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ANNUAL
State of India’s environment 2014
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DownToEarth
ANNUAL
State of India’s environment 2014
Editors: Souparno Banerjee, Richard Mahapatra, Papia Samajdar Contributors: Akshay Deshmane, Alok Gupta, Amit Khurana, Anumita Roychowdhury, Anupam Chakravarty, Aparna Pallavi, Arnab Pratim Dutta, Ashwin Aghor, Avikal Somvanshi, Bharat Lal Seth, Chandra Bhushan, Jitendra, Jyotika Sood, Jyotsna Singh, Kumar Sambhav Shrivastava, Latha Jishnu, Moyna, M Suchitra, Priyavrat Bhati, Richard Mahapatra, Sangeetha Suresh, Sayanton Bera, Sheeba Madan, Soma Basu, Sugandh Juneja, Sunita Narain, Sushmita Sengupta, Uthra Radhakrishnan, Vivek Chattopadhyay Design: Ajit Bajaj, Vivek Bharadwaj Cover: Kadambini Raghuram Layouts: Kirpal Singh, Surender Singh Production: Rakesh Shrivastava, Gundhar Das Research support: Kiran Pandey, Anil Kumar, Sheeja K M
Š 2014 Centre for Science and Environment ISBN: 978-81-86906-68-2 Price: `450 (US $30) Material from this publication can be used, but with acknowledgement. Published by Centre for Science and Environment 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area New Delhi 110 062 Phones: 91-11-4061 6000 Fax: 91-11-26085879 E-mail: cse@cseindia.org Website: www.cseindia.org Printed at International Print-o-Pac Limited, B-204, 205, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase I, New Delhi-110020 INDIA
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State of India’s environment 2014
Foreword....................................................................5 Water ..........................................................................8 People and governance............................................36 Forests and wildlife..................................................60 Land and agriculture ...............................................86 Industry and mining ..............................................114 Air pollution...........................................................146 Climate change ......................................................166 Elections 2014........................................................190 Resources ...............................................................205
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n 2013, environmental issues reached a crucial crossroad. On one hand, there was greater awareness of, and demand and protest for safeguarding natural resources. On the other, there was a much louder call for taking down the regulatory system that protects green concerns. As I write this, at the end of 2013, the ‘development’ lobby seems to be winning this battle. There is an all-out attack on the controls that assessed projects — everything from buildings to dams — for mitigating environmental damage. The question is, why have we come to this situation? What should be done to ensure environmental issues are not sidelined? It is important to understand where we are going wrong. Just think of last year: you will hear a cacophony. There was huge dissent about the way we are mismanaging coal reserves; the Supreme Court shut down iron ore mining in Goa; later in the year, there was outcry about rampant and rapacious sand mining and the havoc it is reaping on rivers. There were equally loud calls for the need for hydropower projects in the Himalaya to be shut down and for mines in the forests of Central India not to be reopened. Or that vast stretches of bio-diverse rich Western Ghats should be declared an ecosensitive zone, shutting off huge areas from mining, industries and even plantations and settlements. It would seem one side wanted to shut everything; another wanted to open up everything. In this way, the polarisation was absolute. In my view, this has not benefitted the environment’s cause; it has certainly not changed the way we will manage our natural resources for sustainable and inclusive growth. This impasse does not work. But by the end of the year you find that most action has either not been taken; or steps have been reversed. It is business as usual. In Bellary, all the iron ore mines closed after gross environmental violations, have been reopened. The only difference is that some mines have paid a penalty for illegalities and all have agreed to follow a plan for environmental restoration and will not indulge in unseemly activities. But the institutions for checking reformed miners are still in disarray; which means, little will actually change in Bellary. The miners will flex muscles again (after a suitable wait) to extract more iron ore than they should; degrade the land and water; encroach on forestland; and cheat the exchequer by hiding the value of their exports. Business as usual will prevail. Similarly, mining of sand continues unabated and with rapacious speed in rivers. But because the Supreme Court directed that minor minerals (sand and even mud) would require environmental clearance, state governments process paperwork. But the fact is that this mining activity is scattered, small and unorganised. So either mining continues as before — only this time with the stamp of clearance — or it moves to the illegal dark side.
To dam or not So, even where action is taken, it is not working to safeguard the environment. Take the issue of hydroelectric projects in the Himalaya. The dam builders-engineers lobby wants no restraints on construction of projects in this fragile ecosystem. In the Ganga basin alone, some 70 projects were on the cards to generate 9,000 megawatt (MW). These projects together would ‘affect’ — humanly reengineer — some 60-90 per cent of the river’s length and would dry up stretches completely. There was no method in this madness. On the other side, there were equally strong views against construction of hydroelectric projects. The arguments ranged from religious beliefs (construction would harm Ganga’s purity) to environmental concerns (about the vulnerability of the Himalaya). The disaster that shook the mighty Himalaya killed over 10,000 people and brought down buildings like a pack of cards. The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) stepped in and declared some part of the area along the Bhagirathi river and its catchment as eco-sensitive zone. Under this notification, no hydroelectric projects would be allowed and construction of any other buildings would require permission from the ministry. But this is not tenable. The ministry has no capacity to take environmentally sound decisions while awarding clearances to projects. It cannot implement the eco-sensitive zone notification. Worse, the notification in its current form will only lead to more corruption during clearances. In all this over time, all the dams will be back. The Himalaya will become even more vulnerable and damaged. Local communities will suffer. So in 2014, we need a different and more nuanced approach. In this case, it would mean accepting
It would seem one side wanted to shut everything; another side wanted to open up everything. This has not benefitted the environment’s cause; it has certainly not changed the way we will manage our natural resources for sustainable and inclusive growth A Down To Earth annual
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FO R E WO R D the fact that producing energy from flowing rivers is both a clean and renewable source of power as well as an important resource for Himalayan states. It cannot be argued that no dam should be constructed. But projects that kill the river or damage the ecosystem should not be allowed. And this can be done. For instance, we at Centre for Science and Environment have done exhaustive calculations that show that rivers can sustain generation of hydropower, provided there is agreement to set aside 50 per cent of the total flow for six months of the lean season and 30 per cent during high discharge monsoon season. Hydropower projects would need to be re-engineered so that they utilise water that the river can afford to part with — and not take all it has. Our estimation is that this will mean reduction in the number of projects but it will still mean the region will generate substantial power. In addition, we advocated that small hydroelectric projects — defined as up to 25 (MW) — could not be considered green unless their construction was strictly regulated. Small is not necessarily right and green. In all this, the first right to energy should be given to people who live in the Himalaya.
Western Ghats: all is nothing
The fact is, there was no chance the Gadgil report would have been accepted. And therefore, the objective of the Kasturirangan panel to find a way to protect the areas still untouched is a way ahead 6
In mid-2011, a panel headed by ecologist Madhav Gadgil submitted a comprehensive report on protection of Western Ghats. The Ghats are a biological treasure trove, spread over some 130,000160,000 ha (depending on the definition used to delineate the ecological region). The MoEF first suppressed the report for months, till courts directed it to take action on the recommendations. It then set up a committee, headed by planning commission member K Kasturirangan to advise it on the next steps that needed to be taken. In April 2013, Kasturirangan committee (of which I was a member) submitted its report to angry rejections from both sides: ecologists who supported the Gadgil report and a combine of industry and politicians who want no special protection for the region. The key differences between the Gadgil and Kasturirangan reports are three-fold. One, the extent of the area that would be protected under the eco-sensitive zone: the Gadgil report required the entire area of the Western Ghats (roughly 130,000 ha) to be declared eco-sensitive zone (ESZ). The Kasturirangan panel used finer remote sensing technology (24-metre resolution against 9 km used in Gadgil report) to identify human dominated land use of settlements, agriculture and plantations (other than forest plantations). This cultural landscape was removed from the protection regime and only areas identified as natural landscape was recommended to be declared eco-sensitive areas (ESAs). This meant that 37 per cent of the Western Ghats would be under a strict protection regime. The extent of the area was still massive (60,000 ha) but it would not involve setting up a prohibitory regime in lands which were already modified by human intervention. The third crucial difference between the two panels concerns the activities and institutional mechanism to regulate protection in the zone. The Gadgil committee contains a detailed list of activities: from banning genetically modified crops to decommissioning of dams and removal of plantations, which would not be permitted in the three zones, classified based on their level of ecological sensitivity and biodiversity. To regulate this permit and prohibition system, it recommended setting up a national authority, along with counterparts at the state and district levels. The list of activities includes ecology committees, which would take decisions regarding the permits. The Kasturirangan committee has recommended a non-tolerance policy only with respect to highly interventionist and environmentally damaging activities like mining. These would be either completely banned in the eco-sensitive area or would require very tough conditions for clearance. The committee, instead of setting up a new national authority for regulation of the permit and permission system, decided to strengthen the existing framework of environmental clearances. Many ecologists view this as a dilution of the Gadgil report. The fact is, there was no chance the Gadgil report would have been accepted, given the scope of the area and the nature of prohibition required. And therefore, the objective of the Kasturirangan panel to find a way to protect the areas still untouched is a way ahead. But there are more serious questions for future policy. I have misgivings about the capacity and ability of governance systems to regulate protection in such a manner. The experience with declaration of eco-sensitive zones shows clearly that the method of environmental management, through prohibition and fiat, is often detrimental to the interests of the very people and environment policy it is aiming to protect. Even Madhav Gadgil summarises the poignant case of a strawberry farmer and rose cultivator, who suffered because of this highly centralised law. The farmer was not allowed to construct temporary sheds or cowsheds in the name of this law, even as large constructions came up illegally. Similarly, in the eco-sensitive zone located near a sanctuary, poor tribals were stopped from using
State of India’s environment 2014
kerosene lamps for lighting. This, because forest department officials had merrily interpreted the provision in the notification, which says that no large-scale artificial lights would be allowed (which would disturb animal habitats), to ban kerosene lamps. Will such a regime based on rigid bureaucratic controls and combined with weak institutions for governance not be easily subverted and work against the interests of the poor and the environment? Therefore, we need different ways of governance in the coming years. The Western Ghats, even in areas categorised as natural landscapes, is inhabited. It is not possible to plan for the Ghats only as a fenced-in zone. Within the area defined as ESA, there are some 4,149 villages. The people living in these settlements have undoubtedly built a relationship with the natural environment. However, these practices need to be supported. This is what the Kasturirangan panel has recommended: make conservation work so that people and economies benefit.
Institutions for new-gen governance But any change we desire in 2014 and beyond is not possible if the institutions for regulation, monitoring and enforcement are not substantially revamped and strengthened. Balance between environment and development requires working institutions that can be trusted to take carefully evaluated decisions. More importantly, the institutions should be able to enforce the conditions laid down at the time of clearance so that devastation is mitigated, if not managed well. But we don’t have such institutions. Instead, there is a growing noise that environment and forest clearances are holding up growth. So, there is a frantic rush to clear everything in sight. But will this repair the economy? The fact is that clearances have never been the problem. In the past five years, the ministry has granted sanctions to so many projects that we should have doubled or tripled the capacity in most cases. But we have not, because there are other unresolved issues — from finance to building projects against the will of communities. If we are serious about doing something, then this is where we should focus. First, we should invest in institutions that will provide oversight. This means doing what we mostly avoid: repair what is broken. Pollution control boards remain under-staffed, under-funded and abused by all. But we build new agencies, deluding ourselves that they will take care of all the troubles. The National Green Tribunal has been set up. Now this tribunal needs scientific information, monitoring data and assessment. It has nobody to call upon but the same defunct pollution control boards, so decision-making is seriously impaired. It is a joke. Second, we should set straight the system of clearances. Currently, the entire structure is built on a few committees, manned (since there are very few women) by faceless and mostly retired bureaucrats and other sundry types. The institution is unaccountable. It is supposed to “assess” projects — spending on an average a few minutes on each file — and then take decisions. It will ask many questions and hold many meetings. Finally, it will clear all the projects but with tough environmental conditions. This, when it knows that there is no monitoring mechanism to check even one of the 100 conditions it imposes. This is what needs to be reformed, revamped and improved. This will require taking tough positions on strengthening the existing system — bringing in more specialists and streamlining processes so that environment, forests, wildlife and coastal clearances are assessed for cumulative impact. Most importantly, we need people to monitor post-clearance performance. We need to tighten enforcement. And we cannot do this without strong regulatory institutions. All this needs a three-pronged approach. One, we need to make clearance assessment more coherent and comprehensive by simply linking environment, forests, coasts and wildlife of each project. Two, bring much greater transparency in decision-making by making public hearing and prior informed consent processes open and visible and by ensuring that committees assessing projects are accountable. Three, bring sharp and total focus on monitoring for compliance and enforcement and build capacity to do this. This would require pollution control boards to be revamped and strengthened. It would also need investment in monitoring systems that allow people to know about the state of their forests, river or air. In 2014, it is time we took the crucial next step on environmental management — build institutions that can bring the discourse to fruition. This is the agenda for the future.
Clearances have never been the problem. In the past five years, the ministry has granted sanctions to so many projects that we should have doubled or tripled the capacity in most cases. But we have not, because there are other unresolved issues — from finance to building projects against the will of communities
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Water ■ Rivers in India have become synonymous with pollution. The frenzied fervour that accompanies events like the Maha Kumbh in Allahabad spares very little thought for what happens to the river which hosts it — in this case, the Ganga. ■ Why are India’s rivers in such a sorry state? How should India manage its water? The drought that scalded Maharashtra in 2013 tells us that our water management strategies are skewed.
Water must be managed in a way to enable its equitable and distributed access. Rain has to be harvested. ■
■ In the Himalaya, hydropower is re-engineering our rivers: 70 projects are being planned on the Ganga and its tributaries, which may affect 80 per cent of some of the rivers. Should we allow this?
Rivers must have water to dilute the waste in them. For example, Delhi withdraws almost all the water from the Yamuna, and returns only sewage to it. Can it rethink its water management, reduce its consumption, treat its wastwater prudently? ■
REUTERS
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WAT E R
For a secure water future What were the issues, contentions, contests and scenarios that ruled water in India in 2013? And how do we chart a course that could lead to a water future which would be sustainable?
KADAMBINI RAGHURAM
MANAGING WATER INEQUITY: DEALING WITH DROUGHT It was only in March 2013 that the drought crippling large parts of Maharashtra finally grabbed the nation’s attention. The region had been reeling under water scarcity for two years — by 2013, agriculture was severely hit, as was industrial output. Maharashtra is no stranger to droughts. In the 1970s, the state had initiated the country’s first employment guarantee programme to provide drought relief. But the drought of 2013 was different. It brought home the fact that a state can suffer the consequences of increasing variability of rainfall if it mismanages its water. Maharashtra’s drought is a reminder of what awaits India in its water future. Maharashtra has spent a lot on building irrigation projects. Since 2007 — when farmer suicides in Vidharbha hit the headlines — the state has been given central grants for water projects. According to the state economic survey, till February 2012, Maharashtra had spent `12,000 crore only on this, with nothing much to show for it: irrigation projects had either not been built or simply not utilised. The state’s own data says some 40 per cent of the potential created is not being used. Reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) speak about scandalous ways in which dams are built but canals are not and about cost escalations so high that projects become unviable and are never completed. This is also the only Indian state to give industry priority over agriculture in allocation of water, because there is more recovery of investment. So even when an irrigation project is built, the water 10
State of India’s environment 2014
from it is diverted to urban and industrial needs. In Amravati, a drought-hit district, the Upper Wardha irrigation project was built under the prime minister’s relief package. But when water started to flow in the canals, the state decided to divert it to the Sophia thermal power project. Farmers protested the move. This led to the overturning of the policy that gave industry priority, but not in the cases where water was already allocated. The state’s economic survey accepts that only 50 per cent of the utilised water in its reservoirs is being used for agriculture. With rapid urbanisation, the demand for water is bound to go up. This will add to the stress unless cities and industries become water-prudent now — use less water and return clean water (and not sewage) to farmers. The inequity between agriculture and industry-urbanisation finds an echo in the inequity within agriculture itself. Maharashtra grows sugarcane-type water-guzzling crops. This dry and water-stressed state produces 66 per cent of the crushed sugar in the country, way over what Uttar Pradesh, located in the Ganga basin, manages. Thus, water available for agriculture is also not used wisely (see Box: Sugarcane: Engineering scarcity).
SUGARCANE: ENGINEERING SCARCITY Ghoti, a village in the severely drought-hit Solapur district of Maharashtra, is facing acute drinking water crisis. It also has the dubious distinction of having 6,000 borewells for its 3,000odd residents and about 40 hectare (ha) of standing sugarcane crop. Till about 15 years ago, the village had no water worries. Things changed after two sugar factories were set up in neighbouring Karmala and Barshi tehsils. Farmers started growing sugarcane in large tracts of land. Water that came from the Ujni dam was enough for irrigation. But when monsoons failed in 2011 and 2012, they started drilling
DRAINED DRY Sugarcane production is maximum in low rainfall areas
NASHIK 2.76 1,076 mm
AURANGABAD 1.15 734 mm
JALNA 1.43 PARBHANI 650 mm 1.23 956 mm
AHMADNAGAR 12.79 561.6 mm
BEED 3.25 743.4mm
PUNE 14.96 744.9 mm
OSMANABAD
LATUR 2.77 769.7 mm
SATARA
SOLAPUR
8.65 768 mm
17.64 723.4 mm
4.35 842.4 mm
SANGLI 9.14 629.4 mm
KOLHAPUR 16.95 1,019.5 mm
Percentage of state’s sugar production Average rainfall Figures are for the year 2009-2010 Source: Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Pune (for sugar); Maharashtra Agriculture Contingency Plans (for rainfall)
borewells in a desperate bid to save their crops. Six per cent of Maharashtra’s cultivated area is occupied by the water-guzzling sugarcane. One ha of sugarcane ensures that at least four ha of other crops are deprived of water. “Its water footprint is alarming,” says D M More, former director general of the state government’s water resource department. “At present, sugarcane alone consumes water equivalent to the total storage capacity of all dams in Maharashtra,” he says. More now runs the non-profit Maharashtra Sinchan Sahayog and has done a two-year study on the impact of sugarcane crop in the state. Excessive digging of borewells is drying up aquifers. Villages that have standing sugarcane crops are buying drinking water from private tankers, he says. “There is a growing feeling among people that they are being deprived of their rightful share of drinking water even as others’ crops flourish,” says Madhav Chitale, head of the Maharashtra Water and Irrigation Commission, 1999. The commission recommends a cap on new sugar factories in water-deficit river basins, and shifting of sugar factories out of drought-prone areas. The 1999 Godbole committee, constituted to investigate sick sugar cooperatives, had made a similar recommendation. D K Pal, former head of Division of Soil Studies, National Bureau of Soil Survey and Land Use Planning, Nagpur, says his institution has repeatedly recommended a return to traditional rain-fed crops of the region such as legumes and oilseeds. Canal irrigation, which is used to extend sugarcane acreage, is detrimental to arid soil, he says. “In some districts such as Dhule and Ahmednagar, salinity caused by cane cultivation has rendered huge patches of land unfit for cultivation.” But the government has ignored all such recommendations. The reason for this conspiracy of silence is the political clout sugar cooperatives wield. Almost all sugar factories in the state are controlled by powerful politicians. Thirteen of the 30 ministers in the state cabinet are either sugar factory owners or heads of sugar cooperatives. Policy measures are, therefore, dictated by the sugar lobby.
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WAT E R But it is the inability to link investment in watershed and soil conservation to groundwater recharge that has been the most damaging. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has replaced the state’s three-decade old employment guarantee scheme. But with the focus on creating jobs, and not on completion of the work, there is little productive asset creation (see article on MGNREGS in chapter on ‘People and governance’). Even during the drought, the scheme had no takers. Down To Earth reporters found that during the state-wide drought in 1972, 1.5 million people had worked under the employment guarantee scheme. But in 2012, the number was down to 0.25 million — mostly because of low wages and delayed payments. Furthermore, investments in water assets — coming largely through employment guarantee schemes — are hardly ever productive. Watersheds are planted with trees, but protection of the trees is not ensured. Tanks are desilted, but the channels or the catchment that bring water to the tanks are not. Worse, the tank is rarely completed. In this way, drought becomes perpetual; rain or no rain, money or no money.
❮❮ Rewind 2013 Maharashtra government declares a `60,000-crore drought-proofing programme, which will create decentralised water storage. The government will spend the entire amount by 2016. The package comes at a time when the state government is under scrutiny for a large number of incomplete waterworks
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DISTRIBUTED ACCESS AND DYING WISDOM Every country has to mind its water business. But for a country like India, where it rains for roughly 100 hours of the year, the management of water becomes even more critical. It literally determines if the country remains poor or becomes rich; diseased or healthy. In other words, water is the determinant of its future. What is clear is that the issue of water is not about scarcity but about its careful use and about its equitable and distributed access. Water is the starting point for the removal of poverty in the country. It becomes the basis of food and livelihood security. Water management strategies will need to be carefully designed so that they lead to distributed wealth generation. This will require reworking the paradigm of water management, so that it is designed to harvest, augment and use local water resources. It is also clear that local and distributed water infrastructure will require new forms of institutional management as established water bureaucracies will find it difficult to manage such vast and disparate systems. It is here that India’s learning from its traditional community-based water management systems will be useful. Lately, there has been recognition of the need to invest in local and distributed water systems. But as the drought in Maharashtra shows, the programmes for building, restoring and rejuvenating ponds, tanks and other water structures remain deeply flawed. The largest investment in water management is through MGNREGA. Under this programme, over 5.5 million water conservation structures have been created in the past eight years. But thousands of these valuable assets remain incomplete or simply abandoned — which means drought relief is not being utilised to become a permanent relief against drought. Water insecurity grows as a result. This adds to the crisis of groundwater availability: recharge is limited, but withdrawal is unabated. This is one of the unknown ironies of India. Over many years, the Indian state, through its public irrigation agencies, has systematically taken over the management of surface water systems from the hands of village communities. It has taken over the job of building irrigation systems (dams, reservoirs and canals), maintaining these and supplying the water. The irony is that even as the state has vested this power in itself, it has no control over how groundwater is used. Groundwater — a resource that flows under the lands owned by individuals and therefore, is under their control — irrigates the bulk of the land in the country. This irrigation infrastructure, comprising of some 19 million wells — dugwells and tubewells — has been created by individual farmers, both rich and poor, using funds available from moneylenders or the meagre institutional finance provided by state credit agencies. The lack of institutional support for infrastructure and the dependence on private finance is one key cause of farmer indebtedness and poverty in large parts of the country. The intense use of this resource has meant that groundwater levels across the country are falling sharply. Technology is allowing for deeper and deeper penetration and extraction. The electricity subsidy — providing cheap energy for pumping — worsens the situation, with estimations that farmers end up using almost double the water for each unit of crop when they have access to cheap or free power as compared to pump-sets using paid diesel. We can try and regulate this use with legislation. But regulating the use of 19 million users will be
State of India’s environment 2014
difficult, if not impossible. What we have to recognise is that groundwater is a replenishable asset. What is needed is to recharge the wells, so that annual extraction is limited to what is sustainable. In other words, we must use groundwater like a bank. Live off the interest — what is recharged — and not the capital. This is where the irony multiplies. Even as groundwater has overtaken surface water systems, other irrigation methods — tanks, ponds and all other community-based and decentralised water harvesting structures — have simultaneously declined. These systems had played a critical role in recharge of groundwater: they stored rainwater, which then recharged underground aquifers. These were the ‘distributed’ sponges without which ‘distributed’ water management would not be possible. The tragedy is that when we lost respect for traditional systems, which were designed to ensure that rainwater was stored in millions of disaggregated, diverse structures, we lost our water future.
RAINFALL AND CLIMATE CHANGE Every year, like clockwork, India is caught between the spectre of months of crippling water shortages and drought followed by months of devastating floods. In 2013, there was no respite from this annual cycle. But there were indications that something strange is afoot: each year, the floods have been growing in intensity. Each year, the rain events get more variable and extreme. Each year, the economic damages because of floods and rain have been increasing — in 2013, yet again, the development gains were lost in one season of flood. Despite the monsoons being an extremely capricious, unpredictable and confounding phenomenon, scientists who study them are beginning to find a distinction between a ‘normal’ monsoon and what is now showing up in abnormal extreme rain events. They are also conclusively linking some of these events to human-induced climate change. But the causes of the devastation that follows extreme events — such as droughts or floods — are often complicated and involve mismanagement of resources and poor planning as well. For instance, floods — currently ravaging parts of Assam and Bihar — are caused by unusually high rainfall. But it is also true that we have destroyed the drainage in our floodplains through utter mismanagement. We build embankments believing we can control the river, only to find this protection broken. We build habitations in floodplains, only to see them washed away by nature’s fury. Similarly, urban India is mindless about drainage: stormwater drains are either clogged, full of garbage and sewage or just do not exist. Our lakes and ponds have been eaten away by real estate — land is what the city values, not water. So, in an extreme downpour, the city drowns. This makes for a double-whammy: on one hand, we are mismanaging our water resources, intensifying floods and droughts. On the other hand, climate change is beginning to make the country even more vulnerable because of increased frequency of such weather events. The disaster that shook the mighty Himalaya in 2013 was a deadly combination of these two factors. The Himalaya are the world’s youngest mountain ranges, prone to landslides and flash floods. But what we do not easily comprehend is that two factors have made this already vulnerable region more hazardous. One, climate change-related extreme weather events – the Indian monsoon has become more intense. Studies show extreme rain events are becoming more frequent compared to moderate rain events. Rainfall is also becoming variable and unseasonal. This is what happened in Uttarakhand on that fateful June 16. It rained without a break; some 200 mm came down within hours at a few places like Kedarnath. The rain was also unseasonal. June is not considered the beginning of the monsoon season, so pilgrims and tourists thronging the region were caught unawares (see article on extreme weather events in ‘Climate change’). What really compounded the disaster — made it truly human-made — is the scale of development intervention in the past decade or so. This Himalayan region has seen unchecked construction activity, illegal and legal mining, unscientific road building and, of course, hydropower projects built next to each other. In Kedarnath, large-scale construction has been done on the land evacuated by a glacier in the past few years. It is small wonder that the water, moraine and stones came crashing down and took all with them. This is the deadly and painful cost of environmental mismanagement. The way ahead is to respect the vulnerability of the region. The Himalayan region must develop. The question is how it should do so: by building roads and hydropower projects or by encouraging local economies based on tourism, which do not work against nature? It is also a fact that changing
❮❮ Rewind 2013 Floods roared across Bihar and Assam, as well as parts of West Bengal (Malda) and Maharashtra (Chandrapur). In Uttarakhand, sheer mismanagement of water and the other natural resources joined hands with a changing climate to wreak unprecedented havoc A Down To Earth annual
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WAT E R monsoon patterns will require us to optimise use of every drop and not allow rain to become devastating flood. Only then will the Himalayan tragedy not be repeated. The monsoon is the real finance minister of India. We must make sure every drop of this rain is harvested and used in the prolonged dry season. We must plan for drainage so that when rain comes, it can be channelised and optimised. This means that every waterbody, every channel and every catchment of rain has to be safeguarded. These are the temples of modern India, built to worship rain.
