming or climate change threatens to destroy human civilization itself. Who knows, perhaps, millions of years later, some future civilization might discover its remains submerged under the sea and wonder at the heights of the ‘Progress’ it had achieved. Little might it occur to them that it was Progress itself that took this civilization to the sea.

Continue reading Mediotics, Industrialization and the Angel of History

ये बिहार का मंज़र है, क्‍या किया जाए!

ये बिहार का मंज़र है, क्‍या किया जाए!

ये रिपोर्ट रेयाज़-उल-हक़ ने लिखी है। वे प्रभात खबर के पटना संस्‍करण से जुड़े हैं। परसों रविवार डॉट कॉम के संपादक और संवेदनशील पत्रकार आलोक प्रकाश पुतुल से जब बात हो रही थी, तो उन्‍होंने इस रिपोर्ट का ज़‍िक्र किया। रेयाज़ की इस रिपोर्ट में जो दृश्‍य हैं, वे आंकड़ों पर इसलिए भी भारी हैं, क्‍योंकि आंकड़े आपको हैरान तो करते हैं, आपकी आंखों के समंदर में तूफान नहीं लाते। ये कुछ वैसा ही है, जैसा एक जमाने में फणीश्‍वरनाथ रेणु ने दिनमान पत्रिका के लिए पटना बाढ़ की रिपोर्टिंग की थी। ये सत्तर के दशक की बात है। आधी सदी बीतने को आ रही है – हालात हद से बदतर हो गये हैं। रेयाज़ के शब्‍दचित्र में बाढ़ का दहशतनाक मंज़र
मौजूद है – आप देखें, ज़‍िंदगी की भीख मांगते लोगों का दर्द महसूस करें और जितना संभव हो सके – मदद पहुंचाएं। (अविनाश)

मधेपुरा से सिंहेश्‍वर की ओर जानेवाली सड़क पर पथराहा गांव में मिलते हैं जोगेंदर यादव। सड़क किनारे एक पान की दुकान के सामने मचान पर बैठे वे पानी को अपनी ‘खर छपरी’ में घुसते हुए देखते हैं। पानी ने सुबह ही पथराहा में प्रवेश किया है। कोसी का लाल पानी। एक दिन पहले की दोपहर में गांववालों ने उसकी रेख देखी थी, गांव के पूरब। आज वह उनके घरों से, आंगन से, बांस-फूस की दीवारों से होता हुआ बह रहा है। कौवे उसकी फेन में जाने क्या ढूंढ रहे हैं। कुत्ते उसे सूंघते हैं और भड़क कर भागते हैं। गोरू उसमें खुर रोपने से डरते हैं। एक-एक सीढी डुबोते हुए, एक-एक घर पार करते हुए, एक-एक गली से राह बनाते हुए सड़क पर आकर वह अपनी थूथन पटकता है। कहीं-कहीं कमर भर पानी है गांव में।

Continue reading ये बिहार का मंज़र है, क्‍या किया जाए!

Flashpoint Chengara: March Against Blockade Tomorrow

AN APPEAL from the PANCHAMI DALIT FEMINIST COLLECTIVE, Kottayam, to join the march on August 14th, against sexual harassment and human rights violations at the site of the struggle for land at Chengara, Pathanamthitta, Kerala.

[Below is an urgent appeal from Chengara, Kerala, where a land struggle has been on for the past one year. There seems to be a general elite consensus about refusing citizenship to the 7500 landless families that have occupied government land there; more ominously, there seems to be also the determination to punish them. Since early August a road blockade has been going on led by the united front of trade unions defending the right of (eighty) workers in the occupied Chengara plantation. Apparently, there are also ‘criminal elements’- the trade unions and the police, poor things, know nothing of them – who have been violently stopping activists from reaching the settlement.The CPM intellectuals in Kerala are patiently waiting for ‘more and accurate’ information, as they were when some of us approached them proposing a protest around Nandigram last year. Reports of starvation, sickness,and sexual assault are reaching us from Chengara but there is no way we can get there.Now, what is this? A new form of illegal custody? A new form of sexual harassment in custody? On 14 August, dalit activists and organisations are planning a march to Chengara, and hopefully food and medical supplies can be taken there. Please circulate this appeal widely – we have to stop another Nandigram– JD]

A historic land struggle has been unfolding at Chengara in Pathanamthitta district, Kerala, involving about 7500 families, Continue reading Flashpoint Chengara: March Against Blockade Tomorrow

Quepem by the kilo: Hartman de Souza on Mining in Goa

I am posting below a requiem to Quepem by my old friend Hartman. It reads eerily like a companion piece to the curatorial essay to Manifesta 7 by Raqs, posted earlier on Kafila. Raqs wrote:

Mountains are flattened to mine bauxite, the main aluminium ore. Mountains of aluminium waste may eventually take their place…The “rest of now” is the residue that lies at the heart of contemporaneity. It is what persists from moments of transformation, and what falls through the cracks of time. It is history’s obstinate remainder, haunting each addition and subtraction with arithmetic persistence, endlessly carrying over what cannot be accounted for. The rest of now is the excess, which pushes us towards respite, memory and slowing things down.