DETERMINING ECOLOGICAL FLOW Hydropower is important, but is it important enough to let stretches of our rivers dry up? Or is there a way to balance the need for energy with the imperative of a flowing healthy river? The Ganga, in its upper reaches (in the state of Uttarakhand), has become an engineer’s playground. The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) and the Uttarakhand power department have estimated the river’s hydroelectric potential at some 9,000 megawatt (MW) and planned 70-odd projects on its tributaries. In building these projects, the key tributaries would be modified — through diversions into tunnels or reservoirs — to such an extent that 80 per cent of the Bhagirathi and 65 per cent of the Alaknanda could be “affected”. As much as 90 per cent of the other smaller tributaries could also be impacted in the same way. In this way, hydropower would re-engineer the Ganga. It would also dry up the river in many stretches. Most of the proposed projects are run-of-the-river schemes, which are seemingly benevolent as compared to large reservoirs and dams — but only if the project is carefully crafted to ensure that the river remains a river and does not turn into an engineered drain.
❮❮ Rewind 2013 The 12th Five Year Plan introduces a number of new institutions to manage water — the National Water Commission to monitor compliance with conditions of investment and environment clearances given to irrigation projects; Water Regulatory Authorities in each state to protect the right to drinking water and the New Legal Framework for Groundwater to regulate groundwater ownership and management 14
Energy generation is the driver of this kind of planning; indeed, the only obsession. On the Ganga, projects would be built so that one project diverts water from the river, channels it to the point where energy would be generated and then discharges it back into the river. The next project, however, would be built even before the river can regain its flow — so, the river would simply, and tragically, dry up over entire stretches. It would die. The question is what should be the ecological flow (e-flow) — why and how much should be left in the river for needs other than energy. Hydropower engineers argue that 10 per cent ecological flow would be enough, which they say they can “accommodate” in project design without huge loss in energy generation. The Wildlife Institute of India (WII), commissioned to look at ecosystem and fish biodiversity needs, has suggested between 20 and 30 per cent e-flow in different seasons. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) prepared an alternative proposal after studying what would be the impact on energy generation and tariff in different e-flow regimes. It found that in the 50 per cent e-flow scenario, there was substantial impact on the amount of energy generated and, therefore, on the tariff. But if this was modified a little to provide for a little extra water for energy generation in the high discharge season, the results changed dramatically. In this case, the reduction in energy generation was not substantial. Therefore, tariffs were comparable. The reason was simple: the projects actually did not generate much energy in the lean season. The plant load factor, project after project, showed that even in the unrestricted scenario (eflow of 10 per cent or less) there was no water to make energy in the lean season. CSE suggested that mimicking river flow was the best way to optimise energy generation. The river had enough to give us but only if we put the river first, and our needs next. The CSE proposal is to provide 30 per cent e-flow for six months (May to October) and 50 per cent for the other six months (November to April). The proposal was submitted to B K Chaturvediheaded Inter-ministerial Group on Ganga. But this course of action was unthinkable for hydropower engineers. They had designed their projects on either zero e-flow or at most 10 per cent. So, in this way, they could generate power with every drop of water even in the low discharge season. They planned deliberately for the river to be sucked dry (see Box: Reworking ecological flow). This issue raises some bigger concerns. Firstly, the question of how we plan the ‘potential’ of hydropower generation. In this case, the CEA had estimated the hydropower potential way back in the 1980s. This estimation did not account for e-flow, or for the competing needs of society for water needs. This has now become the basis of planning. Any reduction in this ‘potential’ is seen as a financial and energy loss. Nobody is willing to ask if the potential is realistic, feasible or sustainable.
State of India’s environment 2014
A Down To Earth annual
15
WAT E R REWORKING ECOLOGICAL FLOW A critique of the recommendations of the Inter-ministerial Group on Ganga
% annual energy generated
PERCENTAGE OF ANNUAL ENERGY GENERATED IN UNRESTRICTED (10%), IMG (25-30%) AND ALTERNATIVE (3050%) ECOLOGICAL FLOWS 10
13%
17%
20%
0 80 60 40 20 0
Unrestricted
IMG
CSE
Scenario Nov to Apr (Lean)
May to Oct (High)
ACTUAL ANNUAL ENERGY GENERATED IN DIFFERENT SEASONS IN UNRESTRICTED, IMG AND ALTERNATIVE E-FLOWS 18,000 Energy generated (GWh)
In April 2013, the Inter-ministerial Group (IMG) headed by Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi submitted its report to the prime minister’s office. The report provides for ecological flow of 25 per cent for eight months and 30 per cent for four months. This proposal is a definite advancement over the current situation, where less than 10 per cent is provided as ecological flow in the design of hydropower projects, but it is not sufficient to ensure that the Ganga has adequate water to meet ecosystem and livelihood needs. The IMG proposal is also inadequate to ensure that the river does indeed flow at all times and in all stretches. Analysis of the 24 projects for which hydrological data is available shows that the lean season flow is less than 10 per cent of the highest monsoon flow. In other words, leaving less than 50 per cent in these dry season months would mean virtually drying up the river. An alternative option, proposed by CSE, is feasible, which importantly does not have substantial impact on energy generation and tariffs. This is to provide 50 per cent flow for six months (November to April) and 30 per cent for the remaining six months (May to October). The difference in energy generation between what is proposed by the B K Chaturvedi report and the alternative is a reduction of as little as 6 per cent on an average across the projects. This will mean that tariff will increase by roughly 7 per cent on an average. This is clearly a small price to pay for a flowing Ganga in all seasons. The reason why the impact on generation and tariff is insignificant is because hydropower projects do not generate much power during lean seasons. Of the annual energy generated by these projects, only 20 per cent is produced during the six-month lean water season. As much as 80 per cent is generated in the six months of high water discharge (May to October). The future power generation regime would produce when there is water and optimise for this. In this way, we can balance our needs for energy with the requirements of a flowing, healthy Ganga.
16,313
16,000
14,246
13,782
14,000 12,000 8,000 6,000 4,000
4,112
2,966
2,056
2,000 0 Unrestricted
IMG
CSE
Scenario Nov to Apr (Lean)
May to Oct (High)
Energy generation (GWh)
ACTUAL MONTHLY ENERGY GENERATED: VISHNU PRAYAG HYDROPOWER PROJECT 350 300 250 200 150
Vishnu Prayag (Year 2010)
100
Vishnu Prayag (Year 2011)
50 0 Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Jul
12 month period data Sources: Central Electricity Authority (CEA) generation data from 2010-12
16
State of India’s environment 2014
Aug
Sep
Oct
Nov
Dec
Secondly, there is the question of cost of generation. Energy planners push for hydro-projects because they say that tariffs are low, and because the source provides for ‘peaking’ power — for those hours when demand is high. But this discounts the fact there is a cost of raw material, in this case, of water and the necessity of a flowing river. This needs to be accounted for in the tariff. Thirdly, there is the question of how much needs to be built and where. The way projects are being executed, is making this important source of renewable energy disastrous. If any projects are stopped, compensation is demanded, as Uttarakhand is asking today. This sets a bad precedent as it literally incentivises states to degrade the environment recklessly, and demand compensation. But this happens also because there is no framework which establishes the boundaries for resource use or extraction. In this case, what is necessary is to set sound principles for hydropower development, keeping in mind the ecological flow and distance requirements between projects. The fact is that rivers cannot and should not be re-engineered. But dams can certainly be reengineered to optimise on these limits.
SEWAGE AND POLLUTION There is no doubt that urban areas and industrial centres are now putting greater pressure on water resources. Cities across the country need more water for their growing population and more importantly, their growing affluence. Today, cities extract from cleaner upstream sources and discharge their waste — sewage and industrial effluents — downstream. This, in turn, leads to the increased problem of polluted water and ill-health for the poorer users of the rivers. The capital intensity of the modern sewage system — the cost of its transportation and eventual treatment before disposal — is such that it cannot be afforded by all users and even all urban areas. The question then is how will the modern cities of India grow, without creating water waste and pollution? How will these cities innovate so that they can practise the technologies of recycling and reuse, even before their counterparts in the industrial world? The challenge is to re-invent the most modern waste management system that reuses every drop of water discharged, at costs that can be afforded by all. Take the example of the Yamuna. Delhi’s river, and Delhi’s shame. The city has already spent a huge amount on cleaning the just 22 km of the Yamuna which flows through it: some `1,500 crore. This is possibly the highest amount spent on river cleaning in the country, if not the world. But all this has meant little. It is money down the river as pollution goes on increasing. The river, by all pollution parameters, is dead. It just has not been officially cremated. The answers exist. They lie not in building more sewage treatment capacity or in building more drains. Delhi has already got 17 sewage treatment plants (STPs), which together add up to 40 per cent of the total installed sewage treatment capacity in India. But these plants remain grossly underutilised. Why? Because the city does not have the drainage to convey all its excreta to the treatment plants. It is expensive to build sewage drainage, but even more expensive to maintain it. In fact, most of the city (and it has one of the highest per capita incomes in the country) is not connected to underground drainage. The government cannot keep up with its plans to build more; neither has it got the capacity to repair enough. The end result is that where there is a STP, there is no sewage to treat. But that is only one part of the story. A majority of Delhi lives unconnected to underground drainage or lives in what we call unauthorised and illegal colonies. The sewage from these areas — untreated — flows into open drains crisscrossing the city. But these are the same drains, flowing past colonies, in which the STPs dispose off their treated effluent. In this pollution scheme, the illegal unconnected waste of the majority is being mixed with the treated waste of the minority. The result is obvious: growing pollution in the river. We can never clean the Yamuna until we can treat the sewage of all in the city. But this will require providing drainage to all, and sewage treatment for all. In this, the economics of this waste matter is important to grasp. We have to pay first for the water we use and then for the waste that we generate. This is because the more water we use in our houses, the more is the waste we discharge. The water inequity in Delhi is legendary; parts of the city are water-flushed with over 200 litre per capita per day, while some get merely a few drops. But it is not just the cost that we need to pay. The fact is that all governments (including Delhi’s) are designing systems that we cannot pay for. These are unaffordable systems to pipe water over long
❮❮ Rewind 2013 The environment ministry says in a submission to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that it will prepare an action plan for the restoration, preservation and management of all development works along the Yamuna by February 17. The ministry has been getting flak from NGT for delay in preparing the action plan A Down To Earth annual
17
WAT E R distances, which add to the costs of distribution; at the same time, they lead to more losses of water. Governments also design to take back the waste and pump it and pipe it over even longer distances. The cost of electricity for pumping and of first building and then maintaining the infrastructure means that nothing really changes. This is why we have to relearn the science and art of river cleaning. This is why business-as-usual will not add up to a clean river. The political economy of defecation is that governments do not charge for the water they supply, forget the waste they collect or treat. The relatively rich users of this system of underground drainage are then subsidised. But this also means that the government does not have money to pay to build, or run, or repair the system for all. This is the political economy of defecation where the rich are subsidised in the name of the poor. This is the real excreta of progress we must understand. Nothing less will clean the river.
THE AGENDA FOR CLEAN RIVERS: WE ALL LIVE DOWNSTREAM What should and can be done to clean the Yamuna? What is the strategy for business-unusual so that we can spend more money, but get a living and breathing river in return? One, we need to change the art of pollution control. We must understand that rivers need water to assimilative our waste. Today, Delhi takes water from the river, upstream of Wazirabad and returns only sewage to it. Between the two barrages — Wazirabad till Okhla — there is no water. There are only some 17 drains that bring sewage into the river (see Map: The Yamuna in Delhi). Even if we were to treat every drop of waste before it reaches the river, it will do nothing. The river must have water to dilute waste. To live.
❮❮ Rewind 2013 Supreme Court issues notices to the Union ministry of environment and forests and 19 state governments asking why the critically polluted clusters continue to remain polluted despite pollution control norms 18
There are two ways for Delhi to get water in the river. One, it can demand Haryana gives it more water. But this, I believe will be difficult. All cities, up or downstream, do what Delhi does. They take every drop of water the river has and return only their waste to it. The second option is that Delhi can begin to reduce its own water demand, so that it can allow water to flow in the river. This can be done. Delhi today has the highest water availability in the country, already over 250 litre per person per day. The richest cities of the world, like in Denmark, have roughly 110 litre per person per day. Delhi needs so much water because it wastes half the water in distribution. This must be stopped or at least minimised. But importantly, money for river cleaning must incorporate this target — how much will Delhi do to reduce water use. Water is part of the sums of waste. This also means we have to use less water in our homes, so that we discharge less waste. We have to be part of the solution to the river. Remember, the flush tank in our homes is enjoined to the Yamuna. Then we must change the science of river cleaning. We know the river will not be clean till we treat all the sewage of the city. And the only way we can treat this sewage is by making solutions more affordable. In the current situation, the Delhi government does not even recover the cost of water supply, forget sewage disposal. We must demand that technologies will only work if we can pay for them. This will then drive the change in approach. Delhi has the capacity to clean 2,330 million litre of sewage each day – enough to treat 70 to 90 per cent of current waste, depending on various estimates for generation. This will mean bringing waste to the plants, by lifting it from open drains, not just waiting to build new ones or building and repairing more drains. The hardware approach needs to go. The third agenda is connected and critical. The treated effluent must not be put back into the same open drain, which carries the untreated waste of the majority. It must be reused and recycled, as far as possible locally so that costs of pumping are reduced. Today, we spend huge money in first pumping sewage long distances for treatment and then waste this effort by dumping the cleaned water in unclean drains. In other words, sewage must be reused in gardens, in lakes or in industry. STPs must be built only when they have been planned for reuse. Consider this: today, sewage is treated at the Yamuna Vihar plant in east Delhi, and disposed off in the drain carrying untreated waste outside the plant. Then the same waste is treated further down in the Kondli treatment plant. Cleaned effluent is then dumped into a drain, which flows past the new colonies of Noida, which add more discharges. By the time it reaches the river, there is only sewage in the drain, no water. Fourthly, we must treat sewage directly in the open drains that crisscross the city. So, instead of
State of India’s environment 2014
THE YAMUNA IN DELHI NARELA
Supplementary drain 1
CORONATION PILLAR
WAZIRABAD BARRAGE
ROHINI PHASE-III RITHALA
YAMUNA VIHAR
TIMARPUR 3 4 2
1
5 6 7
8
h
Cut
2 9
don
10 DELHI GATE 11
ain
Hin
dr
I P BARRAGE
SEN N 12 HOME
KESHOPUR
u Ya m
N aja
fga
r
NILOTHI
KONDLI
na
NAJAFGARH
rive r
13
Sh ah
14
da
3
ra Ou
15
tfa
PAPPANKALAN
n rai ll d
16 OKHLA
21
17 18
4 MEHRAULI
19 20
VASANT KUNJ
OKHLA BARRAGE
Online treatment
GHITORNI Proposed treatment facility at drain outfall Sewage treatment plant (STP) Disposal of sewage Waterways
Source: Sunita Narain et al 2007, Sewage Canal: How to clean the Yamuna, Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi
waiting for every open ‘storm water’ drain to go underground and disappear, the system will ensure all waste is treated and cleaned as it flows through the city. This would mean using innovative technologies for bioremediation (‘green’ plants) and oxidation to decompose and degrade sewage. Fifth, we should build STPs close to the banks of the river to treat what remains in the drains. This would mean using technologies which need less land to treat sewage. The design would be not to discharge anything but treated effluents in the Yamuna. The ultimate tragedy is that what Delhi will do to the Yamuna and its downstream city of Mathura, Faridabad on its upstream will do to it. Never forget, we all live downstream.
SUNITA NARAIN A Down To Earth annual
19
WAT E R
Chronicle of a river retold
PRADIP SAHA / CSE
In 2013, Allahabad played host to the biggest and most spectacular gathering of humanity in the world – the Maha Kumbh. A staggering 100 million congregated at Sangam — up from 70 million in 2001 — in this 12th year of the Mela. The Ganga usually bears the brunt of this massive load of humanity, taking away much more than a lifetime of sins. The river, which travels through several cities and industrial areas before reaching Allahabad, receives approximately 250 million litre of industrial effluents and 1.3 billion litre of partially treated sewage. The Maha Kumbh magnifies this load many times over. The question is, despite the crores pumped in to clean the river, why does the Ganga still run polluted?
he Government of India had launched the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) way back in 1986. This `462-crore project’s objective was to improve the water quality of the river to acceptable standards (defined as bathing water quality standards) by preventing pollution from reaching it — in other words, intercepting sewage and treating it before discharge into the river. The programme selected 25 towns located along the river in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West
T 20
State of India’s environment 2014
Bengal. In 1993, the second phase (GAP-II) began, and included work on four tributaries of the Ganga — the Yamuna, Gomti, Damodar and Mahanadi. In August 2009, the Union government relaunched the Ganga Action Plan with a reconstituted National Ganga River Basin Authority. Under the notification (dated 20.2.2009), the government gave the river the status of a ‘National River’. The objective was to ensure abatement of pollution and conservation of the river. The key difference between the initial
According to the 2012 estimates of the Central Pollution Control Board, fecal coliform levels in the mainstream of the river remain above the acceptable norm in all stretches GAP and the programme now is the recognition that the entire basin of the river — instead of just some specific stretches — has to be the basis for planning and implementation. It is not enough to plan for one city’s pollution, without considering the impact of pollution on the downstream area. Also, it was accepted that the plan for pollution control must take into account the need for adequate water in the river — its ecological flow. But the challenge of pollution remains grim. According to 2012 estimates of the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), fecal coliform levels in the mainstream of the river — some 2,500 km from Gangotri to Diamond Harbour — remain above the acceptable level in all stretches, other than its upper reaches (see Graph: Annual trend of fecal coliform and Map:
Increasing pollution load). But even in these stretches, there are worrying signs: fecal coliform levels are increasing in places like Rudraprayag and Devprayag. The pollution levels are a cause of worry in the hotspots – the mega and fast growing cities — along the river. According to CPCB’s monitoring data, BOD (biological oxygen demand) levels are high (and increasingly getting worse) downstream of Haridwar, Kannauj and Kanpur and peak at Varanasi. This is not surprising given that all along this heavily populated stretch, freshwater intake from the river is increasing. Every city and town draws water for agriculture, industry and its own use. There are three problem areas that need to be addressed in order to find a comprehensive solution to pollution in the Ganga:
ANNUAL TREND OF FECAL COLIFORM: LONGITUDINAL PROFILE 1,000,000
Fecal coliform (PMN /100 ml)
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Criteria
100,000
10,000
1,000
100
10
Bhagirathi at Gangotri Alaknanda B/C Mandakini at Rudra Prayag Mandakini B/C Alaknanda at Rudra Prayag Alaknanda A/C Mandakini at Rudra Prayag Alaknanda B/C to Bhagirathi at Devprayag Bhagirathi B/C with Alaknanda at Devprayag Alaknanda A/C with Bhagirathi at Devprayag Ganga at Rishikesh U/S Ganga A/C of river Song near Satyanarayan temple D/S Raiwala Ganga at Haridwar D/S Upper Ganga river D/S Roorkee Ganga at Garhmukteshwar Ganga U/S, Anoopshahar Ganga D/S, Anoopshahar Ganga at Narora (Bulandsahar), UP Ganga at Kachhla Ghat, Aligarh Ganga at Kannauj U/S (Rajghat) Ganga at Kannauj D/S, UP Ganga at Bithoor (Kanpur) Ganga at Kanpur U/S (Ranighat) Ganga at Kanpur D/S (Jajmau pumping station), UP Ganga at Dalmau (Rae Bareilly) Ganga at Kala Kankar, Rae Bareilly Ganga at Allahabad (Rasoolabad), UP Ganga at Kadaghat, Allahabad Ganga at Allahabad D/S (Sangam), UP Ganga U/S, Vindhyachal, Mirzapur Ganga D/S, Mirjapur Ganga at Varanasi U/S (Assighat) Ganga at Varanasi D/S (Malviya bridge), UP Ganga at Trighat (Ghazipur) Ganga at Buxar, Ramrekhaghat Ganga at Indrapuri, Dehri-on-Son Ganga at the confluence of Son river, Doriganj, Chhapra Ganga at Khuri, Patna U/S Ganga, Darbhanga ghat at Patna Ganga at Patna D/S (Ganga bridge) Ganga at Punpun, Patna Ganga at Fathua Ganga at Mokama (U/S) Ganga at Mokama (D/S) Ganga at Munger Ganga at Sultanganj, Bhagalpur Ganga at Bhagalpur Ganga at Kahalgaon Ganga at Baharampore Ganga near Burning Ghat Ganga at Sertampore Ganga at Dakshineshwar Nabadip on Ganga, Ghoshpara near Monipurghat Ganga at Howrah, Shivpur Ganga at Garden Reach Ganga at Uluberia Ganga at Palta, West Bengal Ganga at Diamond Harbour
1
Source: Central Pollution Control Board, 2012
A Down To Earth annual
21
WAT E R INCREASING POLLUTION LOAD
KANNAUJ
KANPUR
BOD (mg/l)
2001 3.3
PATNA
BOD (mg/l)
2012 4.9
2001 5.2
FECAL COLIFORM 2001 2012 NA 7,763
2012 8.8
FECAL COLIFORM 2001 2012 NA 27,400
ALLAHABAD (AT SANGAM) BOD (mg/l)
2001 3.6
2012 2.9
FECAL COLIFORM 2001 2012 11,721 4,143
FECAL COLIFORM 2001 2012 1,165 3,456
AGRA
VARANASI
BOD (mg/l)
2001 25.1
2012 5.4
BOD (mg/l)
2001 1.0
BOD (mg/l)
2012 NA
FECAL COLIFORM 2001 2012 138,206 NA
ALLAHABAD BOD (mg/l)
2001 2.0
2012 2.4
2001 11.8
2012 5.3
FECAL COLIFORM 2001 2012 140,250 32,000
FECAL COLIFORM 2001 2012 NA 1,530 The figures show annual average BOD and fecal coliform levels; Source: Central Pollution Control Board
● The inadequate flow of water in the river —
enough water is needed to dilute and assimilate waste ● The growing quantum of untreated sewage discharged from cities along the river ● The lack of enforcement against pointsource pollution (pollution coming from a single point, such as a sewage outflow pipe) from industries discharging waste into the river.
River does not flow Rivers have a self-cleansing ability, which allows for assimilation and treatment of biological waste. But in the current context, where withdrawal from the river is extremely high, pollution is inevitable. In the upper reaches (states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh) where the oxygenating abilities of the river are the highest, there are growing signs of contamination. In this region, water is withdrawn for producing hydroelectricity, leaving the river with low flow. As the river reaches the plains, there is huge water withdrawal for irrigation and drinking. In this stretch, from Rishikesh to Allahabad, there is almost no water throughout the year. In other 22
State of India’s environment 2014
words, the river stops flowing. But wastewater flow does not ebb — which means the river receives only waste and runs as a sewer.
Domestic sewage: the generationtreatment gap The non-point pollution source — of domestic sewage — is clearly the major cause of contamination in the river. A 2012 CPCB report reveals that 2,723 million litre a day (MLD) of domestic sewage is generated along the main stretch of the river; industrial waste accounts for another 500 MLD. Thus, the pollution from domestic sewage accounts for roughly 85 per cent of the total contamination. Recent assessments show that there is a massive gap between generation of domestic sewage and treatment capacity. As per the CPCB, the treatment capacity is a mere 1,208.80 MLD (of the estimated generation of 2,723 MLD). It is important to compare this with the 2009 estimate (see Table and Graph: Sewage generation and treatment), which shows that even as we invest in sewage treatment capacity, the gap remains the same. According to this estimate, over half the sewage goes untreated into the river or into other
SEWAGE GENERATION AND TREATMENT CAPACITY CREATED IN GANGA (2009 AND 2012) 3,000 1,514.50
1,000 500 0 Sewage generation
Treatment capacity
Gap
2009
2012
Sewage generation (MLD)
2,638
2,723.30
Treatment capacity (MLD)
1,174
1,208.80
Gap (MLD)
1,464
1,514.50
55
55
% gap: treated vs untreated Source: Central Pollution Control Board
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SEWAGE GENERATION ESTIMATES
Treatment tangle Sewage treatment plants are ineffective because of lack of connectivity. Most cities along the Ganga do not have any sewage conveyance systems. In Kanpur, Allahabad and Varanasi as much as 70 to 85 per cent of the city does not have proper drainage; drains are not connected to the sewage treatment systems. What exist are open drains, which make their way into the river. In Allahabad, as many as 57 drains flow into the river. City officials claim that 10 of these do not add to the pollution as their discharge does not reach the river. But this untreated effluent contaminates the groundwater. Cities must first address the underlying problem of lack of connectivity to sewage systems. Cities tend to build the sewage treatment plants first, but the drains to intercept and carry the sewage to these plants remain incomplete or are absent. City planners work on the assumption that they will be able to lay underground sewage and intercept waste before it reaches the river. But experience shows that building a fully connected system across a city is extremely difficult. Moreover, cities lack funds to build and operate sewage treatment plants. The capital cost of sewage treatment plants is roughly `1-1.25 crore/MLD (without the cost of the land on which a plant is located). The operation and maintenance costs, which primarily are electricity, chemicals and labour, are anywhere
1,464
1,500
2012
1,208.80
2,000
1,174
2,638
2,500
2,723.30
2009 Million litre daily
waterbodies. The quantum could be much more – this figure does not account for whether the sewage treatment capacity is used optimally. Sewage treatment is known to be poor owing to reasons ranging from lack of electricity to operate the plant, to the lack of sewage that reaches the plant for treatment. There is another problem — the actual gap between generation and treatment is grossly underestimated. The problem lies in the manner in which governments estimate the pollution load and plan for sewage treatment. The estimation of sewage generation is based on the quantum of water supplied. The assumption is that 80 per cent of the water supplied is returned as wastewater. But as cities do not know how much water is lost in distribution and how much groundwater is used, the waste generation estimate could be widely off the mark. This shows up in the data collected by the CPCB for Ganga. The difference between official estimates of sewage and actual measured discharge of wastewater into the Ganga is a huge 3,364 MLD.
Sewage
No of
Measured
BOD
Gap
generation
drains
flow
load
(untreated
(MLD)
(tonne/day)
waste)
Uttarakhand
(MLD) 61.30
14
440
42
95 %
Uttar Pradesh
937.40
45
3289
761
86%
Bihar
407.20
25
579
97
71%
West Bengal
1317.30
54
1779
97
69%
Ganga mainstream
2723.30
138
6087
999
80%
CONNECTIVITY FOR SEWAGE TREATMENT PLANTS: UP CITIES City
Area of
Area with
city (ha) sewerage (ha) Kanpur Allahabad Varanasi
Unsewered
Unsewered
area (ha)
area (%)
Drains
25,810
7558
18,252
71
37
9,510
2013
7,397
78
57
10,058
1635
8,432
84
23
Source: UP government 2010, Presentation made at the meeting of the Executive Committee of the State Ganga River Conservation Authority, Lucknow, mimeo
between `0.60 to `3 per kl, but can increase for tertiary treatment. What is difficult to estimate is the cost of constructing a sewage network in already congested and built-up areas. The average cost of a comprehensive sewage project, including the collection system and treatment plant, is estimated at anywhere between `3.33-6 crore per MLD. But even this is considered to be an underestimation: this lack of clarity on the full costs of sewage networks and treatment is because there have been few instances where such comprehensive sewage system have been A Down To Earth annual
23
AVIKAL SOMVANSHI / CSE
WAT E R
Last passage The holiest of the holy rivers could very well be on its last legs. Besides domestic and industrial wastes, it is also treated as a necessary corollary for a host of religio-culturalritualistic practices (such as those associated with death and the dead among Hindus), which adds to the waste load in the river
24
built. An analysis of National Ganga River Basin Authority (NGRBA) projects shows that costs range from `2.4 crore per MLD in Begusarai (Bihar) to `7.8 crore per MLD in Devprayag (Uttarakhand). Where will all this money come from? This has been a bone of contention between the Central and state governments. A cost-sharing formula evolved in 2001, under which 70 per cent was to be funded by the Centre and 30 per cent by the states, did not work. The payment formula has been re-visited under the National Clean Ganga Mission. The Centre will build projects through a public-private partnership (PPP) route, which will require the concessionaire to design-build-operate the plants for five years. The Central government will bear the full costs of capital and maintenance for five years. After this, the plant will be handed over to the state government and the assumption is that in five years, the funds will be available to run the plant. But it is unclear how these assumptions have been made, given the poor financial state of local bodies in all the states along the Ganga.
State of India’s environment 2014
Industrial sewage: need for enforcement and technologies Industrial pollution in the Ganga has always been an issue in focus, but without much success in eliminating it. The problem is that many of the industries that discharge noxious chemical pollutants into the river are small scale, where technologies for treatment are inadequate or unaffordable. The CPCB (2012) estimates that roughly 500 MLD of industrial discharge flows into the river from 764 industries. Ninety per cent of these industries are in the Uttar Pradesh stretch of the river. Seen sector-wise, the bulk of the wastewater comes from pulp and paper industries. Tanneries are the highest in number but have a lower wastewater generation in comparison. But the problem is that their waste is concentrated in stretches of the river where there is no dilution; also, this waste is particularly toxic because of its high chemical load (see Graph: Sector-specific generation). Efforts to reduce the pollution impact of these industries have met with little success. The
SECTOR-SPECIFIC INDUSTRIAL WASTEWATER GENERATION 900
Wastewater generation (MLD) 764
Industrial units
800 700
444
501
600 500
41
28.6
22.1
63
67
67 22
6.5
37
27
100
33
97.8
200
11.4
300
96
201.4
400
0 Chemical
Distillery
Food, dairy & beverage
Pulp & paper
Sugar
Textile bleaching & dyeing
Tannery
Others
Total
Source: Central Pollution Control Board 2012-13: Overview of Ganga River Pollution
only real difference is seen when industries are given closure notices, as was evident during the Kumbh. But this is not a permanent solution (see Box: The learnings from Kumbh).
Paradigm shift needed But obviously, these were temporary measures at best. After the Kumbh, things slipped back to where they were, and the clearest indicator of that was the state of the
THE GANGA WILL REMAIN DIRTY According to the Central Pollution Control Board, of the 12,690 km length of the river (including tributaries, the main stem of the Ganga is a little over 2,500 km in length), 42 per cent is moderately polluted or worse off. Half of the river is not fit for bathing or drinking. Excreta Matters, a report prepared by the Centre for Science and Environment, a New Delhi-based nonprofit, in 2012 shows that the Ganga will remain polluted in spite of the fact that the bulk of treatment facilities in the country have been installed to prevent untreated sewage outfalls in to the river. The Ganga Action Plan, initiated in 1984 was a frontrunner in building treatment facilities, but the sewer lines, pumps and treatment plants fell far short because of the increasing volume of sewage. According to the study, most cities have inadequate sewerage, highly energy intensive collection and treatment systems, and cash strapped urban local bodies which cannot afford the cost of operations and maintenance. They take water from the river, only to return waste. In August 2009, the National Ganga River Basin Authority was formed and the river was given the status of a National River. The difference from the earlier Ganga Action Plan programmes is that the planning would be done on the entire basin of the river. A consortium of seven IITs and experts is developing a plan to meet the 2020 objective of not discharging untreated sewage into the Ganga. The plan was to be prepared by last year. There have been delays in receiving data from the government, says mission coordinator Vinod Tare of IIT Kanpur. What the plan will be, how all the capital infrastructure required will be financed, operated and maintained is yet to be seen.
UTTAR PRADESH FACES A CHALLENGE City
SEWAGE TREATMENT INADEQUATE ALONG THE GANGA
Area
Area without
Class I
Class II
(in ha)
sewer cover
(179 cities)
(147 cities)
(in ha)
Sewage generation (in MLD)
11,387
1,024
12,410
Kanpur
25,810
18,252 (71%)
Sewage treatment (in MLD)
4,991
79
5,070
Allahabad
9,510
7,497 (78%)
Gap (in MLD)
6,396
945
7,340
Varanasi
10,058
8,432 (84%)
Total
MLD: million litre daily; Source: Central Pollution Control Board, 2011
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WAT E R INTER-MINISTERIAL GROUP: SOME SPECIFIC RECOMMENDATIONS ● Ecological flow will be mandatory in all stretches of the river. In the upper stretches, where the requirement is for critical ecological functions as well as societal needs, it will be mandated at 50 per cent for mean season flow and 30 per cent for other seasons. In the urbanised stretches, it will be mandated based on the quantum of wastewater released in the river and calculated using a factor of 10 for dilution. ● All Central government funding under the National Mission for Clean Ganga will be conditional on the quantum of ecological flow made available by the state. ● Phase-I of the project for controlling pollution in the next five years for this region should be taken up and necessary resources for this need to be provided. Later, this requirement can be posed to the 14th Finance Commission. ● All proposals submitted by state governments to the National Mission for Clean Ganga for pollution control will be evaluated to ensure conformity with the paradigm shift recommended by the Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG). ● The JNNURM-II funding for all water and sanitation projects in cities on the Ganga will also be in conformity with this paradigm shift. ● The National Mission for Clean Ganga will launch a specific programme to incentivise the use of innovative bioremediation and in-situ drain treatment. The programme will monitor performance and cost effectiveness of the different technologies in different cities. This experience will be used to design technical bids and tender conditions for these technologies to compete in pollution control efforts. ● The proposal for Ganga cleaning at Varanasi as conceptualised by Sankat Mochan Foundation, which is based on nonelectrical gravity system, will be implemented as a special project of the National Mission for Clean Ganga. ● The innovative technologies used for pollution control in industrial units will be incentivised through a financial package. At the same time, there will be stringent enforcement with standards. ● The MoEF’s April 26, 2011 office memorandum on Corporate Environment Responsibility will be made applicable to all industrial units discharging into the Ganga, which will require violations to be reported to the Board and made public on the website of the company. ● The Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu government’s notifications on minimum distance requirements for siting of industrial units near rivers and waterbodies will be used as models for similar steps on the Ganga basin. The requirement for zerodischarge, as stipulated by Maharashtra, will be examined for replication in the Ganga basin.
river and its banks in Allahabad. In 2012, the Union ministry of environment and forests formed a high-level Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) to consider matters relating to environmental flows and hydropower projects on the Ganga and its tributaries. The Group recommended, in its report submitted to government in April 2013, recommended that controlling pollution in the Ganga would require key paradigm shifts (see Box: Specific recommendations). To begin with, planners must accept that for cleaning rivers in India, where the cost of pollution control treatment is unaffordable and unmanageable, the availability of water for dilution will be critical. This will build the assimilative capacity in the river for selfcleansing waste. It is essential to note here that rivers without water are drains. It is also a fact that releasing additional water for dilution deprives farmers upstream of irrigation, and cities and industries of water. The additional water for ecological flow thus becomes contested. But this flow must be mandated so that it comes from the state government’s own allocation of riparian water. The government can build 26
State of India’s environment 2014
storage to collect monsoon water. In other words, all users must be forced to plan for water needs based on what the river can spare, not what they can snatch. Secondly, cities do not have the capacity to build conventional sewage networks at the scale and pace needed for pollution control. Therefore, the conveyance of waste must be reconceptualised and implemented at the time of planning treatment plants. This will then lead to innovative ideas for controlling pollution in drains — such as in situ treatment of sewage and local treatment and reuse. Also, cities must ensure the treated effluent is not ‘mixed’ with the untreated waste in drains. Instead, all treated effluent should either be designed for reuse or discharged directly into the river. Thirdly, planners need to design affordable water and sanitation solutions. As long as states do not have the responsibility to build sewage treatment systems, they will have no incentive to release more water for pollution control. Therefore, there should be a clear conditionality in Central government funding, which would be matched to the quantum of ecological flow released by the state in the river. ■
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WAT E R
AVIKAL SOMVANSHI / CSE
In the Maha Kumbh of 2013, the central and state governments did make efforts to combat pollution; these efforts had some impact. These steps tell us that it is possible to reduce pollution in the Ganga and in the other rivers of the country. What were these steps? To begin with, more water was released into the river. The UP government ordered its irrigation department to release 2,500 cubic feet per second (cusec) (71 cubic metre per second/cumec) from January 1 until February 28 to ensure adequate depth and dilution of the expected pollution loads at the bathing site in Allahabad. Additionally, the department released more water before and after the six shahi snan days. Secondly, Allahabad managed to intercept the sewage from its major open drains (by diverting the drains towards the plants), conveyed it to treatment plants and treated it. Thirdly, the city tried experimenting with innovative ways of treating sewage — by using bio-remediation techniques. The preliminary reports suggest that this system is working but needs careful scrutiny and constant monitoring. According to the Uttar Pradesh Pollution Control Board, samples from 39 drains where bioremediation was being tried indicate a 40 per cent reduction in BOD.
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State of India’s environment 2014
MEETA AHLAWAT / CSE
THE LEARNINGS FROM KUMBH
MEETA AHLAWAT / CSE
Fourthly, the government took tough measures against polluting industries — mainly tanneries and distilleries — discharging into the river. In 2012, central and state governments had directed one-fifth of the tanneries in the city of Kanpur, which were failing to meet the discharge norms, to shut down. During the Kumbh, a complete closure of all tanneries in the city was ordered.
Allahabad’s dilemma The per capita supply in Allahabad is 190 litre per capita daily (LPCD). There are 67 official tubewells and thousands of other private abstraction structures. The city is already generating the quantum of sewage that has been projected for 2025! Before December 31, 2012, Allahabad had two sewage treatment plants, set up under the Ganga Action Plan with a total capacity to treat 89 MLD of sewage. Since then, with the intervention of the High Court, five more treatment facilities have bolstered the treatment capacity to 211.5 MLD, which is expected to increase by a further 42 MLD after commissioning of all units. But most areas in Allahabad still remain unsewered and therefore majority of the treatment plants remain underutilised. The authorities, with pressure from the judiciary, have taken the decision to lift sewage from the stormwater drains which carry sewage. Due to poor implementation of bylaws, and the political establishment allowing illegal and unauthorised buildings to come up, the aim of 100 per cent sewerage may remain a pipe dream for the city. The existing length of sewers in Allahabad is 595 km; sewerage capacity needs to be more than double this length to deal with the present generation. There are 57 drains in the city, but each year minor drains appear, which carry sewage from unauthorised and illegal colonies. Many of these drains discharge untreated sewage into the Ganga. Authorities argue that sewage systems cannot be re-laid overnight and sewage canot be easily re-routed. The use of microbes to break down the organic matter, a process known as bioremediation, was discussed in the High Court as an interim solution. “We make it clear that it shall be open for the authorities to treat the sewage flowing in the river through bio-remedial technique but said treated water should not be thrown into the river and be used for some other purpose,” the two-member bench had announced while hearing a public interest litigation on Ganga pollution.
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AVIKAL SOMVANSHI / CSE
WAT E R
Million litre per day
300 250
277
WATER AND SEWAGE IN KUMBH 231
216
200 Water supply MLD
150 100
60
Sewage MLD
80
Treatment capacity MLD
50 0 0 Allahabad
Kumbh city
Source: www.downtoearth.org. in/content/maha-kumbh
The city agencies finally decided to treat the sewage in 35 untapped drains using a microbial solution supplied by a Ghaziabad-based firm. The state government has sanctioned `2.2 crore for this purpose. Although the authorities agree that this may not be a proven treatment practice, they state that the colour and odour in the drains have reduced markedly.
DEFILED STAYS THE RIVER: DAYS AFTER KUMBH
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State of India’s environment 2014
AVIKAL SOMVANSHI / CSE
Organising a mega event of a scale which has no parallels in recorded history is no easy task, and a successful one deserves being celebrated by the highest institutes of excellence. Which is what Harvard decided to do. In April, it invited Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav to deliver a lecture on the successful organisation of the Kumbh. A reality check, however, threw up some pertinent questions: does the responsibility of the organiser end with the end of the festivity? Who cleans up the house after the party is over? Can amnesia be allowed to set in after the shutterbugs fly off? Can the media and research teams declare an event a success without following it up to its conclusion? These uncomfortable questions forced Yadav to cancel his lecture at the last moment. Post-Kumbh, the site wore a devastated look, lined with heaps of garbage, cesspools of filth and burning wastes. Sangam had turned into a scavenging ground.
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WAT E R
Industrial water use The paper sector sets an example, as a review of operations of 12 large paper mills shows
J
positive story: unlike many other sectors, the paper industry has made significant progress in curtailing its consumption of this critical resource. A recent review of 12 large paper mills done by Centre for Science and Environment’s Green Rating Project shows that the industry, prodded by growing water scarcity and the heightened scrutiny of its water usage, has taken measures over the last two decades to conserve water and to use it more efficiently. The review says water use in the sector has dropped 73 per cent between 1995-96 and 2012-13. There has been a corresponding dip in wastewater discharge (see Graphs: Water consumption and discharge). Since the 12 mills in the review account for approximately 28 per cent of the total production of the Indian paper industry, they are a good indicator of the overall water usage of large-scale mills. Total water consumption analysis reveals another Year of establishment positive feature. In 2012-13, 1936 these 12 companies 1953 1991 consumed 156 million cubic 1984 metre of water to produce 2.3 1966 million bone dried metric 1979 tonne (BDMT, a standard 1960 measure used by the 1965 industry) of paper, compared 1938 to 218 million cubic metre of 1984 water in 1995-96 to produce 1955 0.8 million BDMT of paper. 1962 Put differently, when
une 2013. Villages on the Cauvery river in Karur district were on a boil. A paper mill, the Tamil Nadu Newsprint and Papers Limited (TNPL), had been wringing out almost 56 million litre a day from the dwindling river. The district needed 60 million litre daily for drinking and irrigating crops. Protests had become the order of the day until TNPL did a turnaround by cutting its daily consumption to 28 million litre. In India, such conflicts over land and water between industry and communities where industrial projects are located, have been rising. Paper companies are no exception. They need water — lots of it. The Indian paper industry is the second largest consumer of water among industrial sectors, after thermal power plants. This, inevitably, creates a fertile ground for such conflicts. But behind this is a surprisingly
THE 12 MILLS Name of mill
Location
BILT-Shree Gopal Unit
Yamunanagar, Haryana
BILT-Ballarpur
Ballarshah, Maharashtra
BILT-Sewa
Gaganpur, Odisha
Tamil Nadu Papers Ltd
Karur, Tamil Nadu
JK Paper Ltd-Central Pulp Mills
Tappi, Gujarat
ITC Ltd-Bhadrachalam unit
Bhadrachalam,Andhra Pradesh
Seshasayee Paper
Erode, Tamil Nadu
Orient Paper
Shahdil, Madhya Pradesh
Star Papers
Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh
Century Pulp and Paper
Nainital, Uttarakhand
West Coast Paper Mills
Dandeli, Karnataka
JKP-Rayagada
Rayagada, Odisha
Source: Centre for Science and Environment
M3/bone dried metric tonne of product
WATER CONSUMPTION AND DISCHARGE 300 250 240
250 200
230
Specific water consumption
226
Specific wastewater discharge 179
219
160
207 150
149
117 139
100
128
118
72
68
98
50
60
57
2011-12
2012-13
0 1995-96
1996-97
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
Note: Product = paper and pulp; Source: Centre for Science and Environment
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140
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State of India’s environment 2014
2001-02
2002-03
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2012-13
2011-12
2002-03
2001-02
2000-01
1999-00
1998-99
1995-98
previously because of the REDUCTION IN POLLUTION LOADS high levels of suspended 35 solids in it. Mills now use 32 32 29 micro filters in paper 30 26 machines to both safely 23 25 reuse water and recover 19 20 fibre lost during the 15 washing process. 11 10 10 10 8 10 7 Lower water usage has 6 6 5 led to reduced wastewater 2 2 discharge, which has fallen 0 by 75 per cent, from 230 cubic metre per BDMT in 1995-96 to 57 cubic metre Chemical oxygen demand per BDMT for the 12 mills. Total suspended solids Chemical oxygen demand (COD), an indicator of the Source: Centre for Science and Environment pollution level in water, has reduced from an average of 32 kg per BDMT in 1995-98 to 10 kg per BDMT in 2012-13. Similarly, total suspended solids (TSS), which include fibres, bark, lime mud, etc in wastewater, have dropped from 10 kg per BDMT to two kg per BDMT in the same period (see Graph: Reduction in pollution loads). Another favourable trend has been an increase in paper production by small- and medium-scale mills from wastepaper, a production process that consumes the least amount of water. This has risen to 47 per cent of the industry’s total domestic production in 2011 from 35 per cent in 2001. Reducing the consumption of water has been economically challenging for small-scale mills. However, a 2010-11 project conducted by the Central Pollution Control Board with 84 small-scale mills in the Ganga basin achieved 59 per cent reduction in freshwater use, which indicates this segment too can cut water use. The industry’s improvement in water use during the last two decades has to be viewed in the context of its alarmingly high water consumption levels in the mid-90s. Industry averages continue to hide significant variations in water use among companies- some companies clearly need to do a lot more. The TNPL Karur story has one final coda. The company was able to cut its water consumption to 34 cubic metre per BDMT of The CSE analysis says paper, a level that approaches global best water use in the practice, during May-June 2013, the two months sector has dropped of the most severe drought. After June, when the 73 per cent between water supply improved, TNPL’s consumption 1995-96 and 2012rebounded to 48 cubic metre per BDMT. It 13. There has been a seems the industry has the ability, and perhaps corresponding dip in the flexibility, to achieve further improvements wastewater if it puts its mind to it. ■ discharge kg/bone dried metric tonne of product
compared to 1995-96, these 12 firms in aggregate consumed 30 per cent less water to produce two and a half times more paper in 2012-13. In the mid-90s, large-scale integrated paper mills consumed, on an average, around 250 cubic metre of water to produce one BDMT of paper. This stood in depressing contrast with the global best performers that consumed a scant 35 cubic metres of water to produce the same amount of paper. Even large Indian mills had relatively small capacity, used varied raw materials and produced several kinds of paper, all of which contributed to high water consumption. Paper mills were saddled with outdated technology and processes that consumed excessive amounts of water. Newer and more efficient technologies would have required additional investments that the companies were reluctant to make. Importantly, these inefficient processes discharged higher levels of pollutants as well. Wasteful water consumption by the domestic paper industry is encouraged by a tariff system that imposes nominal costs on the industry for the water it takes from rivers or the ground. The companies in the CSE study currently pay between `3 and `15 (including the cost of pumping and treatment of raw water) for 1,000 litre of water they draw. This equals to less than one per cent of their turnover. There is no cost to releasing toxic effluents. One of the processes that contributed the most to this pernicious cycle of excessive consumption followed by high levels of effluents was bleaching. Bleaching accounted for around one third of the total water consumption of integrated Kraft mills that make writing and printing paper. This category comprises the bulk of large-scale mill production. In the mid-90s, all the 12 mills used elemental chlorine in the bleaching process releasing huge quantities of carcinogenic AOX into the effluent stream. Since then, progress has been made on several fronts. Bleaching processes that reduce or eliminate chlorine, thereby improving the effluent quality, have been implemented. Out of the 12 mills, five have eliminated elemental chlorine from their entire bleaching process and six have removed chlorine from part of their process. New technologies and process changes have been introduced that recycle water to reduce usage. Improvements have also been made to the final papermaking stage, which used to consume around 40 per cent of the total water consumption. The mills have been able to achieve water closure in the paper making stage to a large extent by reusing backwater from the paper machine; this water had remained unused
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LAKES LOST Among India’s many mutinies are the ones around its rivers and lakes. We bring you some of the more strident struggles in the lake districts Dal lake, Jammu and Kashmir Encroachment and pollution have shrunk the lake from its original size of 75 sq km to around 12 sq km today. In 2000, local NGO filed a writ petition
Sukhna lake, Chandigarh Siltation has reduced the lake’s area from 230 ha to 154 ha (2007). Petition filed against Haryana government’s plans to develop townships in the area was dismissed in court
Lakes of Udaipur, Rajasthan Udaipur has four large water bodies. In 1997, Jheel Sanrakshan Samiti (JSS) filed a PIL in Supreme Court. The case was directed to the Rajasthan High Court
East Kolkata wetlands, West Bengal Designated as a Ramsar site in 2002, these wetlands are the lifelines of Kolkata. Spread over 12,500 ha, they are perhaps the largest system of wastewater treatment in the world. In 2006, an NGO filed a petition alleging the Kolkata Municipal Corporation was planning to encroach on the wetlands by building a water supply project at Bointala in Dhapa
Bhoj wetlands, Bhopal Faces threats including siltation due to soil erosion of the catchment area and inflow of untreated sewage and wastewater from surrounding human settlements
Chandola lake, Ahmedabad Encroachment is a concern. In 2000, Shailesh R Shah, a resident, had filed a PIL in the High Court
Powai lake, Mumbai Forty per cent of the lake has disappeared because of encroachments and disposal of sewage. In 2000, a petition was filed by residents to direct the Bombay Municipal Corporation to beautify and desilt the lake
Lakes of Bengaluru, Karnataka There were 262 lakes in Bengaluru in 1961; today, only 33 are visible on satellite imagery. Pollution and encroachment have been major issues. In 2002, the Lake Development Authority was constituted, which proceeded to lease out lakes to private parties to ‘develop’ them. Late conservationist Zafar Futehally was the first to file a PIL to save the lakes. In 2008, the Environment Support Group and Leo Saldanha tried to stop privatisation by filing another PIL
TG Halli Reservoir, Bengaluru A source of drinking water, this reservoir is suffering from flow of industrial wastes into it. In 2009, local villagers filed the PIL which challenged the decision of the state to allow a hazardous waste treatment plant to be set up near the reservoir
Vembanad wetland, Kerala Spread over four districts, Vembanad is at the heart of Kerala’s backwater tourism. Discharge of sewage from surrounding areas, uncontrolled mining of shells and sand, and building of barrages over the water body have led to the lake reducing to 37 per cent of its original area. In 1999, an authority formed by the Kerala government for the integrated development of islands in the backwaters proposed reclamation of 362 ha in the lake. Various organisations have filed cases to save the waterbody
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State of India’s environment 2014
Naini lake, Nainital Population pressure, tourist influx, siltation and dumping of municipal and domestic waste are the issues. Local civil society organisations have filed petitions in 1993 and 2006 to prevent further pollution and encroachment of the lake’s catchment
Waterbodies of Delhi Official agencies have reportedly identified 629 waterbodies, of which 232 are dead and cannot be revived. In June 2000, TAPAS, a local NGO, had filed a writ petition in Delhi High Court on the government’s failure to provide safe drinking water to citizens. The issue of protection of waterbodies came up during the court hearings
Kabar Tal, Bihar Located in Begusarai district faces shrinkage in area from 6,786 ha in 1984 to 6,043 ha in 2002. The lake faces threat due to reclamation of land for agriculture and excessive removal of biomass by human population
Loktak lake, Manipur Faces problems due to loss of vegetal cover in the catchment area
Deepor beel, Guwahati Two PILs have been filed for this lake — one against encroachment and the other against dumping of garbage in the catchment area.
Chilika lake, Odisha Who has rights over Chilika? This has been the crux of the conflict between traditional and non-traditional fisherfolk. In 1991, the state government joined hands with Tata to start commercial shrimp culture. The Chilika Bachao Andolan was begun to counter this. Successive court judgements have, since then, ruled against aquaculture in Chilika
Hussain Sagar lake, Hyderabad Encroachment and pollution from municipal, domestic and industrial sewage are the key concerns. The Save the Lake Campaign, a local forum, has filed several PILs; so have individual environmentalists
Pulicat lake (lagoon), Tamil Nadu Source: Centre for Science and Environment Map not to scale
This is the largest brackish water lake/lagoon in India, and is getting polluted due to inflow of sewage and industrial waste from fish processing units. PILs have been filed in 1994 and 2000
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2
People and governance ■ The UPA government has initiated, revived and reintroduced laws and acts that entitle Indians to a host of rights. But have these ushered in the envisioned change in the way Indians live?
The National Food Security Act is one of these laws. It promises food entitlements to 67 per cent of Indians. But considering the fact that its point of delivery would be the corrupt and leaky public distribution system (PDS), will the law work? ■
■ Take the new Land Acquisition Act, notified in 2013. The Act leaves many of the contentious issues to the discretion of state governments.
Despite tall promises, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act leaves behind a trail of unfinished assets. ■
Lawmakers must remember that people are the key here. If laws don’t work, people will knock on the doors of the judiciary. ■
SAYANTAN BERA / CSE
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PEO PLE A N D G OVE R N A N C E
The right government? A plethora of new laws and acts now provides us Indians with rights to some of the most basic things in life — food, employment, information, education etc. While this heralds in a new approach to governance, has it made a difference to our lives and livelihoods? The mauling that the Congress received during the 2013 assembly elections in some states points to serious deficiencies in implementation of this approach
KADAMBINI RAGHURAM
or nearly a decade now, India has been experimenting with a rights-based approach to governance. In general terms, this is an approach that turns basic entitlements of a citizen into legal rights. Under it, the development needs of the people are treated as rights instead of as doles from the government through various programmes or schemes. Since 2004, Indian citizens have become legally entitled to a host of things — information, employment, elementary education, food security and settlements in forest lands. Some more entitlements in the pipeline include basic minimum land for habitation, drinking water and time-bound delivery of government services. These have been done through specific laws enacted by the parliament, such as the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and the National Food Security Act (NFSA). More than providing access to some basic amenities, such laws are supposed to empower the people. But have they done so? Are they effective? Do people feel a difference in service delivery after these laws came into force? Where did this begin? One can say that in the last one decade, the government’s vocabulary of governance has undergone a change. What used to be the monopoly of non-governmental organisations and international agencies has become a trademark in official patois: the government
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State of India’s environment 2014
The government’s vocabulary of governance has undergone a change. What used to be the monopoly of NGOs and global agencies has become a trademark in official patois now uses ‘rights-based approach to development’ more often, rather as a guiding principle. The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has adopted this approach to script its expansive social programmes. Notwithstanding the fact that the second tenure of the UPA has been more about scams and a policy paralysis, its real legacy will be the slew of rights-based programmes it has authored or anchored. Many developing countries have already adopted this approach, particularly in Latin America and Africa. Globally, the approach gained currency after the end of the cold war in the 1990s. The Copenhagen Summit on Social Development held in 1995 highlighted it. Usually, countries recognise socio-economic priorities either through constitutionally recognised rights or through directive policies in constitution. India has been using the latter to direct and design its vast welfare programmes. Except for a few examples such as the Employment Guarantee Scheme in Maharashtra in the mid-1970s or the Education Guarantee Scheme of Madhya Pradesh in the mid-1990s, government welfare programmes have been implemented through departments — not as recognised legal rights.