And here’s Hartman:

As you read this, mourn the brutal rape and murder of half a dozen steep, thickly forested hills barely 12 kilometres from Quepem town in south Goa. These form an integral link of the magnificent Western Ghats that surround Goa, and as any schoolchild studying the environment will tell you, they play a crucial role in providing Goa its ecological wellbeing.

And yet, in blatant contravention of wisdom we purport to impart to children, hundreds of forests are being cut down around Quepem even as I write this. The denuded land turned inside out so fast, a hill can disappear in three months, leaving behind suppurating wounds that go down so deep the giant tipper trucks at the bottom look like the harmless toys little boys plays with.

Continue reading Quepem by the kilo: Hartman de Souza on Mining in Goa

Goa: How the battle was won

By Rifat Mumtaz and Madhumanti Sardar

(Rifat Mumtaz and Madhumanti Sardar work with NCAS and are involved in campaigns against SEZs).

Recently, Goa became the only state in India to openly declare that no more Special Economic Zones (SEZs) would be set up on its territory. This was a result of relentless pressure from almost the entire state — villagers, educated middle class, professionals, activists, the church and media. Continue reading Goa: How the battle was won

Looking forward looking back

While the Bali conference is finally over, work on its roadmap is only just begun. Below, am pasting a summary of Bali prepared by the Earth Negotiations Bulletin. The full report can be found on their website: http://www.iisd.ca

A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF COP 13 & COP/MOP 3

BALI: ISLAND OF THE GODS AND BREAKTHROUGHS?

You should not be impelled to act for selfish reasons, nor should you be attached to inaction. (Bhagavad Gita. 2.47)

Marking the culmination of a year of unprecedented high-level political, media and public attention to climate change science and policy, the Bali Climate Change Conference produced a two-year “roadmap” that provides a vision, an outline destination, and negotiating tracks for all countries to respond to the climate challenge with the urgency that is now fixed in the public mind in the wake of the headline findings of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report. The outline destination is an effective political response that matches both the IPCC science and the ultimate objective of the Convention; it was never intended that the Bali Conference would focus on precise targets. Instead, the divergent parties and groups who drive the climate regime process launched a negotiating framework with “building blocks” that may help to square a number of circles, notably the need to reconcile local and immediate self-interest with the need to pursue action collectively in the common and long-term interests of people and planet. The informal dialogue over the past two years has now been transformed into a platform for the engagement of parties from the entire development spectrum, including the United States and developing countries.

Continue reading Looking forward looking back

The Shotgun and the Sniper

“The time for silver bullets has passed,” proclaimed Marc Stewart, “What we need is a Shotgun!” In his bright Bali shirt, Nike sneakers and Investment Banker haircut, Mr Stewart is the firm-handshaking, fist pumping, ever effusive all-American co-founder of Ecosecurities, a firm that specialises in developing and marketing carbon trading projects under the Clean Development Mechanism – CDM – of the Kyoto Protocol. With emission reductions under Kyoto less than a month away, Mr Stewart’s firm is looking to extend its market capitalisation to far beyond its existing 40 million USD. The Ecosecurity model functions in the following way – they find and help develop projects in the developing world that is eligible for credit credits under the CDM, and then sell the credits to firms in EU, and across the world, that are looking to meet their Kyoto targets by offsetting excess emissions against carbon credits. Firms like Ecosecurities pushed the carbon market to 30 billion dollars in 2006; and if Annex 1 agrees to further emission cuts (25-40 per cent below 1992 by 2020) the potential size of the market is open to the most optimistic hyperbole.

The “Shotgun Approach” suggested by Stewart was his response to the fact Continue reading The Shotgun and the Sniper

Kafila makes Impact at International Conference!

In perhaps a first ever “Impact Kafila” story; the event organisers at the UNFCCC Climate Change Summit at Bali 07, seem to have changed their lunch plan. Two days ago, Kafila carried an exclusive investigative breaking news type piece on how millions of rupiahs were being wasted on freeloaders who attended lunch and refreshments and slipped away before the sessions began. Our fearless reporter posed as a freeloader and purloined one free lunch, some prawn cocktails and a can of Dr Peppers Ginger Ale (it tasted pretty awful, but I could not resist the attractive packaging) before unceremoniously leaving the premises and attending a rival side session. However, the event I attended this afternoon, had no large tables covered with starched white tablecloths, no silverware polished to a dull glow, no mile long queue of people from all over the conference – in fact, no free lunch. Continue reading Kafila makes Impact at International Conference!

Day Two At Bali

Day Two at the Bali Conference sees an intensification of the “inSide Climate Change” programmes. “inSide” is the UNFCCC’s witty title for the side events and exhibits at Bali 07 and is often a good indicator of the issues that shall be on the agenda for upcoming conferences. inSide is thus a great place to hang out if you want to get a sense of the future and, if you time it right, get to free lunch on donor-body expense. Because lunch is a serious issue. Not content with making collossal amounts of money off the UN for hosting their conference, the Bali conference centre offers meals at (literally) One million Rupiyah a pop – which works out to about 10 dollars for a grubby sandwich; but the point about the side events is that they offer a glimpse into big businesses plans for our environment. And there are many. Continue reading Day Two At Bali