❮❮ Rewind 2013 Parliament passes the Lokpal Act. In 2011 social activist Anna Hazare had led a nation-wide agitation for the anti-corruption body. It was conceived five decades ago and the Parliament debated this eight times but never voted for it
India roots for rights In 2005, the UPA started its new experiment with the enactment of the RTI Act. Considered as one of the best such laws in the world, the Act gave a general sense of empowerment to people. In the same year, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) came into effect. After 30 years of strident demand for such a legislation and various experiments with wage programmes, the MGNREGA guarantees every rural household 100 days of manual employment on demand. In another historic correction of injustice, in 2006, the parliament enacted the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act. This law gives tribals
National Food Security Act is notified in September. Tries to consolidate a number of existing food programmes
THE RIGHTS AND THE WRONGS: DO OUR LAWS WORK? The laws MGNREGA
• 100 days work on demand • Focus on water conservation • Power to people to plan local development
Right to Education
x
3
• Universal access to elementary education by March 2013 • First fundamental right to be implemented along with community • Neighbourhood schools within one km by March 2013
• Only 8 per cent people got the full benefits; demand coming down • 6 million waterworks but 60 per cent incomplete • Gram sabhas’ plans rarely accepted • 8 million children yet to get this right • 32 per cent schools still don’t have parent’s involvement • A distant dream
Right to • Foodgrain entitlement to 813 million people Food Security • Five states have already implemented it • Children under six to get free food
• Leaky PDS currently keeps 40 per cent beneficiaries out • Implementation without identifying the beneficiaries • Infrastructure to implement almost non-existent
Forest Rights Act
• More claims have been rejected than accepted
• Recognises forest dwellers’ right to settlement in forest lands • Gives right over minor forest produce • Gives the community a right to manage forests
• Strong opposition from forest department • Community forest rights not given
A Down To Earth annual
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PEO PLE A N D G OVE R N A N C E
❮❮ Rewind 2013 54 bills pending in Rajya Sabha, 72 in Lok Sabha. These include the Right to Timely Public Services Bill. All the Lok Sabha bills lapse at the time of its dissolution
and forest dwellers the right to own and use traditionally cultivated forest land as well as rights over minor forest produce. The law also recognises the local community’s traditional system of forest governance. In 2009, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act was enacted. With this, for the first time, a fundamental right enshrined in the constitution was also codified into a law, giving parents the power to demand implementation of the right. In 2013, struggling with a fast declining public trust, the UPA managed to get another key legislation approved by the parliament: the National Food Security Act. This law entitles people to subsidised foodgrains, usually procured earlier from public distribution shops. The same year, the government changed the name of the Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act to Right to Fair Compensation and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act; this Act received the parliament’s nod in October 2013. The government is now pursuing two bills to codify rights to drinking water and homestead. Besides, pending in parliament for approval are two more — the Public Interest Disclosure and Protection of Persons Making Disclosures Bill, 2010 and the Right of Citizens for Time Bound Delivery of Goods and Services and Redressal of Their Grievances Bill, 2011.
The road to the rights In many ways, the granting of each one of these rights was preceded by long people’s and political
ANOTHER YEAR OF JUDICIAL ACTIVISM December 11 Supreme Court (SC) declares gay sex illegal. Says Section 377 of Indian Penal Code (IPC), which terms same-sex relationship as an offence, is a valid constitutional provision. Points out that Section 377 will have to be amended to legalise gay sex. December 9 National Green Tribunal (NGT) pulls up Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) for failing to carry out inspections to ascertain whether government bodies have installed rainwater harvesting systems in their premises. Says tribunal will initiate contempt proceedings if the order is not complied with. December 6 UPA government’s moves to ease environment clearance processes for development projects is washed out by a SC order, directing the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) to appoint within three months a national regulator for appraising projects and regulating their clearances. The ministry has been opposing the appointment of such a regulator. October 24 SC awards the highest ever compensation in a medical negligence case in India — directs the Advanced Medical Research Institute (AMRI) Hospital in Kolkata to pay `5.96 crore to NRI doctor Kunal Saha whose wife died in 1998 after treatment at the hospital. October 22 SC holds the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) responsible for monitoring and exercising control on soft drinks as per the rules, regulations and provisions in the Food Safety and Standards (FSS) Act, 2006. September 30 SC restrains Central government from giving permission for clinical trials of new drugs without putting in place a proper mechanism to regulate such trials. September 23 At a time when some state governments are trying to make Aadhar cards compulsory for accessing public services, including availing subsidy on gas cylinders, SC rules that the unique identity card is optional. “The Centre and state
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State of India’s environment 2014
governments must not insist on Aadhar cards from citizens before providing them essential services,” says the Court. August 14 SC orders MoEF to appoint an expert committee to ascertain whether existing and under-construction hydropower plants and projects in Uttarakhand contributed to the flood disaster that hit the state in June. Also orders a fresh scrutiny of the proposed 24 hydropower projects on the Alaknanda and Bhagirathi rivers, which environmental activists and expert bodies have been opposing. August 6 SC agrees to examine the new national pharmaceutical pricing policy, framed for fixing prices of essential medicines. August 5 NGT says environmental clearances mandatory for all riverbed sand mining projects irrespective of the mine lease area. July 6 SC observes that mentioning of freebies in election manifestoes does not come under the purview of law, and directs the election commission to formulate guidelines in consultation with political parties to regulate such practices. April 18 SC puts fate of Vedanta’s bauxite mining project in Odisha in the hands of the people. Directs state to carry out referendum in 12 gram sabhas. April 15 SC directs the Gujarat government to relocate within six months a limited number of lions from Gir to Kuno-Palpur sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh. Cancels the ambitious plan of the MoEF to reintroduce the cheetah in India. April 2 Three days after Sterlite Industries, a subsidiary of Vedanta, is asked to close its copper smelting plant in Tuticorin by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, the SC imposes a penalty of `100 crore on the company for polluting the environment. January 3 SC slams ministry of health and family welfare for uncontrolled clinical trials that are causing havoc in the country.
movements, which in turn were supported or validated by judicial interpretations. The institution of public interest petition inspired hundreds of petitions in courts revolving around people’s rights as enshrined in the constitution. Since the 1980s, the Supreme Court has been giving orders interpreting socio-economic rights — such as rights to employment or to education — as being integral to the right to life under the constitution. The UPA’s adaption of this approach has a political context. The government of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) which had preceded it till 2004, had embarked on a high-visibility election campaign based on the slogan of ‘India Shining’. However, the India that it was referring to seemed to have left the disadvantaged, marginalised people of the nation far behind; reports of rural distress were widespread during this period. Sensing an opportunity here, the UPA scripted the series of rightsbased legislations covering almost all the basic necessities of life. By the end of the UPA’s two terms in April 2014, it would have spent over `1,200,000 crore on rural development, making it the biggest amount ever spent on this sector. Close to 55 per cent of this expenditure is covered under rights-based laws such as the MGNREGA. There was another impact of this: the re-election of the UPA in 2009 inspired many state governments, mostly ruled by the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, to start their own rights-based programmes. Chhattisgarh became the first state to enact a food security law in 2013 — beating even the Central government to the job. More than 15 states have either enacted or have proposed to enact a right to time-bound service delivery law.
The collapse and its reasons But will this approach be secular to political changes? How will India fare after the 2014 elections? In the last two years, the UPA government has come under close scrutiny and increasing criticism due to the massive public outpourings over corruption, bad governance and a general discontentment with the political class. Some believe that the outpourings are an indication that people are now empowered by the regime of rights; that they have a voice now and are using it. There are others who think that the mere act of creating rights is not enough for ensuring clean and effective governance. The rights must lead to effective implementation — people want more than just rights now. During the assembly elections in 2013, for the first time, the UPA’s rights-based approach became a part of the political debate. The main opposition BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi, junked the idea saying only acts and rights are not the solutions — while the Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was trying to persuade that this is the only way out of India’s nagging problem of disparity in development. The results of the elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi — that went in favour of the BJP and the newly-emerged Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) — indicate there is something amiss in this theory. Why did the UPA bite the dust despite being the architect of this new structure of governance? If we look closely, we realise that while the government triggered a sense of empowerment, it failed to create the right institutional mechanisms to deliver the legalised services. Take the case of the FRA. Communities had to approach the highest judicial body, the Supreme Court, as not enough had been done to deliver this right to the people. Those who received land under the law were not recognised in revenue records, and thus had no access to government programmes! Similarly, in the case of the Right to Food Security, the decision to deliver it through the extremely inefficient and corruptionriddled public distribution system (PDS) dug its grave. The coming of AAP has been an interesting corollary to all this. Its founder Arvind Kejriwal came to fame for his contribution to the RTI Act and its use at local levels in Delhi. During an interaction with this author in 2012, he had said: “The RTI empowers but there must be further devolution of this. So, we now need the gram sabha as the platform of the government.” His articulation of self-rule (swaraj) is precisely what many of the rights-based programmes legally mandate. On January 3, prime minister Manmohan Singh defended the UPA’s rights-based approach in a press interaction. Most of the achievements of his 10-year-old government — the list of which he released to the media — related to various rights-based programmes. But in this approach, it is the people who matter the most. Does the UPA government truly believe or understand that? The upcoming general elections will give a verdict which may answer this question. ■
❮❮ Rewind 2013 A task force chaired by Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh circulates the draft of National Rights to Homestead Bill in the ministry for approval. The Bill intends to complete the abandoned land reforms and promises 0.04 ha to the rural homeless within 10 years of notification of the law Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act is notified. Earlier, Uttar Pradesh villagers had protested the manner in which land was being acquired and compensation was being doled out in their area
RICHARD MAHAPATRA A Down To Earth annual
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PEO PLE A N D G OVE R N A N C E
Food for all
SOUPARNO BANERJEE / CSE
The National Food Security Act, which saw the light of the day in 2013 after several domestic hiccups and international roadblocks (read WTO stipulations), is expected to feed two-thirds of the total population of India. But will it really do that? There are contentious issues that need to be ironed out, among them the real cost burden that the new law will entail, and the opposition to it from states which fear they will lose out
n September 10, 2013, the National Food Security Act (also known as the Right to Food Act) was notified; some states have already implemented it. The idea behind the Act dates back to 2009 when the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) came to power for a second term. One of its key agendas was a legislation to ensure food security. Work on this legislation formally started in 2010. On July 14, 2010, the National Advisory Council
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State of India’s environment 2014
(NAC) that functions under the leadership of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi constituted a working group to draft the National Food Security Bill. The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 22, 2011. The Act provides food entitlements to 67 per cent of the total population of India — 813,373,000 people. It promises to reach 75 per cent of the total rural population of the country, and 50 per cent of the total urban population. The Act does not distinguish between populations below and above the poverty line.
The Act guarantees rice for `3 per kg, wheat for `2 per kg, and coarse grains like millets for `1 per kg to the eligible households Instead, it categorises beneficiaries as ‘priority group’ and ‘antyodaya’ (poorest of the poor households). A priority group beneficiary will get five kg of foodgrains per person per month, while those in the other category will get 35 kg per household per month. Under the scheme, rice will be available for `3 per kg, wheat for `2 per kg and coarse grains like millets for `1 per kg. The prices will be revised every three years. This coverage is not equal in all the states; instead, it has been adjusted proportionately so that it is higher in the poorer states. Which means, the states which have the highest poverty rates get more coverage than the national average (67 per cent). For instance, Uttar Pradesh will have a whopping 152 million of its 199 million (76 per cent) people covered under the new law. Correspondingly, a large number of states which are among the better off, will see their entitlements snipped drastically. The National Food Security Act (NFSA) actually consolidates several food-related programmes that have been operational for decades: the anganwadi scheme that looks after the nutritional needs of children aged zero-six years, and the midday meal scheme that provides hot, cooked meals to children in primary and elementary schools (up to 14 years of age). Under the new dispensation, children between six months and six years get to either take home ration or cooked meal that gives them 500-800 calories. Significantly, the Act stipulates that every pregnant woman and lactating mother is entitled to free meals during pregnancy and six months after childbirth, through the local anganwadi, apart from maternity benefit of not less than `6,000 in installments. The Act is not as radical as it is made out to be, nor will it punch a hole in the finances, as its critics claim; it all depends on which state one belongs to, or which side of the economic divide one comes from.
Centre proposes, states dispose Some states are in a tizzy over the provisions of the Act. Currently, states follow different formulae for providing food — an analysis of how public distribution system (PDS) works throws an interesting mosaic of entitlements and rates at which food is given to different categories
WHO’S ELIGIBLE? The identification of priority and general household will be done in accordance with the guidelines for identification to be prescribed by the central government. The Planning Commission and the Union ministry of rural development had announced on October 3, 2011, that eligibility and entitlements will be determined after the Socio-economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011 survey. The survey is being conducted by the rural development ministry and the Union ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation at the moment. The Planning Commission and the rural development ministry, in consultation with states, experts and civil society organisations, will have to arrive at a consensus in methodology for the identification of beneficiaries. An expert committee will be appointed to ensure that this methodology is consistent with the provisions of the Act. Till the time of going to press, 70 per cent of the SECC survey had been completed.
HUNGER PANGS REMAIN The new Global Hunger Index (GHI), released on October 11, 2012, says high economic growth has not helped India reduce its hunger level; it is the same as was in 1996. In the past 10 years, the hunger level has stagnated. This stagnation occurred during a period when India’s gross national per capita income almost doubled, rising from about US $1,460 to US $2,850 per annum. Two-thirds of India’s alarming GHI score is owing to the fact that 43.5 per cent of the country’s children are underweight. In this parameter, India scores lower than Ethiopia. At the global level, hunger has reduced marginally in the past two decades. In 2012, GHI fell by 26 per cent from the 1990 level. But there are severe regional imbalances in distribution of hunger. South Asia and SubSaharan Africa have the highest levels of hunger — the 22 countries with “alarming” or “extremely alarming” levels of hunger are in these two regions. South Asia reduced its GHI score significantly in the period 1990-96, but could not maintain the pace. Now, the Sub-Saharan region’s hunger level is lower than that of South Asia.
of those considered eligible for subsidies. West Bengal, for instance, has — apart from below poverty line (BPL), Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and above poverty line (APL) categories — additional quotas with differential pricing for tea garden workers and those living in areas of Maoist insurgency. The new food security law, calculates the state, will mean an additional burden of `7,000 crore which the state will have A Down To Earth annual
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PEO PLE A N D G OVE R N A N C E POPULATION TO BE COVERED State/UT
Estimated state-wise percentage coverage Rural
Urban
Andhra Pradesh
60.96
41.14
Arunachal Pradesh
66.31
51.55
Assam
84.17
60.35
Bihar
85.12
74.53
Chhattisgarh
84.25
59.98
Delhi(NCT)
37.69
43.59
Goa
42.24
33.02
Gujarat
74.64
48.25
Haryana
54.61
41.05
Himachal Pradesh
56.23
30.99
Jammu & Kashmir
63.55
47.10
Jharkhand
86.48
60.20
Karnataka
76.04
49.36
Kerala
52.63
39.50
Madhya Pradesh
80.10
62.61
Maharashtra
76.32
45.34
Manipur
88.56
85.75
Meghalaya
77.79
50.87
Mizoram
81.88
48.60
Nagaland
79.83
61.98
Odisha
82.17
55.77
Punjab
54.79
44.83
Rajasthan
69.09
53.00
Sikkim
75.74
40.36
Tamil Nadu
62.55
37.79
Tripura
74.75
49.54
Uttar Pradesh
79.56
64.43
Uttarakhand
65.26
52.05
West Bengal
74.47
47.55
A & N Islands
24.94
1.70
Chandigarh
38.54
47.26
Dadra & Nagar Haveli
84.19
51.54
Daman & Diu
26.66
56.47
Lakshadweep
35.30
33.56
Puducherry
59.68
46.94
Total
75.00
50.00
Source: National Sample Survey Office, 2011-12
to pay — an outgo that West Bengal can ill afford given its current financial crisis. For decades, foodgrains, mainly rice and wheat, have been distributed at subsidised prices according to the type of ration card people possess — AAY, BPL or APL. The bulk of food subsidies are meant for BPL households, but the process of targeting these has always been contentious and unreliable. Surveys show that a substantial number, about 50 per cent, do not possess the prized BPL ration card and hence are not reached by PDS. In states where PDS is efficient, the coverage, too, is extensive. Kerala, for example, follows the poverty assessment system of its social justice (welfare) department. It claims that 38 per cent of its population falls in the BPL category and around 98 per cent of households in the state are under PDS. However, the centre’s estimate says only 15 per cent of the state’s population is BPL — this is based on the Planning Commission’s definition of BPL as people who have a daily spending capacity of less than `28 in rural India and less than `33 in urban. For Kerala, a perennially food-deficit state, the food security act spells doom. The state’s annual requirement of rice, its staple food, is about 4.2 million tonne (MT). But it produces only about 0.6 MT. Of this, it procures just 0.2 MT. After the Act is enforced, Kerala will get only 77,453 tonne of foodgrains per month against the present allocation of 148,233 tonne. The monthly shortfall will be 70,780 tonne. Take the case of PDS haven Tamil Nadu. The state gives free rice to all categories, besides handing out a combination of items that eases the food burden of poor households. In addition, the state has opened a string of Amma Canteens that offer hygienically cooked food at
WHAT WILL THE LAW COST? Estimates vary wildly. The government claims the additional expense on account of the Act will be `24,000 crore annually for the next three years. K V Thomas, minister of state with independent charge of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, says the government’s current liability is `109,000 crore per year. With the additional burden of food security schemes, including school mid-day meal programme, the figure rises to `135,000 crore. Critics of the Act, however, have a different figure. The highest estimate of the cost of providing five kg of foodgrains every month to 813 million people and 35 kg to another 24.3 million comes from economist and columnist Surjit Bhalla who pegs it at `314,000 crore, or 3 per cent of the GDP. But other economists have questioned his methodology. They point out that procurement of foodgrains will not go up by more than five MT from the current level of 60 MT, while targeted PDS (or TPDS) coverage will rise from 44.5 per cent to 67 per cent. This means the quantum of grains available per eligible person will actually dip from 7.9 kg per month to five kg. A 2012 study, led by Ashok Gulati, chairperson of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices, calculated the financial expenditure on food subsidy under NFSA at `682,163 crore over a three-year period. The figure was calculated on the assumption that the annual foodgrain requirement under the Act will be around 70 MT.
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State of India’s environment 2014
BIG GAINERS BIHAR
ASSAM
TOTAL POPULATION* 103.89 million
TOTAL POPULATION* 31.16 million
COVERED BY NFSO** 87.11 million
COVERED BY NFSO** 25.19 million
RURAL
URBAN
RURAL
URBAN
85.12%
74.53%
84.17%
60.35%
ODISHA
JHARKHAND
TOTAL POPULATION* 41.04 million
TOTAL POPULATION* 32.96 million
COVERED BY NFSO** 32.62 million
COVERED BY NFSO** 26.42 million
RURAL
URBAN
RURAL
URBAN
82.17%
55.77%
86.48%
60.20%
MADHYA PRADESH UTTAR PRADESH
DIPR, TAMIL NADU
unbelievably cheap prices: idli at `1 a piece, and a full meal at `5. The runaway success of these canteens has prompted the chief minister to start sale of fresh vegetables too at subsidised rates, giving food security an entirely new meaning. The Act is weighted against an urbanised state such as Tamil Nadu — the state has the highest level of urbanisation, with an urban population of 49 per cent, among the major states of India. The state spends `4,900 crore on its food security schemes; `2,525 crore of this is for the free rice scheme alone. One of the biggest worries of state governments is that while the Centre has laid out the ground rules for ensuring food security, all the responsibility now lies with the state governments. It is the first time that any law has first fixed the number of beneficiaries, and then left it to the states to decide on the eligibility criteria and entitlements so as to reach the macro figure laid out in the law. The state governments are also obliged to prescribe guidelines and complete identification of the eligible households within a year following the notification of the Act. Tamil Nadu says this may not be possible since states can only start the
TOTAL POPULATION* 72.59 million
TOTAL POPULATION* 199.58 million
COVERED BY NFSO** 54.46 million
COVERED BY NFSO** 152.05 million
RURAL
URBAN
RURAL
URBAN
80.10%
62.61%
79.56%
64.43%
BIG LOSERS WEST BENGAL
ANDHRA PRADESH
TOTAL POPULATION* 81.34 million
TOTAL POPULATION* 84.66 million
COVERED BY NFSO** 60.01 million
COVERED BY NFSO** 45.09 million
RURAL
URBAN
RURAL
URBAN
74.47%
47.55%
60.96%
49.14%
Current coverage: QUASI-UNIVERSAL
KERALA
Current coverage: QUASI-UNIVERSAL
TAMIL NADU
TOTAL POPULATION* 33.38 million
TOTAL POPULATION* 72.13 million
COVERED BY NFSO** 15.48 million
COVERED BY NFSO** 36.46 million
RURAL
URBAN
RURAL
URBAN
52.63%
39.50%
62.55%
37.79%
Current coverage: QUASI-UNIVERSAL
Current coverage: UNIVERSAL
HIMACHAL PRADESH TOTAL POPULATION*
6.85 million
COVERED BY NFSO**
3.68 million
RURAL 56.23%
URBAN
30.99%
Current coverage: UNIVERSAL *Census 2011 **National Food Security Ordinance
A Down To Earth annual
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PEO PLE A N D G OVE R N A N C E WTO DEAL PAVES THE WAY, BUT JUST ABOUT The World Trade Organization (WTO) reached its first-ever trade reform deal in Bali on December 7, 2013 at its 9th ministerial meet (held once every two years). The accord made the rollout of the National Food Security Act possible, which would otherwise have been severely constrained by current WTO rules that impose stiff conditions on agriculture subsidies. The Bali deal, which was struck with the approval of 159 ministers, facilitates trade and allows developing nations to stock grains for food security purposes. This is the first significant global trade reform in more than two decades and comes at a time when the WTO seems to be losing relevance after a series of failures to conclude trade negotiations. Industrialised countries, including the US and European Union members, had been asking India to accept a “peace clause”, which offered four years of immunity from penalties imposed for breaching the farm subsidy cap of 10 per cent under the Agreement on Agriculture (AOA). But India and other
46
procurement of paddy at 1,532 purchase centres to the trucks carrying supply to 10,416 FPS for further distribution to 3.7 million ration cardholders. Close to one million farmers who sell their grain to the state, receive computergenerated cheques without any delay. Among the bold measures Chhattisgarh took was cancelling of all ration cards (2.1 million) to set up a computerised unified ration card database. It scrapped 300,000 fake cards but issued 3.3 million new cards with a hologram to
process of identifying eligible households after the Socio-economic Caste Census is completed (see Box: Who’s eligible). Another contentious issue is the provision for introduction of cash reimbursement or food coupon schemes in “such manner as may be prescribed by the Central government”. A case in point is the Annshree Yojana in Delhi.
The Chhattisgarh experience Amidst all this gloom, the state of Chhattisgarh has emerged as a shining example. The state buys most of its food from local farmers. Using the minimum support price scheme of the centre, it procures three MT of paddy in the kharif season, benefitting about one million farmer families. Part of this procurement is given to the central pool. The story began in 2004 when the state took all fair price shops out of private hands and gave them to cooperative societies, gram panchayats, women’s self-help groups, primary credit cooperative societies and forest protection committees. With 45 per cent of its people falling below the poverty line, the state had to take bold measures to get food to these overwhelming numbers. Since the Centre had classified just 1.4 million families of the total 22 million population as BPL, the state decided to foot the bill for bringing all those eligible into the PDS. In 2007, around 3,000 new fair price shops (FPS) were opened to increase accessibility and, more importantly, to make them viable — a key factor in making PDS sustainable. Interest-free loans of `75,000 were given to each shop along with a month’s supply of ration on credit. This pushed up the monthly profits of the fair price shops substantially. The centrepiece of the reform was computerisation of the entire supply chain from
State of India’s environment 2014
PREETI SINGH / CSE
Using the minimum support price scheme of the centre, Chhattisgarh procures three million tonne of paddy in the kharif season, benefitting about one million farmer families
developing nations wanted the peace clause until a permanent solution was found to the issue of farm subsidy for smooth implementation of their food security programmes. India, however, wilted under pressure from the US and agreed to accept conditions that were not part of the G-33 (a coalition of developing countries) proposal. In the G-33 draft, India had demanded that no member country can drag another member to the dispute settlement mechanism till a permanent solution is found under AOA and the Agreement of Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (ASCM). The Bali accord covers only AOA and not ASCM. “This means that member states can still drag India to the dispute settlement process under ASCM,” says Anuradha Talwar, adviser to the Supreme Court commissioners for Right to Food. The accord also requires developing countries to periodically notify WTO and its members on their food programmes to keep them “transparent”. Experts fear the process will not only be complex for a country as diverse as India, but will also unnecessarily open India’s programmes to external scrutiny.
the expanded list of the poor (the number has since gone up to 3.7 million) from a centralised database.
Triggering change A closer look at the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) consumption expenditure figures for 2011-12 shows that leakage of foodgrains in the country is down by 35 per cent, compared with 55 per cent in 2004-05. Other states have followed suit. The most spectacular
WHAT THE LAW CAN DO FOR THE POOR While much space was given over in media and elsewhere to the ranting of free market votaries, one story captured the essence of what the Act might do. It was a wrenching tale of a woman (unnamed) in an unidentified village of western Uttar Pradesh, the mother of a boy accused of the gruesome December 2012 rape and murder of a paramedical student that shook the nation. The woman neither answered coherently nor cared how indifferent she appeared to her son’s fate. She was desperately hungry and in pain, according to the report. In four days, she hadn’t eaten anything except for half a roti and chai. As she explained, the 35 kg of cereals that her family of eight gets every month under the BPL quota is exhausted in the first fortnight. She has been unable to find work to supplement the family income (her husband is demented). Will the NFSA help this woman? Currently, according to the rates fixed by the state government, she gets 20 kg of rice at `6.15 per kg and 15 kg of wheat at `4.65 per kg, paying a total of `192.75 for her quota. According to NFSA, she will get these grains at `90 per month — but she will also get an additional five kg. If it is rice, it will add just another `15 to her tab; if it is wheat, `10. On the whole, she will save around `100 a month. Small beer for us, but perhaps a matter of life and death for people like her.
turnaround was by Bihar which slashed leakage to just 12 per cent by going the same route: computerisation of PDS and the use of global positioning systems (GPS) to track food movements. More people are accessing PDS now in the country. The NSSO figures show that 50 per cent of rural households were buying subsidised foodgrains in 2011-12 against just 23 per cent in 2004-05. The irony is that while the poorer states were pulling up their socks, Gujarat, whose chief minister Narendra Modi has been scoffing at the small helpings of cereals in the NFSA, was administering a PDS with the highest leakage. ■ A Down To Earth annual
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PEO PLE A N D G OVE R N A N C E
Narratives from Niyamgiri Monsoon, mining and the god of universal law, Niyamraja, come together as 12 villages in Odisha deal a death-blow to Vedanta’s mining dreams
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State of India’s environment 2014
O D I S H A
SAYANTAN BERA / CSE
J
uly 18 to August 19: the monsoon of 2013 will go down in the history of India for a bounty of another kind — these were the days in which the country witnessed its first environment referendum. Deep inside the forests of south-western Odisha, in the Niyamgiri hills, villagers in tiny tribal hamlets were asked whether they wanted bauxite mining to happen in their midst, in their habitat. On April 18 that year, the Supreme Court had directed the government of Odisha to seek the consent of villages that were to be impacted by Vedanta's projects in and around Niyamgiri. In its order, the court interpreted the rights and powers of tribals and forest dwellers under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 and the constitutional provisions specific to tribals. The order focused on the religious and cultural rights of the tribal community; the court observed that these rights are integral to their way of life. Following this, the Odisha government drew up a list of 12 villages “likely to be affected” in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts. The villages held gram sabhas (village council meetings) — every one of the sabhas rejected the projects. The reverberations of the victory in Niyamgiri are now being heard from other places. The triumph has been almost contagious — an estimated 122 more villages in the two districts will now file for gaining habitat rights under the FRA. This right recognises the traditional clan-based boundary of forests. A significant number of proposals for mining and industrial development in and around these forest areas are pending with the state government. Using the current Supreme Court order, many community groups are drawing up plans to apply for habitat rights. In Khandadhar iron ore mines, earmarked for Posco's steel plant in Odisha's Jagatsinghpur district, communities are going to invoke the right to worship to oppose mining in the hills considered sacred by local tribes. We bring you snapshots of some of the village council meetings that triggered this minor revolution.
“You cannot draw a map and limit us inside a small patch” July 18, 2013. Serkapadi village, Rayagada. Site of first gram sabha.
First gram sabha begins under the supervision of a district judge and protection of central paramilitary and state police forces. Thirty-eight of the 46 adult members of the village present at the meeting reject the proposed bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hill ranges. Villagers demand that proceedings be carried out in their local tribal language Kui (instead of Oriya). “For thousands of years, the Niyamgiri range
2007
2008
2009 Ministry says all projects that require forestland diversion must obtain consent of gram sabha
2010 N C Saxena committee trashes the Vedanta proposal. Ministry withdraws forest clearance
2011 OMC challenges the ministry’s withdrawal of clearance in Supreme Court
2013 On April 18, Supreme Court puts the fate of Vedanta’s bauxite mining project in the hands of people. In January 2014, ministry says ‘no’ as well
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SAYANTAN BERA / CSE
is ours, protected by our ista debata (principal deity) Niyamraja. You may come with guns but we won’t give away any portion of the hills,” says a young and emotional Pandu Jakesika, holding the mike for the first time in his life. Following the reading out of the minutes of the meeting, an altercation ensues between the judge and the Dongria Kondhs. The tribals demand that the verification report delineating their traditional boundaries and settling community rights to the forests be rejected. “We don’t want an acre here or some decimals there. The entire forests and hills are ours.”
“Our temples are made of earth, leaves and the forests”
"I won’t give up Niyamgiri. I have never studied in a school, never been to a hospital and am alive today only because of these forests and streams” 50
July 22,2013. Kesarpadi, Rayagada. Site of second gram sabha. Two days of pouring rain does little to dampen the spirits. The second sabha takes a critical decision: it cancels Odisha government’s proposed settlement of community and religious claims to the forests, besides unanimously rejecting the projects. Earlier, on July 6, a team of officials had visited Kesarpadi to prepare a joint verification report to settle the villagers’ community and religious claims to the forests. The settlement report arbitrarily allotted community claims, for instance, between 0.5 to 1.9 acre (one acre = 0.4 hectare) for the five perennial streams in the village. The entire religious rights were settled with a mere 0.11 acre for local deities. Rejecting the report, Dondu Kutruka, a young Dongria Kondh, says, “You
State of India’s environment 2014
people wrote everything in the office and never came to the village to verify. Now write whatever we say correctly and read it out. You cannot make a fool of us every time.”
"Niyamgiri dibu nai"
July 23, 2013. Tadijhola, Kalahandi. Site of third gram sabha. The non-tribal forest hamlet unanimously rejects proposed bauxite mining. Nineteen of the 22 voters in the village are present at the sabha, including 87-year-old Sugri Gouda. Hard of hearing and barely able to stand on her own, she insists: "I won’t give up Niyamgiri. I have never studied in a school, never been to a hospital and am alive today only because of these forests and streams.”
A family vs a government
July 30, 2013. Ijurupa, Kalahandi. Site of eighth gram sabha. The irony is unmistakable. A retinue of vehicles carrying a district judge, officials, paramilitary forces, journalists and activists has descended on the doorsteps of octogenarian Labanya Gouda and the three members of his family. Ijurupa is at the entrance to the Niyamgiri hills. The bauxiterich hills — where a 660-ha mining site has been proposed — is barely one and a half km from Gouda’s house. The Goudas unanimously reject the Vedanta proposals. “Niyamraja has looked after me and my grandchildren for all these years,” says an overwhelmed Labanya Gouda. “Where will I go if the hills are mined?” ■
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The measure of a scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the world’s largest public wage programme, has glaring anomalies
MOYNA / CSE
t was a veritable mother of all schemes. The UPA government’s flagship rural employment programme, under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), sought to create tanks, ponds and wells and revive traditional water conservation structures at a scale and pace not witnessed before in the country. Millions of people in the countryside seeking jobs under the programme embarked on building or reviving 5.5 million water conservation structures, as per the Union rural development ministry (MoRD).
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In the six decades before 2005, all the public wage schemes together had created just about two million structures. The MGNREGA, credited for the ruling United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA’s) re-election in 2009, has emerged as the world’s largest public wage programme. During 2006-07 and January 2013, the central government spent close to `200,000 crore on the programme or about `83 lakh for every panchayat. Of this, the spending on water conservation structures was close to `120,000 crore. The programme assures 100 days of manual
MGNREGA WORKS COMPLETED (IN FIGURES)… Year
…AND IN PERCENTAGE
Total works taken up (in lakh)
Work completed (in lakh)
2006-07
8.35
3.87
2007-08
17.89
8.23
2008-09
27.74
12.14
2009-10
46.17
22.59
2010-11
50.82
25.85
2011-12*
74.13
15.01
2012-13 ** Total
71.03
10.67
296.13
98.36
20.25% (2011-12*)
46.34% (2006-07)
50.86% (2010-11)
*As on 30.01.2013 **As on 30.01.2013 Source: Forty-Second Report, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development, 2012-13
45.99% (2007-08)
43.76% (2008-09)
48.94% (2009-10)
WATER STRUCTURES V ROADS Waterworks (As percentage of total works) 2011-12
Year
2010-11 Incomplete* 2009-10
Complete
2008-09
2007-08 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Rural connectivity works (As percentage of total works) 2011-12
2010-11 Year
employment to any rural household that demands work. Under the Act, creation of water conservation structures is compulsory. As a result, today Indian villages have more per capita water structures than hospital beds, school teachers and policepersons put together. Official data shows every village has eight-nine such structures. In fact, the programme claims the added capacity is 3.07 billion cubic metre under water conservation and renovation of traditional waterbodies during 2006-11. This can take care of the drinking and cooking water needs of the country. Irrigation channels dug under the programme cover enough distance to make two return trips to the moon. Arguably, these structures should have created a huge water harvesting capacity, and the programme itself should have led to an economic boom in villages. Every structure gives two benefits: cash as wage and increase in agricultural productivity due to water availability. The National Council for Applied Economic Research in 2009 found that 60 million people were taken above the poverty line because of the programme. The rural development ministry claims per household earning nearly doubled between 2006-07 and 2010-11. Shouldn’t India be celebrating this feat? No, say villages across the country. Thousands of water structures, each a potential money spinner and each initiated under this programme, lie abandoned today. Reasons vary from wage delays to lack of planning to taking up structures without factoring in the capacity of local institutions. For instance, the Jharkhand government decided to dig 112,307 traditional wells under MGNREGA to overcome drought. But the decision came too late — by that time the monsoons had arrived. Since most of the wells were incomplete, they collapsed. During 2006-2011 (till September), only around 1.2 million water conservation works could be completed, while the rest are either in progress or suspended. The number of works suspended or in progress has steadily risen since
15.02% (2012-13**)
Incomplete* 2009-10
Complete
2008-09
2007-08 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
*Incomplete works include in-progress/suspended works and those approved but not in progress; Source: Union ministry of rural development
the inception of the programme in 2006, from 0.25 million to 2.54 million (in 2011). At the national level, the percentage of water conservation works to total works undertaken is declining steadily. In 2006-07, completed water conservation works accounted for 48 per cent of the total completed works. This decreased to 38 per cent in 2011-12. Road connectivity works, on the other hand, have picked up. “Roads have become more popular because they are costeffective and can be outsourced to contractors. This leads to greater possibility of money A Down To Earth annual
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PEO PLE A N D G OVE R N A N C E DURABLE ASSETS CREATED UNDER MGNREGA Type of works
Total no of works started
% of total
Total works
(2006-07 to 2012-13*)
works
completed
Flood control and protection
533862
3.87
349681
Water conservation and water harvesting
3567527
25.86
1723651
Drought proofing
1645789
11.93
561267
Micro irrigation works
979464
7.1
5321159
Renovation of traditional waterbodies Total water conservation and water-
802526
5.82
530005
4049168
54.58
8485763
1502023
10.89
778034
related works Provision of irrigation facilities to land owned by SC/ST/LR or IAY beneficiaries/small and marginal farmers Land development
1570057
11.38
1142293
Rural connectivity
2686227
19.47
1734674
Bharat Nirman Rajeev Gandhi Sewa Kendra
29700
0.21
9729
Other works
469463
3.40
314300
325
0.002
30
Rural drinking water
179
0.001
4
Rural sanitation
6747
0.05
231
13793893
100.00
12465058
Coastal areas Fisheries
Total
4
0
*As on 12.12.2012 Source: Forty-Second Report, Parliamentary Standing Committee on Rural Development, 2012-13
siphoning,” says Ved Arya, director of the nonprofit SRIJAN, the programme implementing partner, and member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council.
Missing annual village plans But are the 1.2 million completed works yielding benefits? Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh, the first to implement the Act, provides some answers. Under the employment guarantee programme, an average of 38 water conservation works have been created in each of the district's 3,384 villages. In the past two years, the district has dug 8.5 million cubic metre of trenches, 30,000 farm ponds and 10,000 percolation tanks, including rock dams. This potential can irrigate one crop in around 70 per cent of the district's farms. In reality, the impact has been very different. The district is one of the driest in the country. MGNREGA has all the ingredients to stop desertification, but stopping desertification has not been planned as its priority action. In the first two years, one of the major works identified was building earthen bunds for water harvesting. But the bunds were built in black soil that cannot hold water. Though hundreds of rock-fill dams have been constructed, many hold water only for a few days. “When there’s no water, villagers take away the rocks for other purposes,” says A Ramachandra, a farmer in Gandlaparthy village of Raptadu mandal. The most common complaint is noninvolvement of the community in planning the 54
State of India’s environment 2014
structures as stipulated by the Act. Under the Act, each village is required to prepare an annual plan based on local needs. This plan indicates the types of works to be undertaken. At the district level, all the village plans get consolidated into a district perspective plan that spans over five years. From 2006 till August 2011, Dungarpur in Rajasthan spent `482.6 crore on 31,614 water structures. Between August 2010 and July 2011, the state claimed to have created 20 billion litre of additional water capacity. This would imply availability of 30 to 50 litre per person per day. But the district continues to be declared droughtaffected. Cultivable land has increased only marginally in the past five years. Five years of experience has exposed fault lines in the public wage programme. The first is lack of planning. Village plans are not prepared before works are taken up. Without advance planning, procedures such as administrative approvals and technical sanctions add to delays. The panchayats have not been trained to run the programme. Perspective plans are mostly prepared at the district level, so there is a disconnect between what is planned and what people need. Second is a lack of understanding of local ecology. A water conservation structure is critically linked to its catchment that spreads over more than one village. While planning for a village, this aspect is never factored in. The third reason for a large number of works being abandoned is the 60:40 wage-to-material ratio permitted under MGNREGA. ■
“The Holcim Awards is a universal idea: everyone with good concepts has a chance of winning. The competition is independent and open to all.” Francis Kéré, Principal, Kéré Architecture, Burkina Faso/Germany. Winner of the Global Holcim Awards Gold 2012.
4th International Holcim Awards for sustainable construction projects. Prize money totals USD 2 million.
Renowned technical universities lead the independent juries in five regions of the world. They evaluate projects at an advanced stage of design against the “target issues” for sustainable construction and allocate additional prizes for visionary ideas of young professionals and students. Find out more about the competitions at www.holcimawards.org The Holcim Awards is an initiative of the Swiss based Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction. It is supported by Holcim and its Group companies and affiliates in around 70 countries, including ACC Limited and Ambuja Cements Ltd. Holcim Ltd is one of the world’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates.
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An Act to end land wars The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 20I3 is notified n May 7, 2011, violence erupted in two villages in western Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddha Nagar district. Farmers and other local villagers clashed with law enforcement agencies — the issue was land acquisition in the area and the villagers’ dissatisfaction with the compensation allocated. Between 2003 and 2011, the state government had notified 1,215 villages in the districts of Gautam Budh Nagar, Agra, Mahamaya Nagar, Aligarh, Mathura and Bulandshahr — all in western UP — for land acquisition. This land was to be acquired for building the Yamuna Expressway, a 165-km highway project connecting Greater Noida (in Gautam Budh Nagar) and Agra. The Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA), the nodal body overseeing the project, plans to develop 44,000 hectare (ha). Of this, only 9.3 per cent is actually for the expressway — the rest is being doled out to builders for ‘developing’. These are being referred to as land parcels. About 4,100 ha has been given to Jaypee Infratech Limited, a subsidiary of Jaiprakash Associates Limited, to build the expressway and another 2,500 ha to develop five land parcels. By 2011, about 1,000 villages had already handed over their land, but farmers were unhappy with the compensation given. Landless farm workers did not get anything, while those with land said they were short-changed — the disquiet translated into the full-blown skirmishes of Bhatta Parsaul whose reverberations reached far and wide. One of these was the call for amending the 120-year old, archaic Land Acquisition Act of 1894 and converting the resettlement and rehabilitation policy into a law. On September 26, 2013, the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 20I3 was notified. The Act leaves many of the contentious issues such as whether land should be acquired or leased out to private players and whether multi-crop lands should be acquired or not to the discretion of state governments. Land
O
The Act leaves many of the contentious issues such as whether land should be acquired or leased out to private players and whether multicrop lands should be acquired or not, to the discretion of state governments
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State of India’s environment 2014
is a state subject, but land acquisition is in the concurrent list of the constitution.
Important provisions of the law ● Compensation in rural areas would be
●
●
●
● ●
●
●
●
calculated by multiplying market value by two and adding assets attached to the land or building and adding a solatium. In urban areas it would be market value plus assets attached to the land and solatium Developers to get the consent of up to 80 per cent of people whose land is acquired for private projects. For PPP projects, the approval of 70 per cent is mandatory Multi-cropped, irrigated land cannot be acquired unless it is for defence or emergency caused by natural calamity Land should be returned to original owner if not used in five years for the purpose for which it is acquired, subject to the refund of one-fourth of the compensation amount with interest from date of payment The government will not acquire land for private companies for private purpose The Act mandates social impact assessment when government proposes acquisition of land over 40.46 ha, which should be conducted in consultation with the gram sabha (village council). It also provides for the appointment of an administrator for rehabilitation Both land acquisition and resettlement and rehabilitation provisions of the Act will apply to projects when government acquires land for its own use or on behalf of private companies for stated public purpose, including PPP projects. In case companies directly acquire over 40 ha from landowners, they will be responsible for resettlement and rehabilitation The Act proposes amenities like schools, health centres etc in places where projectaffected people are resettled The urgency clause should be exercised in the rarest of rare cases like national defence or for resettlement purposes. This means no land acquisition can proceed without public hearing. ■
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HUNGER HIGHS Feeding the teeming millions in India has always been problematic, but just how big is the problem? Global estimates of undernourishment between 1990 and 2012 published in the report The State of Food Security in the World 2012 rank India much lower than several Asian and African countries on many key food security indicators. The report was prepared by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Number of undernourished people
Prevalence of food inadequacy
Between 2010 and 2012, India had an estimated 217 million people who were at risk of undernourishment. India accounted for nearly a fourth of the total 868 million in the world who were at the risk of undernourishment by the end of 2012
The FAO describes prevalence of food inadequacy as the percentage of a country’s population at risk of not covering the food requirements associated with normal physical activity. Between 2010 and 2012, 27.50 per cent of India’s population fell in this category
1200
India
Asia
40
World
35.4
1000
800
922
868
739 638 563
600
400 240
231
217
200
Percentage of total population
Number of people in millions
1000
35 30 25
33.5
33
26
20
27.5 26.8
21.9
22.4 19.1
15 10 5
India
Asia
World
0
0 1990-92
58
2000-02
State of India’s environment 2014
2010-12
1990-92
2000-02
2010-12
Depth of food deficit
Additional calories required per person per day
The FAO describes this calculation as the number of calories needed to lift the undernourished from their status with everything else being constant. Between 1990 and 1992, India needed to provide 176 calories more per person per day to cover up the food deficit 200 180 160
176 151 165
140 120
125 130
125
100
104
106 94
80 60 40
India
Asia
World
20 0 1990-92
2000-02
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3
Forests and wildlife ■ A state of siege exists in and around India’s forests. The battles that rage on range from those over rights to forest produce (such as bamboo), to those over the use of what is under these forests — minerals. ■ The key question: who does the forest belong to? The people or the forest bureaucracy? ■ Laws, policies and programmes abound, but are almost always illimplemented. They are also sometimes in conflict with and contradiction to each other.
Judicial intervention and civil society action have served to put things in their proper perspective in some places, but for how long can India lean on these to do things right? ■
SOUPARNO BANERJEE / CSE
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Managing India’s forests In the forests of India, the development-environment tug-of-war acquired new dimensions — with a plethora of laws, regulations, policies, programmes and decisions aimed at either giving back forests to their rightful owners or taking them away. At the end of it all, the country stayed poorer, with the right kind of laws but the wrong way of implementation
KADAMBINI RAGHURAM
n 2013, India’s forests enjoyed unparalleled scrutiny. It was a rare year: the discourse on forest governance involved almost everyone, from the Supreme Court of India to tribal communities living deep inside the nation’s forests. Forests dominated the conversation from the Western Ghats to the Eastern Ghats, from the Prime Minister’s Office to the panchayats in Odisha’s Kalahandi district, from the corridors of the tribal affairs ministry to the antechambers of the environment and forests ministry. But amidst all this, a milestone was crossed unnoticed — India’s national forest policy, adopted in 1988, completed 25 years in 2013. Intensely contested since its birth, this policy snapped the colonial cords of forest governance. It advocated a very different forest regime than what was promoted under independent India’s first forest policy of 1952 (see Box: Forest policies through the years) — for the first time since forestry came under government control, this policy acknowledged the linkages between tribal lives and forests. Interestingly, though current forest governance discourse rarely refers to this forest policy or the struggles that it engendered, most recent debates over forests have revolved around its key tenets. Take the case of conflicts over forests — many of them are on the issue of diversion of forestland to industry and the suppression of rights of local communities. The 1988 policy is clear on this: the community
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“The life of tribals and other poor living within and near forests revolves around forests. The rights and concessions enjoyed by them should be fully protected” — Forest Policy, 1988 gets precedence when it comes to forests and their governance; industry’s claims over forests are not a priority. The policy’s precepts are finding another echo in an interesting quarter. With general elections looming ahead, political parties that are seeking tribal votes have been obsessing about rights of forest dwellers. Within the government, different ministries have turned competitive over protecting tribal rights. India has, seemingly, come to terms with a reality: forests are more than trees and tigers — they are also about lives and livelihoods.
The Niyamgiri verdict
FOREST POLICIES THROUGH THE YEARS YEAR
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
1894
Focused on forest management for 'public benefits', but commercial harvesting formed its core as the colonial rulers wanted to make the most of the resource. Regulations based on this policy turned people's natural rights over forests and forest produce into a set of privileges. In 1921, management of forests was transferred to state governments.
1952
Mandated that local village communities should not be allowed to use forests. This was to protect the 'national interest' of conserving the forests. Instead of reconciling the rights of indigenous people, it read: “The accident of a village being situated close to a forest does not prejudice the right of the country as a whole to receive benefits of a national asset.” Government speeded up plantation in forest areas to change the character of natural forests from low value mixed forests to high value plantation species.
One of the most memorable and interesting manifestations of the raging 1988 Acknowledged the linkages between tribal lives and forests. Said conflicts over forests has been in the case forests can't be exploited for commercial purposes, but must be of Niyamgiri. In Odisha, industrial giant conserved and used for subsistence needs of forest-dependent Vedanta has been eyeing the lush green communities. Also said plantations should not be introduced in place Niyamgiri hills for mining bauxite to feed of mixed forests; regeneration of natural forests must get precedence. its Lanjigarh-based alumina plant. This is being opposed by the local forest-dwelling Dongria Kondh tribe, which considers FOREST COVER OF INDIA the hills as the abodes of their god — Total forest cover Niyamraja. From July 18 to August 19, (21.05%) these tribals in Odisha’s Kalahandi and Rayagada districts participated in 12 Non-forest (77.67%) village council (gram sabha) meetings in Area: 2,553,059 km2 what was perhaps India’s first environmental referendum (read more in the chapter on ‘People and governance’). In a landmark order in 2013, the Supreme Court had directed village councils in these two districts to decide whether the industrial activities of Vedanta violated their constitutional right to worship. Translated into Scrub forest (1.28%) Very dense forest (2.54%) practice, the order meant voters in a few Area: 42,177 km2 Area: 83,471 km2 villages would decide the fate of the Open forest (8.75%) Moderately dense forest (9.76%) `50,000-crore project on the basis of Area: 287,820 km2 Area: 320,736 km2 their religious beliefs. In one month, one Note: Types of forests as percentages of the total geographical area after the other, the 12 village councils Source: India: State of Forest Report 2011 gave a resounding answer: No. Religious beliefs are usually seen as a private concern; the apex court’s order covered new ground by declaring religious decisions as being a community interest as well. Additionally, the court’s order to assign the village councils — which enjoy constitutional powers — with the responsibility of A Down To Earth annual
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❮❮ Rewind 2013 Supreme Court asks forest dwellers if mining in Niyamgiri will affect their religious and cultural rights. 12 village councils pronounce it will and say no to Vedanta
Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2013 introduced in Rajya Sabha in August 2013. Has a provision for imprisonment up to seven years for poaching
deciding on religious rights came as an acknowledgement of the fact that the standard law-andreligion approach will not work in tribal areas.
Setback on the Western front If the Niyamgiri case was a milestone crossed, the country stumbled back a few steps on the Western Ghats. Industrialisation and ‘development’ have reduced this vast and valuable biodiversity hotspot spanning six states in India to a denuded land. The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) set up two committees, one after the other, to examine the scale of the depredation and recommend remedies. Both the Gadgil panel and the Kasturirangan committee said that large tracts of the Ghats needed to be strictly protected from mining, industry and infrastructural development (see next article). Veerappa Moily, the petroleum minister who now holds additional charge of the MoEF, demurred: he declared that the Kasturirangan committee report on the Western Ghats needed to be reviewed. This stopped the ministry from notifying the ecologically sensitive areas (ESA) in the Ghats. Moily’s decision is being seen as a delaying tactic, with the 2014 elections round the corner.
The FRA fracas India slipped on another significant step it took six years ago. In 2007, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act — known better as the Forest Rights Act (FRA) — came into force. It gives tribals and other forest-dwelling communities rights over forest management and to minor forest produce (MFP) such as bamboo and tendu leaf. But the Act has remained largely unimplemented on ground. Between 2008 and 2010, when the major forest-bearing states went to polls, the government used FRA to give electoral sops — the maximum number of land titles was given in this period. Most of the 1.3 million individual titles issued were processed by June 2011. But since then, only 0.1 million individual titles have been issued. Ten states and Union territories have not given a single title. Their governments have cited several reasons for this, but a closer look reveals it is largely because of official apathy and misinterpretation of the law than any actual road blocks. What’s more, state governments have rejected more than half of the 2.8 million title claims processed countrywide (see Table: States, FRA and bamboo). “There are more rejections than acceptance of claims,” admitted tribal affairs minister Chandra Kishore Deo in an interview with Down To Earth. In January 2011, the National Forest Rights Act Committee had pointed out this lacuna in the implementation of FRA. It noted that institutions not constituted as per the law and faulty ways of processing claims were the major hurdles in the Act’s implementation. In many states with high forest cover, the basic administrative step of forming village forest rights committees (FRCs) has not started. In Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, FRCs have not been constituted in close to 40 per cent of villages. This is after one year of amending the FRA in September 2012. The amendment gave more teeth to gram sabhas and curtailed the role of forest departments in the Act’s implementation. The environment ministry also threw its weight behind the recording of rights. The new rule mandates that after the titles are issued, maps of the forestland vested under FRA should be prepared and rights incorporated in the revenue and forest records within three months. Most states promised to review
STATES, FRA AND BAMBOO State Andhra Pradesh
Annual production
Market value
Number of
Number of
(in tonne) of bamboo
(in ` crore)
CFR claims
CFR recognised 2,106
1,40,050
102.66
6, 714
Assam
72,987
33.05
5,193
860
Chhattisgarh
35,940
22.99
4,736
775
Gujarat
17,142
12.57
8,723
1,758
Karnataka
16,100
11.8
2,917
53
Madhya Pradesh
90,207
57.7
13,093
No data
Maharashtra Odisha Rajasthan Tamil Nadu
99,172
63.43
5,041
1,033
1,26,800
39.65
3,304
879
12,639
9.26
346
53
962
71
NA
NA
Note: CFR-community forest rights; Source: Union ministry of tribal affairs
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SAYANTAN BERA / CSE
the rejected claims; they also proclaimed they will recognise community forest rights(CFR), habitat rights of particularly vulnerable tribal groups, and the rights of pastoralist communities under the Act in a time-bound manner. But in one year, not much has changed. In fact, the over 1.3 million tribals and forest dwellers across the country who got rights over 1.7 million ha of forestland under FRA, have been waging a desperate battle. The FRA has, in some ways, a potential to trigger contemporary India’s largest land regime change — from the forest administration to the rightful owners of forestland. However, the expected change is still some way off. There are procedural complications. For instance, as per FRA, all forest villages, unrecorded settlements and old habitations must be converted into revenue villages. But India does not have proper records of land. The Act promises another bounty — access to government schemes. But this will be possible only when the land titles are noted down in the revenue records. Not one state has initiated concrete steps to officially register the title holders in the state land records. Without this, they remain what they used to be before the FRA came into force — officially non-existent. The FRA’s most lucrative and empowering provision is the community right over MFP such as bamboo and tendu. The Act has rendered the monopoly of the states over the MFP trade illegal by recognising the right of forest dwellers to own, manage and sell this produce. An estimated 100 million forest dwellers depend on MFP for food, shelter, medicines and cash income. However, MFP rights have not been given to forest dwellers in the country except for a few places in Maharashtra and Odisha. Even in these places, the states, especially forest departments, have been resisting relinquishing the monopoly over the trade of bamboo and tendu leaves. In their defence, the states argue that they have a well-established system of procurement of MFP which will protect the interests of forest dwellers. In the open market, tribals will be exploited by traders, claim the states. Communities from Maharashtra and Odisha have waged long battles to claim this right — and have reaped economic benefits. This provision demonstrates how the FRA can be used to eradicate poverty. On August 2, the central government had introduced a scheme for providing minimum support price (MSP) to forest dwellers for MFP on lines of support price for agricultural products. But in an interesting twist, the new scheme did not apply to MFPs like bamboo and tendu, trade of which has been monopolised by state governments. The FRA stands in complete contradiction to the Indian Forest Act, 1927, which gives forest bureaucracy unprecedented powers. In the last week of March 2012 the Union cabinet had approved a set of amendments to the Act. The stated aim of the Indian Forest (Amendments) Bill, 2012, already introduced in the Rajya Sabha and currently with a parliamentary committee, is to stop unnecessary harassment of forest dwellers. Till 2012, nearly a million cases were pending against forest dwellers, mostly tribals, under the
❮❮ Rewind 2013 National Board for Wildlife issues guidelines for roads inside protected areas Cabinet approves scheme for providing minimum support price to forest dwellers for minor forest produce
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FO R E STS A N D W I L D L I F E JFM: TIME FOR AN OBITUARY? The Joint Forest Management (JFM) programme, initiated in 1990, had marked an evolutionary step in forestry in India. It was the first programme to come after the 1988 forest policy made community-centric forest management a key principle. Under JFM, communities manage forests along with the forest department. In return, they get free minor forest produce and a share in timber and bamboo revenues. For the 170,000 villages in and around the country’s degraded forests, accounting for India’s poorest tribal population, the programme was a big draw. The area under JFM grew from seven million hectare (ha) in 1998 to 22 million ha in 2009 — accounting for 33 per cent of the country’s forestland, managed by 104,729 forest protection committees. The JFM programme faces an existential crisis today. On one hand, legislations like the FRA have cut into its base. On the other, communities are demanding the huge sums that forest departments owe them under the programme. In January 2011, the National Advisory Council had suggested drastic changes in the programme. The National Forest Rights Act Committee (NFRAC), constituted to review the implementation of FRA, recommended that wherever community forest rights are recognised under the Act, JFM committees be scraped. It said the powers and resources of JFM committees should be transferred to the committees of gram sabhas formed under FRA. Going one step further, NAC recommended that in all the forest villages the
❮❮ Rewind 2013 Kasturirangan Committee recommends protection of 90 per cent of the natural landscape of the Western Ghats
management of community forest resources be suo moto handed over to the gram sabha and the forest department should just act as a facilitator. This means downsizing JFM drastically. While these recommendations were being debated, the environment ministry threw its weight behind JFM. Many see this move as a counter to FRA that has substantially reduced the department’s scope in forest villages. The Green India Mission to combat climate change suggests amendments in the Indian Forest Act and the Panchayati Raj Act to give JFM committees the power of a forest officer. The mission document says these committees will be recognised as legal entities of gram sabhas. It also talks about strengthening the Forest Development Authorities. But the tribal affairs minister Kishore Chandra Deo has been demanding scrapping of the JFM. “It is a violation of the FRA,” he told Down To Earth during an interview in June 2013. Before a decision is taken on the fate of JFM, state forest departments have to give the benefits, particularly monetary, to the local communities as promised 23 years ago. The World Bank assesses that the total income from commercial timber, bamboo and non-timber products from the improved forests under JFM will be around US $2 billion (`9,150 crore) in 2020. Each year a JFM committee could earn around `10 lakh in cash and get subsistence benefits worth US $1.1 billion (`5,000 crore) in 2020.
Act. Most of the cases involved straying into forests or picking up dry twigs for fuelwood. Both the violations can be termed “forest encroachment” in clinical interpretation of the Act. In the areas affected by Maoist insurgency these cases are believed to be a major reason for the rapid spread of the red brigade. The Bill proposes two amendments. One will raise the penalty for compounding minor offences (paying money for dropping charges) from `50 (set in 1927) to `10,000. Under the second amendment, forest officials will have to consult the gram sabha (village council) while compounding a case; this provision is applicable only to scheduled areas. What do these amendments mean? The first amendment will not only make forest laws stringent but also breed corruption, benefiting forest officials. The average daily expenditure of a forest dweller is `8. A large number of cases against forest dwellers are pending for the simple reason that they could not afford even the `50 penalty for compounding — how will they afford `10,000? In the end, a forest dweller will become poorer. The second amendment, which makes ‘consultation’ with the village council mandatory before compounding a case in scheduled areas, will make the process of compounding even more cumbersome. On the other hand, the process of consultation will in all likelihood remain just that as the village council’s decision will not be binding. It is, therefore, quite clear that the amendments would do nothing to achieve what they set out with as an aim — bring down foresters’ harassment of forest dwellers. Forests will continue to shape the mainstream political landscape in India, at least in 2014. The sudden resignation (being reported as a sacking in some quarters) of the environment and forest minister Jayanthi Natarajan in December 2013 is a potentially disturbing prologue. Reports say the withholding of environmental clearances to development projects to the tune of `10,00,000 crore was the reason. One can expect a hectic round of clearances in the immediate future, but that might mean conflicts getting pronounced. The debate over development versus environment will take an ugly turn, for sure. ■
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FO R E STS A N D W I L D L I F E
Saving the Ghats
SUNITA NARAIN / CSE
As the year drew to a close, India regressed. On December 23, Veerappa Moily, the petroleum minister who now holds additional charge of the Union ministry of environment and forests, declared that the Kasturirangan committee report on the Western Ghats needed to be reviewed — yet again. This decision pushed back over a year’s hard work by two expert committees and left the fate of one of India’s most prized biodiversity hotspots in limbo
he Western Ghats region runs for about 1,500 km, from the mouth of the river Tapti near the border of Gujarat and Maharashtra to Kanyakumari, the southern-most tip of India in Tamil Nadu. It covers six states — Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat (portions of the Dang forests). Most of the rivers in peninsular India — including some of the major ones such as the Godavari, Krishna, Cauvery and Periyar — have their origins in the Ghats (see Box: A UNESCO World Heritage Site). The region is one of the three biodiversity hotspots in India (the other two are the eastern Himalaya and the Indo-Myanmar border region in the northeast), and one of the world’s eight
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richest biodiversity zones. With roughly 30 per cent of its area under forests, the Western Ghats harbours over 5,000 species of flowering plants, 139 mammal species, 508 bird species and 179 amphibian species. Many of these are rare as well as endemic. Some of the most well-known national parks (such as Bandipur and Periyar) are located here. This region has one of the world’s highest concentrations of wild relatives of cultivated plants. The forests of the Western Ghats have a stabilising effect on the climate, which induces heavy rains on the western slopes and coast and moderate rains on the eastern side. The almost continuous forests along the crest and the base of the Ghats and the mangrove forests along the coast play a vital role in carbon sequestration and
Only 10 per cent of the Ghats is currently under protected areas. The existing forests are highly degraded and facing the prospect of increasing degradation reduction in global warming. The ports and creeks along the western coast, which are crucial to the economy of the region and for transportation, can be kept navigable and siltfree only if the forests on the Western Ghats are preserved. All this is now under serious threat. Only 10 per cent of the Ghats is currently under protected areas. The existing forests are highly degraded and facing the prospect of increasing degradation. Increasing pressure of population and industry (including tourism); submergence of forest areas under river valley projects; encroachments on forest lands by people and industrial-mining operations; destruction of natural forests for raising tea, coffee, rubber, eucalyptus, and other monoculture plantations; construction of infrastructural projects such as railway lines and roads; habitat fragmentation and a rapidly declining biodiversity can lead to the demise of this immensely valuable region.
A UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITE The Western Ghats received the UNESCO's World Heritage site tag on July 1, 2012, a title which ensures the mountain range will get international support for its conservation. The world heritage tag came after its claim was rejected by the World Heritage Committee in its 35th meeting in 2012. When the proposal for it was re-submitted for consideration in 2013, it was once again on the verge of getting rejected. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), based on its field evaluation, recommended to the Committee to defer the consideration of the Western Ghats dossier. It suggested that India should review and refine the proposal to redefine the boundaries of the proposed sites to maintain the contiguity of the forests. However, the Indian delegation managed to convince the Committee about the merits of India’s proposal. It remains to be seen how the current status quo on the Ghats would affect international opinion on its conservation.
GHATS: THE NATURAL AND CULTURAL BOUNDARIES
Gadgil panel recommends stringent action Given the environmental sensitivity and ecological significance of the region and the complex inter-state nature of its geography, the MoEF constituted the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (WGEEP) in 2010. The panel, headed by ecologist Madhav Gadgil, was asked to study the impacts of population pressures, development activities and climate change on the Western Ghats. After wide ranging consultations in the six concerned states, the panel submitted its report to the ministry in August 2011. The findings were quite serious: ● Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) reports of projects were weak in the sections on biodiversity and socio-economic issues. ● Depletion and pollution of groundwater, siltation of waterbodies, increased frequency of floods, loss of fertile agricultural land and deforestation were some of the impacts of existing industries. ● Power transmission lines and transportation systems and infrastructure (roads and waterways and the vehicles moving on them) were having a significant impact on the region’s environment. ● Recommendations in the regional plans for Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts, that
Northern limit: 8˚0’N22˚26’ Eastern limit: 72˚55’’E78˚11’ Area: 1, 64,280 sq km Length: 1,500 km Width: 10 km (at the narrowest point) and 200 km (at the widest point)
National boundary State boundary Taluk boundary Natural Cultural Waterbody
Source: Report of the High-level Working Group (Kasturirangan committee)
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FO R E STS A N D W I L D L I F E RECOMMENDATIONS
The Kasturirangan committee report suggested that 37 per cent area of the Western Ghats represents a band of contiguous vegetation that is extremely rich in biodiversity — this area should be declared as an ecosensitive area or ESA
GADGIL PANEL
KASTURIRANGAN COMMITTEE
• Undertake cumulative impact studies of industrial, mining, power generation and other activities in Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts. • Extend the moratorium on new environmental clearances for mining, red and orange category polluting industries and power plants in these districts till an analysis is done of the carrying capacity of these districts. • Evolve systems of meaningful participation by people in deciding on the course of future economic development to ensure that development genuinely benefits society at large, and is not hijacked to serve particular vested interests. • Ask the state forest departments to proactively assist tribal welfare departments in implementation of the Forest Rights Act in the region. • Establish and activate biological diversity management committees in local bodies immediately.
• Implement the Forest Rights Act, 2006. Make consent of gram sabhas concerned mandatory for any project. • Allow hydro-power projects subject to stringent conditions as proposed by the committee. These include cumulative impact assessment of such projects and ensuring minimum water flow in the rivers in the lean season. • Set up a body to assess and report on the ecology of the region and to implement the ESAs. • Bring even windmill projects under EIA notification (but the MoEF disagreed and said such projects will be allowed in ESAs only as per regulations). • Allow villages to have a say in decision-making on future projects in the region. • Ban construction projects of over 20,000 sq m area. But projects which are already undergoing approval process will be considered. • A substantial area of Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg districts fall outside the proposed ESA — hence the MoEF has lifted the moratorium on mining in these districts. • Give incentives to states in the Western Ghats to promote “green development”. These include creation of a special sustainable development fund by the Planning Commission to compensate for restricting development in ESA and higher payments under the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendation to keep the forest cover intact. • Set up a high-level committee of the MoEF to monitor implementation of the recommendations.
stress on the natural endowments and strengths of these districts and prescribe land use priorities, were being constantly violated. ● Inputs of public hearings were often ignored, leading to high levels of social frustration and discord. The panel divided the Western Ghats into three categories — ecologically sensitive zones (ESZ) I, II and III — and recommended that almost the entire Western Ghats should be declared an ecologically sensitive area (ESA). It proposed that the three ESZs should be accorded different degrees of protection (see Box: Recommendations).
Kasturirangan committee steps in The MoEF’s apprehensions that the Gadgil panel recommendations may affect the industrialcommercial interests of the country, led the it to put a gag on the panel’s report; in fact, the ministry obtained a stay order from the Delhi High Court to refrain from making the report public. 70
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In August 2012, the ministry constituted another high-level working group, headed by Planning Commission member K Kasturirangan, to examine the Gadgil panel report. The committee was tasked with finding a holistic way of protecting the biodiversity of the Ghats and addressing the “rightful aspirations for inclusive growth and sustainable development” of the “indigenous residents”. The committee submitted its report in April 2013. The Kasturirangan committee report suggested that 37 per cent area of the Western Ghats represents a band of contiguous vegetation that is extremely rich in biodiversity — this area should be declared as an eco-sensitive area or ESA. It also suggested that no new projects or expansion of projects related to mining, quarrying, thermal power plants and highly polluting industries should be allowed in the ESA. The panel estimated that 41 per cent of the Western Ghats is “natural landscape” — having low population impact and rich biodiversity. The
PAPIA SAMAJDAR / CSE
remaining 59 per cent is “cultural landscape” dominated by human settlements and agricultural fields. The panel recommended that 90 per cent of the “natural landscape” should be protected. The identification of ESA was based on the fragmentation of the forests, population density of villages and the richness of the biodiversity (see Box: Recommendations). The committee’s recommendations were opposed by the states where the mountain range stretches and by politicians and farmers’ organisations who feared it would hamper development (see Box: Kerala simmers, MoEF pacifies). However, in October 2013, the MoEF accepted ‘in principle’ the Kasturirangan committee’s report. In November, it issued directions to the states under the Environment Protection Act, 1986 prohibiting new projects and expansion of various projects — including construction projects — measuring 20,000 sq m and above in the ESA identified by the Kasturirangan committee. The ministry also banned other red category (most polluting) industries in this area. However, the ministry did not notify the boundaries of the ESA. Had it done so, mining, quarrying, thermal power plants and highly polluting industries would have been banned in 60,000 sq km of the Western Ghats. Projects would have been allowed only after the approval of the gram sabhas concerned. But while the ministry was in the process of finalising the draft notification, the then environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan quit. Moily's decision to once again consult the states on the Kasturirangan report before issuing
the draft ESA notification is being seen as a delaying tactic, considering the 2014 elections are round the corner. Since the ministry has already issued the directions to prohibit new industrial and mining projects in the proposed ESA, 'revisiting' the report may not have immediate implications on ground. However, with just three months to go for the elections, it seems unlikely that the consultation process, initiated by the newly appointed environment minister, will reach any conclusion. The draft ESA notification may not be able to see light of the day, at least during his current tenure. ■
Getting bricked up Even the Ghats’ soil, a minor mineral itself, is being scraped away to make bricks — brick-storage sheds in northern Tamil Nadu stand testimony to the ravage
KERALA SIMMERS, MOEF PACIFIES The Kasturirangan committee’s recommendations have unnerved farmers and politicians in Kerala. In October, three districts — Idukki, Wayanad and Kozhikode — witnessed day-long shut-downs. The reason was farmers’ fear of losing their chance to get title deeds to the lands they had been cultivating for years in the Western Ghats. Many migrant farmers in this region have not received title deeds despite an all-party decision taken in 1983 to give title deeds to all farmers who settled in the forests before 1977. “If ESA is notified, the chances of getting title deeds become grim,” said C V Verghese, CPI (M) leader from Idukki. The Union environment ministry, however, had clarified through an order dated December 20, just a day before the then environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan resigned, that the ESA notification will not affect the land ownership rights of the people and will allow unaffected continuation of non-industrial practices like agriculture, horticulture and plantation. It also reiterated that the prohibition was imposed only on the new industrial and mining projects and on the expansion of projects; the existing projects would not be affected. It said as well that the boundaries of the ESA will be finalised and finetuned after taking into account the suggestions and objections on the draft ESA notification made by stakeholders, including the states.
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State of India’s environment 2014
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FO R E STS A N D W I L D L I F E
What to conserve, and how
AMIT SHANKAR / CSE
The United Nations has declared 2011-20 as the Decade of Biodiversity — with good reason. Our ecological footprint has long exceeded the Earth’s capacity to sustain it, leading to faster loss of biodiversity. What are the species that we should conserve, and where will the money for that come from. These questions that dog the world, lead to the real wringer: are we making any progress in saving our biodiversity?
he Earth’s biological resources are vital to humanity’s economic and social development. There is a growing recognition of the fact that biological diversity is a global asset of tremendous value to present and future generations. At the same time, the threat to species and ecosystems has never been as great as it is today. Studies show that loss of biodiversity will rank as one of the top five drivers of global change. In ecosystems where 21 to 40 per cent of the species go extinct,
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plant growth is expected to decrease by 5-10 per cent, an effect comparable to climate warming, or increased UV radiation from stratospheric ozone loss. But at higher levels of extinction, the impact would be similar to acid deposition on forests, ozone pollution and nutrient pollution. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which grew out of the epochal Rio Earth Summit of 1992, was established as a legally binding pact to arrest the precipitous decline in biodiversity. CBD brings together 193 signatories or Parties as they are called (192 nations and the
Biological diversity is the term given to the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms; 1.75 million species have been identified, mostly small creatures such as insects. Biodiversity also includes genetic differences within each species — Convention on Biological Diversity European Union) and in 2002, it undertook to “significantly reduce” biodiversity loss in a decade. The CBD’s 10th Conference of Parties (CoP) in Nagoya, Japan had decided on a set of new targets known as the Aichi Targets (see Box: The Aichi targets) framed under the Strategic Goals (2011-2020), to arrest further decline. There are five such goals, the primary one being to “address the underlying causes of loss by mainstreaming biodiversity across government and society”. But none of these targets are binding. Three of the Aichi Targets kick-in in 2015; the CoP-11 in Hyderabad held in 2012 was the first conference after the new targets came into existence. Meeting two years after the parties agreed in Japan on the landmark Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits arising from their Utilisation, CBD has to find ways of hastening implementation of this protocol which is yet to come into force. So far, 92 countries have signed the protocol but just five have ratified it; at least 50 instruments of ratification are necessary before it can be made operational. The Nagoya Protocol sets in place the third pillar of CBD whose main goals are conservation of biodiversity, its sustainable use and the fair and equitable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources or access and benefit sharing (ABS) for short. The CoP-11 played a crucial role in implementing the decisions of the CoP-10. However, the Hyderabad meeting will be remembered mainly for the intense and elaborate negotiations on financial issues, including targets for implementation of the Strategy for Resource Mobilisation, and the budget, with a compromise agreement. CoP-11 set an interim target of doubling biodiversityrelated international financial resource flows to developing countries by 2015, and at least maintaining this level until 2020. This is coupled with targets aiming to improve the robustness of baseline information as well as a preliminary reporting framework for monitoring resource mobilisation. Among the beneficiaries of enhanced
THE AICHI TARGETS 2015 TARGET 10: Minimise multiple anthropogenic pressures on coral reefs and other vulnerable ecosystems impacted by climate change or ocean acidification to maintain their integrity and functioning TARGET 16: Put in force the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits TARGET 17: Commence implementing an effective, participatory and updated national biodiversity strategy and action plan 2020 TARGET 1: Make people aware of the value of biodiversity and the steps they can take to conserve and use it sustainably TARGET 2: Integrate biodiversity values into national and local development and poverty reduction strategies and incorporate them into national accounting reporting systems TARGET 3: Phase out or reform incentives and subsidies harmful to biodiversity to minimise negative impacts, develop positive incentives for sustainable use TARGET 5: Halve and, where feasible, bring close to zero, the rate of loss of all natural habitat, including forests, by 2020; and significantly reduce degradation TARGET 6: Fish and invertebrate stocks and aquatic plants to be managed and harvested sustainably; put recovery plans in place for depleted species, and ensure impacts of fisheries on stocks, species and ecosystems are within safe ecological limits TARGET 7: Areas under agriculture, aquaculture and forestry to be managed sustainably, ensuring conservation of biodiversity TARGET 18: Integrate traditional knowledge and practices of indigenous and local communities relevant for conservation of biodiversity in implementation of the convention TARGET 20: Mobilise financial resources for effectively implementing Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-20 from all sources to increase funding substantially from current levels
funding would be Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas in the oceans, notably the Sargasso Sea, the Tonga archipelago and key corals sites off the coast of Brazil. At the next CoP to be held in South Korea in 2014, the raising of funds to help countries eliminate, phase out, or reform subsidies that are harmful to biodiversity — such as use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides in agriculture — would be taken up. In the next eight years, countries will find ways to fund the targets: the cost is estimated to be between US $2,060 and US $4,755 billion. According to India’s environment ministry, India needs US $7,417 million at business-as-usual A Down To Earth annual
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FO R E STS A N D W I L D L I F E US $2.65 billion The value of wetland wealth India has lost US $2.18 billion The value of wetland wealth lost by Jammu and Kashmir alone 90 per cent India’s fish resources that are at or above maximum sustainable levels of exploitation 15 million People who draw their livelihood from the sea and who would be hit by the collapse of marine resources
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level; that is, the current level of government funding. The Global Environment Facility (GEF), the financial instrument for CBD, is severely short of funds. As agreed in 1992, the average annual cost of implementing the CBD is US $3.5 billion. But this estimate is old and the new targets are ambitious. For 2011-20, the GEF is estimated to require US $74-$120 billion, but it has only US $27 billion in its kitty. Experts expect the negotiations in the next CoP in South Korea to be bitter. CoP-11 had an explosive prologue. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) brought out a list of the world’s 100 most threatened species just before the meeting in Hyderabad. The list pointed out that species conservation programmes across the world focused more on those having direct benefits to humans. According to the IUCN, the identified 100 species in over 48 countries will disappear in the next two decades. The reason is clear: they do not provide any obvious or direct benefits to humans and are thus slipping out of conservation attention. There are four Indian species in the list: Great Indian Bustard, Gooty Tarantula (a blue-coloured poisonous spider), Batagur Baska Turtle (northern river terrapin, found in the rivers of West Bengal and Odisha) and White Bellied Heron. India is hailed as a pioneer in implementing the third objective of the CBD: fair and equitable sharing of the benefits resulting from the use of genetic resources; its laws to conserve biodiversity — the Biological Diversity Act, 2002 (BDA) — and protect traditional knowledge have been held up as examples for the world. But has the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA), which was set up to implement BDA, been able to check biopiracy or misappropriation of the country’s resources? Going by its record so far, it does not seem to have done so. The fault, say critics, lies in the law itself which is focused not so much on the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity — these are the first two pillars of the CBD from which BDA draws its mandate — but on fair and equitable sharing of the benefits resulting from the use of genetic resources, the third pillar (see Box: The Kani experience). Their contention is that the maximum detailing in the regulatory framework relates to access. The opposition to BDA stems from what environmentalists see as “the lack of clarity on conservation clauses, poor regard to community control and its endorsement of intellectual property rights (IPRs)”. The issue of IPRs is the
State of India’s environment 2014
most contentious since conservationists believe the law indirectly licenses access to biological resources and traditional knowledge which it should not under any circumstances. As such, NBA has regularly come under fire for its access and benefit sharing (ABS) agreements. A total of 100 such agreements have been signed since 2006 — a world record. Brazil which comes next has concluded just 10 agreements. How exactly is the ABS regime working in India? Is it mostly about access and very little to do with benefit-sharing as a study by environmental group Kalpavriksh claims? B Pisupati, who took over as chairperson of NBA in August 2012, has an explanation. In a wide-ranging discussion with Down To Earth at his office in Chennai, he says: “Conservation and sustainable use actions have been pursued by a range of local, national, regional and global initiatives, institutions and programmes, whereas ABS is a relatively new concept. There is a need to tease out the operational elements of a system that respond to the ethics and equity questions on the ground. In the absence of specific and policy-oriented focus on ABS, it is but natural that more efforts are being focused on understanding and implementing the ABS provisions both under CBD and BDA”. CBD is all praise for India’s attempt to get stakeholders to be committed and take ownership of the subsequent implementation of the national biodiversity strategies and action plans (NBSAP). “In its scale, ambition, degree of decentralisation and popular participation, India’s NBSAP preparation process (2000-03) was the biggest biodiversity planning exercise anywhere in the world,” says a CBD document reviewing NBSAPs of various countries. But at the end of the massive exercise which drew in thousands of people and led to more than 70 state, sub-state, eco-regional and thematic plans to be prepared in addition to the overall national plan, there was no political buy-in. However, it is being found that the unlikeliest places are witnessing an upsurge of interest in biodiversity thanks to the People’s Biodiversity Registers that are being prepared at the local level. Farmers are relearning the importance of traditional crop varieties and agriculture biodiversity, children are discovering the significance of their natural environment and college students and professors from the cities are reconnecting with nature. It is an exercise that has just begun and could be the forerunner of a massive conservation movement if it is handled right. ■
THE KANI EXPERIENCE
SAJITH A REMADY
The forests of Agasthya hills, a part of the Western Ghats in Kerala’s Thiruvananthapuram district, are a treasure trove of medicinal plants. The Kani tribe which lives in these forests has a rich traditional knowledge of these resources. The Kanis make a living by growing millets, areca nut and rubber, and collect honey and python fat, a remedy for rheumatic pain. In 1987, the Kanis joined hands with the Thiruvananthapuram-based Tropical Botanical Garden and Research Institute (TBGRI), an autonomous institute set up by the Kerala government to develop herbal drugs. The association between the Kanis and the TBGRI team, known for an “unique, innovative, successful and sustainable model” of access-benefit-sharing, began six years before the Convention on Biological Diversity — which advocates fair and equitable sharing of benefits — came into force. In 1995, TBGRI used the Kanis’ knowledge and developed Jeevani, a drug that could fight fatigue and stress, enhance immunity and protect the liver. The drug was made from the locally available arogyapacha leaves. TBGRI shared half of the returns from selling Jeevani with the Kanis. For manufacturing and marketing Jeevani, TBGRI shortlisted the Arya Vaidya Pharmacy of Coimbatore. The following year, TBGRI transferred the technology to develop Jeevani to the pharmacy against a licence fee of `10 lakh and royalties of two per cent at exfactory sale. The institute decided to share half of the returns with the Kanis. Since the community did not have a formal set-up to receive its share, the Kerala Kani Samudaya Kshema Trust was formed in 1997.
This is arogyapacha, a rare herb with extraordinary medicinal properties. The Kani tribe of Kerala has preserved the herb and the knowledge about its use
When the track was lost When the pharmacy started production in 1996, disputes over the raw material and ownership of the resources emerged. As part of benefit-sharing, it was envisaged that the Kanis would collect and sell arogyapacha leaves to the pharmacy. But TBGRI had not taken the forest department into confidence. As per law, the Kanis could collect only minor forest produce and arogyapacha was not one. Unaware, the tribe continued collecting the raw material. Traders too moved in, smuggling large quantities of the plant. The forest department raised concerns and included the plant in the list of endangered species. Some families started cultivating the plant around their settlements, but could not sell the harvest since it was seized at the forest check-posts. Throughout the marketing and production of Jeevani, TBGRI was taking the decisions. Many people, especially those in the interior settlements, were not even aware of the deal. This led to a divide within the community. The contract between TBGRI and the pharmacy ended in 2003, but it was extended for three years. The pharmacy said it would sign the agreement only after ensuring steady flow
of raw material. After a trial run of two years, the pharmacy withdrew from the deal in 2008. The process patent of Jeevani ended in 2008. There were five Indian patents for different research processes based on arogyapacha. Besides Jeevani, TBGRI received patents on an anti-diabetic herbal drug; a herbal sports medicine; and an anti-cancer drug. None of the patents refers to the tribe's name anywhere. TBGRI never applied for a trademark for Jeevani. In 2000, NutriScience Innovations, a US-based supplier of nutritional and functional food ingredients, run by a group of Keralites, raised a storm by acquiring a trademark on Jeevani. After many controversies it was renamed “Jeevani Jolt 1000”. The present patent regime is inadequate to protect the traditional knowledge of indigenous communities. Whether it is process or product patent, it has a life of 20 years. For exclusive knowledge of the communities, patents should be in their names. A new mechanism should be evolved in which the communities can enjoy life-long benefits. P K Anoop, a Kani research scholar who is doing doctoral studies on — in Kerala University, says the TBGRI-Kani sharing cannot be called a model: “It is just a learning experience. Nobody asked what the tribe really wanted.”
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Tale of a ‘grass’ What is bamboo, a tree or a grass? The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (Forest Rights Act or FRA), 2006 says it’s a grass — and hence a minor forest produce, something which communities have a right to. The Indian Forest Act, 1927 says otherwise. The forest department swears by the 1927 Act; it does not want to let the lucrative produce slip away from its grip. Ranged against the department are local communities struggling to liberate bamboo from the state n August 2009, Mendha Lekha and Marda villages of Maharashtra's Gadchiroli district became the first in the country to get community rights over forests. The ministry of environment and forests (MoEF), however, misinterpreted the FRA to claim that villagers could have community rights over bamboo, but could not sell it for economic gains. In April 2011, after a long legal fight, Mendha Lekha finally managed to auction its bamboo. In a significant gesture, the then environment minister Jairam Ramesh visited the village to hand over the transit pass for transporting bamboo out of the village boundary. Mendha became a trail-blazer. Between April 2011 and November 2012, many more villages followed suit: 14,000 community claims were filed mainly in states with bamboo forests. At the other end of the country, in 2010, Jamguda village in Odisha’s Kalahandi district became the first in the state to get community rights over 123 acre of bamboo forests. “Within a year of getting the rights, there was significant inflow of money to the community,” says Akshya Patra, the president of Kalahandi Jungle Manch,
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13 million hectare Covered by bamboo in India’s forests 169 million tonne Total bamboo growing stock `2,043 crore Country’s domestic bamboo economy `26,000 crore By 2015, this will be the economy’s size
a district-level federation of forest-dwelling people. But the ugly head of red tapism reared itself here when in June 2012, forest officials stopped the local member of parliament, Bhakta Charan Das, from carrying away a few pieces of bamboo bought from the village. The changeover has other challenges as well. Most of the bamboo being cultivated in community forests has industries as its captive market; in Odisha, paper mills procure close to 98 per cent of the extracted bamboo. Hence, state bamboo harvesting policies focus on maximising dry bamboo output for paper mills, rather than green bamboo output for artisans. Secondly, communities are not yet well equipped to handle this new business. Under FRA, the community is supposed to prepare a forest management plan, and the forest department is legally bound to help the community in doing this. The department, however, has shown no inclination to lend a hand. Though the grant of community rights is yet to pick up, states that have forests have registered a surge in claims. Out of the 3.2 million claims under the FRA in the last five years (till January 2013), only 60,718 pertain to community rights. ■
FRA — THE 2012 AMENDMENT In September 2012, the Union ministry of tribal affairs finalised a set of amendments in FRA. The new rules mandate that forest rights related to protection, regeneration and management of community forest resources by forest dwellers for sustainable use should be recognised in all the villages where forest-dwellers live. The new rules also define a separate process for filing community forest rights (CFR) claims and issuing titles. The rules say a committee constituted under the gram sabha will prepare the conservation and management plan for community forest resources after the forest-dwellers’ rights on such resources are recognised. The gram sabha will approve all decisions of the committee pertaining to issue of transit permits, use of income from sale of forest produce or modification of management plans.
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State of India’s wildlife A year-end review marks more lows than highs in wildlife conservation. Protected areas remained open to depredation by marauders ranging from the government itself to poachers he events of 2013 indicate how political considerations kept undermining wildlife conservation in the country. Governments — at the states and the centre — fought amongst themselves over implementation of programmes. Even the Supreme Court’s intervention could not prevail over sectarian politics to push ahead the case for wildlife conservation. In key wildlife habitats, poachers had a free run while forest departments could not get their focus right as they remained mired in the turf wars of politicians, conservationists and businesspeople.
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Insensitive to ESZs
SUNITA NARAIN / CSE
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One of the main controversies of the year was over notifying eco-sensitive zones (ESZs) around protected areas (national parks and wildlife sanctuaries). ESZs are ecologically important areas notified under the Environment Protection Act, which need to be protected from industrial pollution and unregulated development. In December 2012, the environment ministry had issued an order giving February 14, 2013 as the deadline to states to send proposals for declaring site-specific ESZs around protected areas (PAs). The ministry said if the states did not meet the deadline, restrictions on industrial development will be imposed within 10 km around that protected area. The ministry’s order came after the Supreme Court pulled it up for delaying the process for several years. The centre had first taken the decision of making ESZs around PAs in 2006. But the states, worried about how the process would hit development and apparently under pressure from the mining and industry lobbies, kept resisting it. Of the total 102 national parks and 526 wildlife sanctuaries in the country, so far, only seven have ESZs around them. The centre had to extend its deadline as only a handful of states sent the ESZ proposals till February. Till June 30, the final deadline, the environment ministry had received proposals of only 361 PAs out of 621. It now seems that despite the ministry's
efforts, the states have put a spanner in the court's moves to regulate industrialisation around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries. Despite forest departments identifying ESZs in time, state proposals excluded several ecologically important areas where mining and industrial activities are happening or can take place in future. To make matters worse, the communities around PAs are in an uproar because they have been excluded from the process of identifying and governing the ecosensitive zones. They fear the ESZs would hamper their development by putting restrictions on land use change and regulating development activities.
Duelling over the Asiatic lion In another tussle between governments over wildlife, Gujarat refused to share its “pride”, the Asiatic lion, with Madhya Pradesh. The last remaining population of Asiatic lions, around 400 of them, is found in the Gir National Park in Gujarat. The environment ministry had decided to relocate a pride of the lions from Gir to the Kuno Palpur sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh as fears were expressed that a high rate of inbreeding and the resultant reduced genetic diversity may make the Gir lions highly susceptible to epidemics. But the Gujarat government was adamant on not parting with the lions. In 2006, Delhi-based NGO Biodiversity Conservation Trust of India filed a public interest petition in Supreme Court, seeking direction to the Gujarat government for translocation of lions. Bringing an end to a 17year-old dispute, the Supreme Court ordered
that some lions from Gir be translocated to Kuno considering it important for the long-term conservation of the species. The Gujarat government has filed a review petition against the judgement, bringing the issue back to a stalemate. As a by-product, the case generated some embarrassment for the ministry as well. The court cancelled the ministry's ambitious cheetah re-introduction project, saying the project was short sighted and not well-deliberated.
The tiger’s travails The year brought a major breakthrough in conservation science when the Genome Research Foundation in Suwon, South Korea, mapped the whole genome sequences of the Amur (Siberian) tiger, the white Bengal tiger, the African lion, the white African lion and the snow leopard. For the first time, a database of functional genes has been created. The mapping revealed how tigers gained their extensive muscle strength, the metabolism to digest large quantities of meat and a keen sense of smell which helps them hunt, find mate and demarcate territories. It opened several new doors for research that would help in tiger conservation in the long run. In the field, however, the tiger faced a tough year. Till December 15, 76 cases of tiger deaths were reported from various parts of the country. The biggest shock came in June, when three tigers were found dead within a week in the prestigious Corbett tiger reserve in Uttarakhand. When Down To Earth dug deep, it found that at least 32 tigers had died in the reserve in the last two-and-a-half years. Out of these, the reasons for
Despite forest departments identifying ecosensitive zones, state proposals excluded several ecologically important areas where mining and industrial activities are happening or can take place in future. To make matters worse, the communities around protected areas are in an uproar because they have been excluded from the process of identifying and governing the eco-sensitive zones
THE KILLING FIELDS OF KAZIRANGA In 2012, Kaziranga reeled under a new wave of poaching onslaught. Till April 2013, 12 rhinos had fallen to poachers and had their horns sawn off. The Indian one-horned rhinoceros, which this national park in Assam’s Golaghat district is famous for, has been in the crosshairs for its horns, prized for their reported aphrodisiacal and medicinal qualities. The reason for the spike in rhino killings is, reportedly, the amount of money floating around. Uttam Saikia, an honorary wildlife warden of Golaghat, points out: “The spurt in poaching began after local newspapers reported that the cost of the horns per kilogramme has touched `60-80 lakh.” What makes the rhinos of Kaziranga so vulnerable? The park, with porous boundaries and dense human habitation on three sides, is easily accessible to poachers. During winters when forage in the park becomes scarce, rhinos wander out and are killed. Although the Wildlife Protection (Assam
Amendment) Act of 2009 provides for 10 years in prison for first time offenders, its implementation is negligible. Most of the horns end up in Dimapur, Nagaland. Once the horn is chopped off, it takes 12 hours before it is transported to Dimapur, where it is weighed and the poachers are paid. The horn then leaves the country through the Moreh border in Manipur, to Vietnam and China. The horn has no actual use for the animal, but is valuable for a poacher. In the 16th conference of parties on Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) in Bangkok in 2013, there was a strong demand to initiate surgical removal of rhino horns and sell them legally. But there are no studies yet to ascertain whether rhinos will survive after being de-horned, nor on how they would relate to their habitat – comprising of grasslands and wetlands. The park has more than 2,300 rhinos and dehorning them will take a long time.
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SOUPARNO BANERJEE / CSE
SOUPARNO BANERJEE / CSE
FO R E STS A N D W I L D L I F E
42 Tigers poached in 2013. After 2005 this is the highest number of poaching cases recorded in a year 76 Total tiger deaths in 2013. The second time in last four years that tiger mortality number has crossed 70
21 tiger deaths could not be established. The management of one of the most celebrated parks in the country is in peril as powerful lobbies of politicians, conservationists, non-profits, businessfolk and bureaucrats have been waging a turf war to weed out each other. At the centre of this turf war has been the murky tourism business and the land-grab in and around the reserve. Tourism in tiger reserves, a subject of much debate in 2012, retained status quo of sorts. The Supreme Court had banned tourism in the core areas of tiger reserves in July 2012. The ban was lifted in October the same year after the environment ministry came up with guidelines to regulate tourism. The guidelines contain provisions like removing permanent structures from the core areas, regulating the number of tourists and vehicles, and forcing tour operators to share profits with local communities. In the last one year, the guidelines have hardly been implemented in any of the reserves.
How the others fared The passing year brought some good news for the critically endangered Great Indian Bustard. On June 5, Rajasthan announced the `12 croreProject Great Indian Bustard, aimed at protecting about 100 of its birds, one of the last remaining populations. Considered to be the flagship grassland species, about 1,500-2,000 Great Indian Bustards were spread throughout the western half of India till 1980s. Rampant hunting and declining grasslands led to dwindling numbers. Less than 200 birds are left now, of which about 100 are in Rajasthan. For long, conservationists have been demanding to secure this population, warning
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that the bird might get extinct in the coming decades, in which case it would become the first mega species to disappear from India after the cheetah in recent times. It remains to be seen how effective the Rajasthan government’s effort proves in saving its state bird. For other critically endangered species, however, 2013 was no different. Take the case of the snow leopard. About 7,400 of these leopards are left in the world; India is believed to have between 400 to 700. The Centre launched Project Snow Leopard in five states in 2009 as threats of poaching, habitat destruction and human conflict loomed. The initiative was aimed at conserving high-altitude wildlife using the snow leopard as a flagship species. The project, which should have been in the fifth year of its implementation by now, is yet to effectively take off. While the five Himalayan range states are yet to prepare the required action plans under the project, the MoEF has failed to provide the financial assistance it had committed to the states. In fact, the MoEF has formulated recovery programmes for around 10 species under its Integrated Wildlife Habitat Development programme, but little progress has been made on them. While more than half of the total expenditure of the environment ministry on wildlife goes to Project Tiger and Project Elephant, other species that are found outside the purview of these projects get little attention. “Project Tiger has become a benchmark for conservation. Unless a programme promises to deliver the results like that in Project Tiger, the government is hardly going to spend money on it,” a senior official in the ministry had told Down To Earth in January last year. ■
Threatened: the shark Lust for shark fin soup is dealing the death-blow
heir fins have become their nemesis. The craving for shark fin soup, a delicacy which traces its origins to China, has led to indiscriminate exploitation of sharks and in turn, to dwindling catches. In India, shark-fishing communities such as those in Thoothoor, a coastal village in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari district, have been hit hard. According to the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), Kochi, shark catch in the country stood at 47,207 tonne in 1998. Catches started declining after 2000. In 2011, CMFRI reported just 26,746 tonne of shark landings on Indian ports. “The main cause for the reduction is indiscriminate exploitation in the past two decades,” says P U Zacharia, head of the demersal fisheries division at CMFRI. Sharks captured global attention in the early 1980s, when China began importing shark fins for making shark soup. To cash in on the booming market, countries such as Singapore, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia began importing fins and exporting them to China. Traders say shark fin accounts for 40 per cent of the total value of a shark. While the meat costs about `125 a kg, small fins sell at about US $100 a kg and the value rises with the size. The high profitability of shark fins in the international market has led to the cruel practice of removing fins. “Sharks thrown back into the sea after finning could be still alive. Not being able to swim, they would sink to the bottom of
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the sea and die a slow and cruel death,” says C Samyukta, campaign manager of the US-based Humane Society International in India. A Ministry of Environment and Forests policy now prohibits removing fins of sharks on board a vessel in the sea. Under the new policy, all sharks landed should have fins naturally attached to them. Analysts, however, say the policy will not yield the desired result without a strong monitoring mechanism. In 1999, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) introduced the International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management of Sharks. It suggested that member countries develop a National Plan of Action. India is yet to prepare the plan. In 2001, it announced a ban on shark fishing. This sparked protests from fishers, following which the government restricted the ban to four shark species. The CMFRI has begun working on a national research project on sharks. Y S Yadava, head of the Bay of Bengal Programme of the FAO, says protection and conservation of marine resources is possible only through the participation of fishers in making as well as implementation of policies. Under the Bay of Bengal Programme, member countries — India, the Maldives, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka — are formulating management plans for sharks and promoting sustainable livelihood in consultation with artisanal fishers. In India, the programme has brought together all the traditional shark catching communities and asked to prepare a management policy. ■
70 and 400 Shark species in India and the world, respectively India Second largest shark catcher after Indonesia
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FORESTS FELLED How much forests has India diverted and for what? Between 1981 (after the Forest Conservation Act came into effect) and September 2012, 1,183,966 hectare was diverted; 14 per cent of this diversion was for power projects and over 13 per cent was for mining
NUMBER OF PROJECTS GRANTED FOREST CLEARANCES Maximum number of clearances was granted in 2006 closely followed by 2010 2000
1,846
1,837
Numbers
1500
1000
500
1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 (till September)
0
Year
Source: Centre for Science and Environment, Public Watch 2012
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PURPOSE-WISE FORESTLAND DIVERSION Regularisation of encroachments took up the largest chunk of diversions. Most of this happened in 1990 and 2001
Purpose/sector
Forestland diverted Area (ha) Percentage (%)
Defence
46,087.93
3.89
Social services
65,165.24
5.50
Power projects (hydel, thermal, wind and transmission lines)
167,118.00
14.12
Irrigation
141,641.76
11.96
Mining
159,660.34
13.49
Transport (railways and roads)
60,363.10
5.10
Others (including industries)
175,498.24
14.82
Regularisation of encroachment
368,432.07
31.12
Total forestland diverted
1,183,966.68
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Land and agriculture ■ Internecine conflicts over finite land resources, between the farming and ‘development-government-real estate’ sectors remain the key flashpoints.
Genetically modified (GM) crops occupy the political hot seat as ministries and ministers spar over whether to allow their field testing in India. ■
■ Then there is the organic sector. What is holding it back? A policy gap and a still nascent domestic market, among other factors — says our analysis of the year.
Another interesting trend is that vegetables are moving in, and conventional crops are being shunted out. But there is a growing supply-demand gap: will it be bridged? ■
AGNIMIRH BASU / CSE
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LAND A N D AG R I C U LTU R E
State of strife Land lasts. So do the issues related to it. In 2013, India witnessed attempts to correct, modify, change and fix some centuries-old concerns over land rights and entitlements. Starting with a new land acquisition and rehabilitation and resettlement law, to a land reforms policy, the nation’s parliament and political classes took some time out to take note of the conflicts over land raging across India he context is important here. In 2013, food inflation soared to double digits. As the state election results in December proved, the ruling Congress paid heavily for the price rise, among other things. As if this was not enough, the year saw a series of reports, both national and global, that put the spotlight on India’s high malnutrition rate. The linkages between price rise, malnutrition and food insecurity became clearer. The enactment of the National Food Security Act did nothing to nullify the fears of chronic hunger and malnutrition in the country. At the other end of the spectrum, some major development projects and investments were stalled over the question of land acquisition. Amidst all this, news trickled in that Indian companies had started buying land in Africa to grow foodgrains. Evidently, land was (and remains) at a premium. It also is the common denominator of all the above developments, cutting across boundaries. So what are the key challenges the country faces on the issue of land? One is to fathom and then strike the exact balance between competing demands on its finite land resources. The other is to usher in a regime of land rejuvenation that will sustain agricultural production and consumption. Surmounting these challenges would be far from easy. As India urbanises and industrialises at a frantic pace, agricultural lands have become the prime targets. They are also turning unproductive due to widespread degradation. Shrinking agricultural land is affecting food production.
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Fragmented, degraded and diverted Historically, India has been a land-based economy, with a large number of small landholders. Over the years, the country has been fighting the menace of land fragmentation. As per the Agriculture Census of 2010-11, small and marginal holdings of less than two hectare (ha) account for 85 per cent of the total operational holdings and 44 per cent of the total operated area in the country. The average size of holdings has come down to 1.16 ha in 2010-11 from 2.82 ha in 1970-71. Add to this the burden of environmental degradation. As per the estimates of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research in 2010, out of the total geographical area of 328.73 million hectare (mha), about 120.40 mha is affected by land degradation. This results in an annual soil loss of about 5.3 billion tonne through erosion. Another growing threat is the bulk diversion of fertile agricultural land to meet the increasing demand for industrialisation, urbanisation, housing and infrastructure development. During 195051 to 2009-10, the percentage of land used for non-agricultural purposes has increased from 3.3 to 8.6 per cent, according to the State of Indian Agriculture, 2012-13 published by the central agriculture ministry. During 2000-2010, this rate was 11 per cent indicating raised diversion from agriculture to non-agriculture uses. During this period area under non-agriculture uses has increased by 2.57 mha. It is not a mere coincidence that during this period also there were widespread reports of conflicts over land acquisition. States like West Bengal, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana that reported higher rate of diversion than the national average are also the states that reported large-scale public protests over land acquisition. The diversion has not been restricted to private land. Common lands like grazing areas and forests are also being diverted, thus threatening the food security of the marginalised sections of the population, like tribals and forest-dwellers. According to the Washington-based non-profit Rights and Resource Initiative (RRI) and our very own Society for Promotion of Wasteland Development, 88
State of India’s environment 2014
130 out of the total 610 districts of the country have been embroiled in conflicts in the past 10 years due to takeover of common lands and forests. The conflicts have accelerated in recent years. According to the year-long study by RRI, land requirement for industrial projects in India is set to triple in the next 15 years; naturally, conflicts over land acquisition will also increase. Currently, close to 22,000 sq km of land is devoted to projects in the agri-business, infrastructure, mining and non-conventional energy sectors. This will go up to 61,653 sq km by 2026, which is an area almost double the size of Kerala. Most of the land taken over by industries is common land and forests, traditionally used by communities.
The conflict between agricultural and industrial uses of land came out into the open during the parliamentary debate over the Right to Fair Compensation and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill in August 2013. The Bill that was finally voted to be a law replaces a nearly 120-years old law that governs land acquisition for “public purpose”. The Act proposes a compensation of up to four times the market value to farmers and landowners for land acquired in rural areas and two times the market value in urban areas. Besides, it has suggested new definitions or limited the scope of key provisions such as “public purpose” and “emergency clause” in the Land Acquisition Act of 1894. Many of the contentious issues relating to land acquisition, such as whether land should be acquired or leased out to private players and whether multi-crop lands should be acquired, have now been left to the discretion of state governments. This is because many of the states that have embarked on a track of rapid industrialisation, did not want a general cap on diverting agricultural land for industrial uses. Land is a state subject, but land acquisition is in the concurrent list of the Constitution. The debate revolved around two key clauses: what type of land is to be acquired and what mechanism is to be adopted — ownership acquisition or lease. The amendment brought in by the government has given the power to the state governments to decide whether they want to take land on lease or acquire ownership. This change came after many states pointed out that the central government was not empowered to finalise the modality of land acquisition. Similarly, on the issue of whether multi-crop agricultural land should be acquired or not, the Bill suggests this as a last resort. “But how much of such land is to be acquired and what procedures are to be adopted in such cases have been left to the discretion of the state government,” said Jairam Ramesh, the rural development minister during the parliamentary debate over the law. States have the freedom now to decide and even completely stop acquisition of multicrop agricultural lands. Earlier, during consultations with state governments, the chief ministers of Haryana, Punjab and Kerala wrote to Ramesh, opposing any prohibition in the Bill on taking over of multi-crop lands. They said their
KADAMBINI RAGHURAM
Rehab bill: War of the worlds
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❮❮ Rewind 2013 Communities protest diversion of traditional grazing land in Challakere in Karnataka since 2009. There were more than 161,874 ha of grasslands before Independence. Now the state is left with only about 18,210 ha
respective states have more of such land, and this prohibition will make land acquisition difficult. Supriya Sule of the Nationalist Congress Party had raised the issue of investment becoming expensive because of the new provisions of compensation. Industrial houses have been opposing these provisions citing the same reason. “In a place like Mumbai, it will be very expensive to acquire land and to implement development programmes. We understand the interests of the farmers but they should also consider the interests of other sides,” Sule said. On the other hand, Mulayam Singh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party was of the opinion that agricultural land should not be acquired at all.
Land use policy? Hardly had the debates over the new land acquisition act ended, sensing the intensity of conflicts over lands in future, the ministry of rural development circulated a draft policy to demarcate the country according to land use patterns. This involves creating inviolate agricultural and ecological zones. In July, the department of land resources under the ministry released a draft of a national land utilisation policy: it is after 24 years that such an attempt was being made. According to the draft policy, the country will be divided into several land use zones based on predominant land use. Each zone will have development plans according to this land use pattern. Thus, there will be no direct conflict over land. This is to avoid the increasing diversion of agricultural land for other uses. According to the policy objectives, the new zones will demarcate areas for protecting predominant uses — an agricultural area will not be opened up for industrial land acquisition or activities. “Competing and conflicting land uses are a major concern,” says the policy draft in its preamble. Giving examples of the land acquisition for special economic zones and other development projects, the policy argues that over a period of time the country has not been able to optimise land uses while triggering many conflicts. In 1988, the Union ministry of agriculture came out with a National Land Use Policy Guideline and Action Points. This was the first such attempt to earmark areas according to land use, and it created penalty provisions for violating land use. The then prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi, approved the plan. Somehow there was not much interest among the states to implement the new action points. It received a quiet burial. Interestingly, way back in the 1970s, sensing conflict over land uses, all states in the country created state land use boards with the chief minister as the head. There is no information on how many such boards now exist. The general perception is that all of them have been abolished. Going by the new suggestions, the country will have six types of land use zones. They are: rural and agricultural, areas under transformation like semi-urban areas, urban areas, industrial areas, ecological areas and hazard-vulnerable areas. Each of these zones will have its own local and regional development plans. These plans will focus on increasing the productivity of the predominant land use. Within each zone, there will be further areas earmarked for targeted intervention. These are the protected, regulatory, reserved and guided development areas. The protected areas are the forest areas, while regulatory areas include agricultural and other hazard-prone areas. These areas will have extensive restrictions on non-agricultural activities. The policy is not only a revival of an old attempt but it also suggests a mechanism to implement it that has failed in the past. It suggests a state level land utilisation policy, followed by a two-year exercise to create land utilisation zones, along with a decision on how much land in each zone a state wants to use and for what purpose. The policy has to evolve a long-term development plan for each zone. These are the actions the states were supposed to take 14 years ago.
The urban spread As if industrialisation was not enough, the census of 2011 has highlighted the rapid urbanisation that India is going through — perhaps the fastest in the country’s history. According to it, India has more agricultural labourers than cultivators today. This is despite the fact that operational landholdings have gone up without a corresponding increase in production. Increasingly, more lands, once used for food production, are being devoted to urban uses. At the same time, urbanisation has pushed up food demand significantly, particularly of products like milk and vegetables. The contest is simple — we need a proportionate amount of land to produce foodgrains. How will the transition to urbanisation impact farmers or, say, the predominantly rural districts that once turned out the bulk of our agricultural produce? Of India’s top 50 districts with high rural populations, mostly located in eastern India (including 90
State of India’s environment 2014
LIVESTOCK ECONOMY IS BIGGER
66.1
69.2
67.2
50
INCOME FROM LIVESTOCK
40 25.5
Livestock
Fisheries
Forestry
3.8
4
6.3
4.6
4.7
2.8 Crops
4.5
24.4
10
0
% of households % share of reporting
livestock in
income from
total income
livestock
3.8
20
22.4
Landholding 30 18.8
Percentage share in agriculture GDP
72.1
KUMAR SAMBHAV SHRIVASTAVA / CSE
Livestock now controls a quarter of the agriculture gross domestic product (GDP). In 2010-11, it generated output worth `3,40,500 crore. This was 28 per cent of the GDP of agriculture and about five per cent of the country’s GDP. “The total output from livestock was higher than the value of foodgrains (`3,15,600 crore) and fruits and vegetables (`2,08,800 crore), and this is going to go up substantially,” estimates V K Taneja, vice-chancellor of Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Science University in Ludhiana. Livestock output is the fastest growing among the three components. Its contribution to Livestock contributes more to the agricultural economy today the total output of the agriculture sector increased from 15 than foodgrain crops. This indicates a structural change within per cent in 1981-82 to 26 per cent in 2010-11. Driving livestock growth are changes in the utility of the sector. Traditionally, of the three components of the sector — crops, livestock and fisheries — crops have driven the livestock for farmers and in food consumption patterns. The growth, and foodgrains are a major part of it. As a result, importance of livestock as the ‘draught power’ has declined policies and programmes have focused primarily on crops. due to mechanisation of agricultural operations and declining Since 2002-03, livestock contribution has been five-13 per cent farm sizes. Use of dung is also being replaced by chemical higher than that of foodgrain crops. The 12th Five Year Plan fertilisers. At the same time, consumption of livestock products has for the first time accepted that livestock will fuel future like eggs, milk and meat is increasing due to rise in the income of the booming middle class, both in urban and rural areas. agricultural growth. Mostly, marginal farmers and those who have quit farming are joining the livestock business. About 70 per cent of the livestock market in India is % SHARE IN AGRICULTURE GDP owned by 67 per cent of the small and marginal 80 farmers and by the landless. Prosperity is now more dependent on per capita livestock ownership than 1981-83 1991-93 70 on farms. This implies that the growth of the 2001-03 2007-09 livestock sector would have more effect on poverty 60 reduction than the growth of the crops sector.
Marginal () 1 ha)
62.4
14.9
Small (1-2 ha)
65.8
15.7
Medium (2-4 ha)
70.3
13.8
Large (> 4 ha)
78.1
12.2
All
64.9
14.4
Source: Planning Commission, 2011
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LAND A N D AG R I C U LTU R E parts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar), two-thirds have reported a higher urbanisation rate than the increase in rural population. These districts are traditional consumers of local crops like cereals and coarse grains. But with the increase in urban population, the food pattern has undergone changes. The demand for vegetables, poultry and milk has gone up. This change has had a negative impact on local food availability. As it emerges, rural districts in the backyard of major urban centres have undergone a complete change in their cropping patterns. There is already a generation of farmers who have quit the traditional agro-professions and are now net buyers of foodgrains. This, as many food rights activists have pointed out, is causing nutritional insecurity, even though food is available. Interestingly, most of the rapidly urbanising rural districts are also highly malnourished. Many of these districts are in the rain-fed regions of India. This is the region that is targeted for ensuring India’s food security as the irrigated areas have plateaued in production. The present decline in foodgrain production in these districts will mean India’s future food production strategy is at stake.
Land rush: Beyond boundaries
❮❮ Rewind 2013 Recent study says India is rated second among the 37 countries from where contaminated spices shipments are sent to the US. Mexico tops the list 92
This is where an Indian situation seems to be echoing a global one. Many countries have been turning towards Africa to grow foodgrains as their own lands are diverted for commercial crops like biodiesel. In many countries in Africa, there are vast swathes of ‘waste’ land without clear land ownership. This offers a lucrative prospect for governments and food companies from across the world. In India, farmers from Punjab and Haryana, where agriculture has become unproductive and is driving up input costs, are scavenging for cheaper options — they are targeting drought-hit districts like Shivpuri in Madhya Pradesh which can not only provide land at a cheaper rate but can also make leases easier as land ownership records are not properly maintained. In both the scenarios, local people do not benefit as most of the land acquired is used for growing biofuel or food crops for export. Small farmers with unclear land deeds in these places are the victims of a new geopolitics, ironically drafted and crafted by soaring food prices and the failure to meet the rising global demand for food. In a recent food price report, the UN warns that the world is again close to the food price crisis of 2007-08 that led to widespread riots. There is a clear link between the global food price rise and the increasing incidence of land grabs in poor countries. Within India, there are no official records of land grabs; occasional protests point to where it is happening. At the global level, however, there is credible data on cross-country land deals. A study of such deals by International Land Coalition, an alliance of civil society and intergovernmental organisations, brings out the well-orchestrated loot, with Africa being ground zero — it has the world’s largest reserves of uncultivated land and the weakest governance systems. Of the 445 mha of uncultivated land in the world, 201 mha (over 45 per cent) is in sub-Saharan Africa. On the face of it, such land deals seem logical because the world needs more food. With such huge additions to cultivable land, food prices are expected to come down. But a closer look at the deals explains why this rush is unethical and will not help curb soaring food prices. International Land Coalition’s analysis shows that about 75 per cent of the land will be used to grow non-food crops. Of the 665 international land deals that report a specific crop, 55 per cent relate to biofuel production, 19 per cent to forestry products for wood, fibre and flowers, and the rest for food production. The International Food Policy Research Institute’s Global Hunger Index (GHI) of 2012 shows that the world’s hunger hotspots are the preferred countries for securing land. “Majority of the international land deals to date have in those countries that experience higher levels of hunger and where the population and national incomes depend heavily on agriculture,” says the GHI release in October 2012. Most of this land was in use for sustenance farming by the world’s poorest farmers in the most foodinsecure areas. Governments justify these deals to improve their fortunes by allowing industrial farming. The land rush is entering an absurd phase now: efforts to find a solution to global food security has pushed a vast population into the abyss of hunger. GHI says the land grab will further precipitate hunger and food insecurity. It will also lead to displacement of farmers from agriculture on a scale unheard of in the recent past. According to the international non-profit Oxfam, in the past one decade, foreign investors had been buying land equal to the size of London every sixth day in developing countries, displacing thousands of occupants. The total sold-off land, according to Oxfam, could have fed one billion people who go to bed hungry every day. This is one step forward and two steps back. ■
State of India’s environment 2014
RICHARD MAHAPATRA
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A stalemate on GM Few technology issues have grabbed headlines as consistently as genetically modified (GM) crops have in India. In fact, GM has seldom been out of the news, and in 2013 it made a bigger splash as the debate over its safety for human consumption boiled over from the corridors of academia and research into the streets
PRASHANT RAVI / CSE
he year was marked by a flurry of campaigns by the agri-biotech industry, stymied by the lack of approvals for testing a huge variety of crops, and by those opposed to the introduction of GM foods in India; the latter included scientists, activists fighting for sustainable agricultural systems, seed conservers and consumer organisations. Farmers’ unions were active on both sides of the divide. In the US, unexplained contamination of wheat by a GM variety that was only tested but never commercialised — no GM wheat has been approved so far — led to worldwide fears and trade embargoes by importing countries. In Europe, there were claims suggesting that the GM diet fed to pigs and cattle was affecting
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animal health and posed, in its turn, a grave danger to human wellbeing. This apart, there was growing concern over crop resistance to glyphosate, a herbicide that is used to kill weeds while allowing GM crops to survive. Overall, the skies had darkened for GM crops worldwide; events in India appeared to reflect these developments.
Stop it, says expert committee In May 2012, a six-member committee of scientists — one dropped out — had been set up by the Supreme Court while hearing a public interest litigation filed by development economist Aruna Rodrigues in 2005. This was clubbed by the court with an earlier case filed by Suman Sahai, founder of the non-governmental organisation Gene Campaign, against the release
In its final submission to the Supreme Court in June 2013, the court’s Technical Expert Committee called for a freeze on all GM testing, but did not specify the time-frame
of GMOs into the environment. The court had asked the Technical Expert Committee (TEC), as it was termed, to scrutinise the modalities of GM crop testing in India and assess whether the regulatory measures were adequate to prevent potential risks to the environment. In its interim report, submitted to the court in October 2012, the TEC suggested a 10-year moratorium on field trials of Bt transgenics in all food crops that are directly consumed by people. It also called for a moratorium on field trials of herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops “in view of the concerns bearing on health, environmental and socio-economic considerations” and until an independent committee of experts and stakeholders “has examined and assessed the potential impact of HT technology and its suitability in the Indian context”. At a hearing of the apex court in November 2012 to consider the report, the biotech industry, represented by the Association of Biotech Led Enterprise-Agriculture Group (ABLE-AG), objected to the report, as did the ministry of agriculture. The ministry filed an affidavit claiming the report was “unscientific and that it went beyond the terms of reference (TORs) set by the court”. At the insistence of industry, the court agreed to fill in the vacancy in TEC. It appointed Rajinder Singh Paroda, former director-general of ICAR, to the expert panel at the suggestion of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences which had also objected to the interim report. The TEC’s final submission was made to the court on June 30, 2013: it called for a freeze on all
GM testing but left the time-frame unspecified — instead of the 10-year freeze on testing of Bt transgenic crops suggested in October 2012 in its interim report. This decision stemmed from an examination of the safety dossiers put together by crop developers and approved by the Genetic Engineering Appraisals Committee (GEAC), the apex biotech regulatory body which operates under the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF). In a severe indictment of current procedures, the TEC found “the deficiencies are serious enough (and) that several of the dossiers are unlikely to meet international guidelines”. The scientists called for a complete ban on HT crops. In HT crops, a single broad-spectrum herbicide (usually glyphosate) is used to kill weeds while leaving the plant standing since it is genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide. “HT crops would most likely exert a highly adverse impact over time on sustainable agriculture, rural livelihoods, and environment. TEC finds them completely unsuitable in the Indian context,” noted the committee. The TEC also recommended that release of those GM crops, for which India is a centre of origin or diversity, should not be allowed. A case in point is that of GM brinjal, known as Bt brinjal, developed by Mahyco from an insecticide derived from the bacillus Thuringiensis. The commercial release of Bt brinjal was vetoed in 2010 by the then environment minister Jairam Ramesh. Mahyco, one of India’s largest biotech firms, is a partner of US multinational Monsanto (see Box: BT, brinjal and biopiracy).
“Herbicide-tolerant crops would most likely exert a highly adverse impact over time on sustainable agriculture, rural livelihoods and environment” — Technical Expert Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE TECHNICAL EXPERT COMMITTEE ● ● ●
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Ten-year moratorium on field trials of Bt transgenics in all food crops that are directly consumed by people Moratorium on field trials of herbicide-tolerant (HT) crops Re-examination of all biosafety data for applications in process as well as those that have been approved for release. This should be done by scientists who are qualified in biosafety science and experienced in evaluation of biosafety dossiers for transgenic plants Long-term and inter-generational toxicity studies to the
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current requirement which stops at sub-chronic stage There should be designated sites where stage I and stage II field trial can be carried out. Trials should not be conducted in farmers’ fields Scientists qualified in evaluation of the biosafety data of GM crops should be engaged to analyse safety data submitted by developers; preliminary biosafety tests prior to field trials, including sub-chronic toxicity in small animals, should be included in the protocol
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Bt crops are genetically modified (GM) plants that use a toxic protein from the naturally occurring soil bacterium, Bacillus thuringiensis (hence Bt), to kill insects. The Bt technology, first developed by American biotech giant Monsanto in 1986, was introduced in India a decade ago in cotton seeds. In early 2005, an agreement was signed between India’s leading seed company and two agriculture universities to develop Bt brinjal: it was perceived as a breakthrough in the business of genetically engineered food crops in the country. Bt brinjal is a suite of transgenic brinjals (also called eggplants) created by inserting a crystal protein gene (Cry1Ac) from the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis. The company was Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds Company, better known as Mahyco, and the universities were the University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) in Dharwad and the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) in Coimbatore. The public-private partnership was kicked off with a ‘sublicense agreement’ between Mahyco (26 per cent owned by agro-biotech giant Monsanto) and UAS-Dharwad, and a material transfer agreement with TNAU. Under the agreements, Mahyco provided the universities with finished or semi-finished domestic GM brinjals to develop insect-tolerant varieties. Mahyco retained intellectual property rights on GM brinjal, stating that “under no circumstance shall the licensed domestic eggplant products be used as parental lines for purposes of production of hybrids”. Mahyco, along with the universities, accessed brinjal varieties from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu without informing the state biodiversity boards. Five years later, in 2010, Mahyco became India’s first commercial entity to be accused of biopiracy, or misappropriation of local germplasm. Section 7 of the Biological Diversity Act (BDA) states that no person or corporate body of Indian origin can “obtain any biological source for commercial utilisation or bio-survey and bioutilisation for commercial utilisation except after giving prior intimation to the state biodiversity board”. The irregularity was brought to the notice of the Karnataka Biodiversity Board (KBB) in February 2010 by
GOBAR TIMES
BT, BRINJAL AND BIOPIRACY
Environment Support Group (ESG), a charitable trust in Bengaluru. ESG’s complaint said the agencies accessed at least 10 brinjal varieties from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu without seeking prior consent of the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA) and state biodiversity boards. As per the law, it is mandatory to take prior approval from the community that has been protecting local varieties being accessed. If the communities agree, benefits must accrue to them under the access and benefit-sharing protocol. In a report to NBA, KBB said that Mahyco and its collaborators accessed six local varieties without the board’s approval. But in February 2012, KBB washed its hands off the controversy, saying the matter was under the NBA’s purview. NBA is yet to act on the complaint. According to Balakrishna Pisupati, chairperson, NBA, there is no law under BDA to refer to; therefore, the NBA is proceeding carefully. Mahyco’s efforts to commercialise the crop was stopped by the then minister for environment and forests Jairam Ramesh who imposed an indefinite moratorium on its release in the wake of widespread concerns over safety.
The MoEF plays spoilsport
In 2013, the environment ministry put on hold 79 applications for field trials covering 11 GM crops 96
The MoEF’s decision to withhold clearances for event selection and field trials of several GM crops roiled the industry the most. On March 22, 2013, the GEAC had held its first meeting in almost a year and gave a clutch of approvals to multinationals and public sector research institutes. The crops given the green signal for the ensuing kharif season were rice, wheat, maize, castor and cotton. The minutes of the meeting were put up on the ministry’s website, only to be taken off shortly thereafter since these had not been approved by the then environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan. That put on hold 79
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applications covering 11 crops. The minister said it was prudent to withhold permission in view of the ongoing case in the Supreme Court against field testing of GM crops in India. The minister’s other reason was that it was better to wait for the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) bill to be passed by parliament since this would pave the way for a Biotech Regulatory Authority to come up in place of the GEAC (see Box: The Biotech Regulatory Authority Bill). The industry campaigned stridently to expedite trials; its efforts were spearheaded by the ABLE-AG and the Foundation of
THE BIOTECH REGULATORY AUTHORITY BILL
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In 2003, a task force set up by the Union ministry of agriculture, and headed by noted geneticist and former director-general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research M S Swaminathan, floated the idea of an independent authority for biotechnology regulation called the National Biotechnology Regulatory Authority (NBRA). The idea was mooted following the introduction of Bt cotton in India. In 2008, the Union ministry of science and technology and the ministry of earth sciences drafted the NBRA Bill. But it was soon withdrawn following severe criticism during public consultation. In 2009, the ministry drafted another version of the Bill, this time titled Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRAI) Bill. Contents of the draft were kept under wraps. In February 2010, the science ministry suffered a setback when the environment ministery under the then minister, Jairam Ramesh imposed a moratorium on Bt brinjal and other GM crops. This started a silent war within the government.
Biotechnology Awareness and Education (FBAE) and backed by government scientists such as Swapan Kumar Datta, deputy director-general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Multinational biotech companies under the patronage of the Confederation of Indian Industry organised a series of events, but failed to budge the MoEF. The MoEF decision to hold back permission prompted agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, a cheerleader for the agri-biotech industry, to complain to prime minister Manmohan Singh. Pawar contended that MoEF’s intransigence would put India’s ability to feed itself at risk, and that it was affecting the morale of scientists working on GM crop development. Singh sought Natarajan’s response: her reply to the PM, released selectively to the media, blew the lid off the simmering disagreements within the government. The letter was later secured under a Right to Information Act and placed in the public domain. Natarajan wrote: “The scientific community is, in fact, split vertically down the centre in its views on these issues, and robust, proven fail-safe scientific protocols to prevent damage from GM crops are yet to be developed in our country. It is also appreciated that the regulatory mechanism for GMOs, including food crops in our country is still evolving… I feel that until the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India is in place, it would be prudent for us to proceed cautiously.”
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But with the UPA term about to end in 2014, the prime minister’s office asked the science ministry to speed up the process of tabling the Bill. So the BRAI Bill, which gives easy access to GM crops in India, was tabled by science minister Jaipal Reddy in Parliament on April 22, 2013. It was alleged the introduction of the Bill is an attempt by the government to circumvent the opposition to GM crops.
WHERE THE BILL FAILS ●
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Since ministry of science and technology is a promoter of biotechnology, it would not take environment and health safety as a priority. Agriculture is state subject, but the Bill gives control to the Union government. It prefers biotechnology over alternative technologies. The environment ministry will lose authority over GM crops.
CSE ARCHIVES
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LAND A N D AG R I C U LTU R E HOW SAFE ARE GM PRODUCTS?
ANIRBAN BORA / CSE
Genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, are created when a gene from one species is transferred to another, making something that would not be found in nature. According to industry, there are many good reasons to use GMOs: ● Reduced need for herbicides and pesticides ● Reduced greenhouse emissions as GMOs require less tillage or plowing, thus less use of fossil fuels ● Ability to manipulate foods to increase desirable components such as nutrients ● Increased production of food These are certainly worthwhile goals, and humans have been successfully modifying the genetics of their food supply for centuries. The supporters of GMO assert that over a trillion GMO meals have been eaten, thus proving their safety. The problem, of course, is that the new technology is far different from the hybridisation and selection methods used in the past. In 1999, a consumer-led revolt against GMOs was triggered in Europe when media coverage exploded after top GMO safety researcher, Arpad Pusztai was called to speak before the European Union parliament and went public with some very alarming research results. Dr Pusztai had
been given a UK government grant to design the long-term testing protocols that were supposed to be part of the European GM food safety assessment process. When Pusztai fed rats GM potatoes, genetically engineered to produce a supposedly safe insecticide called the GNA lectin, all the animals showed potentially pre-cancerous cell growths, smaller brains, livers and testicles, partially atrophied livers, and damages to the immune system — with most of the changes appearing after just 10 days. The EU has now banned GMOs, as have Australia, Japan, the UK and two dozen other countries which recognise that a lack of long-term studies and testing may be hiding disastrous and unpredictable health defects. Many scientists across the world are worried that genetically altered foods, once consumed, may pass on their mutant genes to bacterium in the digestive system. GMOs are known contaminate existing seeds with their altered material, passing on modified traits to non-target species. This creates a new strain of plant that was never intended in the laboratory. In Japan, in 1984, a modified bacteria created a new amino acid not found in nature; it was used in protein drinks. Before it was recalled, it caused severe mental and metabolic damage to thousands and led to several deaths. Japan has now banned GMOs. Genetically engineered crops have shown no increase in yield and no decrease in pesticide use. The bottom line is that GMOs have not been proven in any way to be safe, and most of the studies are actually leaning in the other direction.
Pointing out that India was the centre of origin for some of the 55 GM crops awaiting clearance and because it would alter food supply chains irreversibly, the government must take an “extremely well calibrated and judicious approach”, Natarajan cautioned. “The decision on adoption and consequent commercialisation of these new technologies must be done on the basis of sound scientific and social review. This review must assess not only the risks associated with the use of the technologies but also the social costs and benefits that would be borne if the government is to take 98
State of India’s environment 2014
those risks on behalf of the citizens.” Her final justification was that issues related to “safety, efficacy and value of the said technologies is not adequately settled”. Pertinently, their ability to “deliver greater agricultural productivity or yield under Indian agro-climatic conditions is uncertain at the moment even in the scientific community,” she wrote, adding that her ministry had received critical comments from scientists and academics “questioning the safety aspects as well as the efficacy” of GM technology. ■
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Organic is in Sustainable farming is not what official Indian policy or scientific institutions care for. Despite this, a number of initiatives in organic farming are cropping up across the country
AMIT SHANKAR / CSE
hat is organic farming? At a fundamental level, it sets out to prove that chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilisers are not needed to produce adequate quantities of food. Organic farming works in harmony with nature by using simple techniques and material: recycled and composted crop waste and animal manure, crop rotation, legumes to fix soil nitrogen, encouraging useful predators that eat pests, natural pesticides, and a careful husbanding of water resources. The bottom line: increasing genetic diversity and conservation. It also means that no genetically modified crop is part of this ecosystem. The result is healthier farmers and risk-free food.
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It is a philosophy that has caught the fancy of some unlikely players. Among them is Rajashekar Reddy Seelam, who switched from selling chemical inputs to farmers for a major company to becoming an organic cultivator himself. Along the way, Seelam became a pioneer in retailing organic food and his store, 24 Letter Mantra, is now the top brand in the domestic market with an increasingly successful franchisee model, besides being a leading exporter. Sresta, the company he set up in 2004 to promote organic cultivation, works with over 8,000 farmers who cultivate around 60 crops on around 12,140 hectare (ha) spread across 12 states. The company uses the contract farming model. It has notched up a turnover of `55 crore
Biopesticide use in India has increased by 66 times in 10 years, from 123 tonne in 1994-95 to 8,110 tonne in 2011-12, as per a parliamentary standing committee report per annum, which may not be much — this underlines the problems of organic farming in the country: extremely small holdings, poor knowledge of scientific organic practices, certification that is both cumbersome and expensive for small holders, lack of markets and glaring lack of support from the government which, ironically, is footing a subsidy bill of around `90,000 crore on fertilisers alone.
Other business models Different business models are being tried out to make such farming profitable for the small holder. With entrepreneurial enthusiasm linked to a love of ‘clean farming’, interesting experiments have emerged. One such experiment is Dharani Suphalam, a primary producers’ cooperative society based in Sirsa, Haryana, which has brought together 1,500 farmers and is slowly linking them to the market. Another is the model used by Bengalurubased Sahaja Samrudha Organic Producer Company that was set up in 2010 with authorised capital of `10 lakh. It brings together 500 farmers through 40 groups. Its wholesalecum-retail outlet in a central part of the city is a no-frills godown, but customers have no problem with its ambience since prices are reasonable. “Our concept is different,” explains Somesha B, CEO of Sahaja. “We are working with farmers, helping them to convert to organic and providing marketing assurance. The margins are low: 10-15 per cent mark-up for wholesale and 20-25 per cent for retail; the profits go back to
the farmers since they have shares in the company.” The turnover in 2012 was `52 lakh, and Sahaja is certain revenues will increase in future. One of the biggest grassroots success stories is of Morarka Foundation which, with its 100plus project locations covering 19 states, has brought around 100,000 farmers under the umbrella of Morarka Organic. This has helped it understand the different agro-climatic problems and gain expertise in handling over 130 crops/products which, it says, form its core portfolio and are offered both as farm grade as well as processed and in retail packs that are sold under the ‘Down to Earth’ brand (no connection with this magazine). H R Jayaram gave up a prosperous law practice to become an organic farmer-cumretailer; he has set up what is probably India’s first organic hotel, The Green Path, in a Bengaluru suburb. Restaurants, coffee shops and stores like Simply Organics run by another farming buff Govind Kabadi make up a zesty organic profile for this city. Aiding this is the state government, which gives Karnataka farmers a big helping hand in finding outlets for their produce. But the corner organic store with crowded shelves is not the dominant image of organic retailing. The familiar milieu is the chic store in tony localities that sell beautifully packaged products that come with all kinds of certification — from NPOP (National Programme on Organic Production), which is the Indian standard, to those of the EU and the US. Here, premiums are high since products come through
A SUCCESS STORY A signal success story comes from Haridwar where sugarcane farmers under the aegis of Bhartiya Kisan Club (BKC) have started an organic sugar manufacturing unit. The club, formed in 2009, has 324 members from the nearby areas. Claimed to be India’s first certified organic sugar mill, it supplies major retailer like Sresta’s 24 Letter and supplies often run short. Farmers associated with BKC have around 455.66 ha of land where organic sugarcane is grown. To ensure farmers’ interest, they are given `10-20 premium per 100 kg of cane, and the cash payment on delivery of crop. One of the interesting learnings from this pioneering
venture is that cost of organic cultivation is much lower than that of the conventional method and that sugar recovery is much higher from cane grown with biopesticides. This more than offsets the 15-20 per cent drop in sugarcane yields. Besides, buyers give a premium, too. During crop season 201112, BKC produced around 900 tonne of organic sugar but expansion is difficult because subsidised agriculture credit is not available. Commercial banks and NABARD have refused to extend any credit to this sugar mill which has a crushing capacity of 25 tonne per day, set up entirely with the farmers’ investment.
A Down To Earth annual
101
LAND A N D AG R I C U LTU R E GLOBAL GROWTH OF ORGANIC FARMING 15 Area (million hectare)
Oceania 12 9
e Europ
Latin America
6 Asia 3 Northern America Africa
0 1999 2000
2001 2002 2003 2004
2005 2006
2007
2008 2009
2010
COUNTRIES WITH MOST ORGANIC FARMLAND IN 2010 Australia (2009)
12.00
Argentina
4.18
United States (2008) Brazil (2007) Spain China ANGSHUMAN DE / CSE
Even with one million organic farmers, the production is limited. India does not feature in the top 10 organic producers globally
102
1.95 1.77 1.46 1.3
Italy
1.11
Germany
0.99
Uruguay (2006)
0.93
France
0.85
0.0
23.5
Source: FiBL and IFOAM survey 2012
many layers of marketing. The other place where one is bound to find such products are supermarket chains like Chennai-based Spencer’s which has a national footprint. Starting with two brands in 2006, Spencer’s organic category has grown by 300 per cent since 2009. Besides, its offerings which were restricted to commodities like cereals, pulses and spices, are spilling into a wide assortment from breakfast cereals to snacks and soups. For those who have the money, such outlets are a cornucopia of natural goodness. Delhi-based Fabindia, which caters to the well-heeled and trendy customer, is a leading purveyor of organic foods, its elite stores across the country stocking carefully selected products. Logistics are critical to the success of organic farming and the reason such produce is far too expensive for the ordinary consumer. For instance, products sold by non-profit Navdanya are more expensive than similar items that are not organic. Founder Vandana Shiva has an explanation: “For me, organic farming is about livelihood and about sustainability and justice. When a farmer practices organic agriculture, he knows how to sustain his farm with natural resources; he is able to feed himself and his
State of India’s environment 2014
5.0
7.5
10.0
12.5
Area (million hectare)
family; takes care of earth by giving natural resources back in forms of bio-fertilisers and biopesticides without polluting the environment.” Naturally, all this comes at a price since the government offers no help at all. The booming growth in organic foods may well spell hope for the small farmer. With health-conscious and cash-rich customers ready to pay the premium for organic food, the market is expanding in dramatic ways. High-end, imported organic has also come to India. The first of these is businessperson Dilip Doshi’s Organic Hauswhich which has opened in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. “Mine is a concept store. It tells the story of the evolution of globally benchmarked products. You can close your eyes and say this is organic. I could not find any genuine organic foods in India,” declares Doshi. That could come as a crushing blow to all the organisations, farmers and activists who have struggled to put Indian organic on the global map. But fortunately in Europe and the US, which together account for 96 per cent of the market, India’s credentials are respected even if it accounted for just a fraction of the US $59 billion global market for certified organic food and drink.
CERTIFICATION CHAOS APEDA, short for Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority, under the ministry of commerce, sets the norms for certification to help organic products find markets abroad. These norms are based on European Union standards, said to be the toughest in the world. Third party certification (TPC) is necessary for global trade in organics and India has 22 certifying agencies accredited by APEDA. But this kind of certification comes at a huge cost and requires a large amount of documentation. It poses a serious challenge for India’s organic farmers, most of whom are small landholders and for the most part, illiterate. How do they cope? Fortunately, alternative methods to guarantee the organic integrity of products have been developed for small domestic producers; these are known as participatory guarantee systems or PGS. The main characteristics of this system are its low cost, minimal paperwork requirement and empowerment to farmers (making them responsible for the success and integrity of their group). There are no intermediaries since the group will be supreme, with members responsible for conducting inspections of each other’s processes and guaranteeing the integrity of the product. The PGS symbol is a familiar sight on a wide range of products, but while PGS works well in the domestic market, what happens to those who want to tap the export market? According to NGOs and activists who work with marginal farmers, the fundamental flaw is that organic trade is governed by the commerce ministry. Some believe that the differential norms for exports should be scrapped. Reflective of
this attitude are the views expressed by Miguel Braganza, formerly with the Organic Farming Association of India (OFAI) which helped formulate PGS-India norms. He says: “TPC agencies operating in India are paid for at the poor farmer’s cost in the belief that export is the best policy. In actual practice, people in Europe eat healthy food grown in India and other Third World countries and collect the certification fees or ‘royalty’ thereon from the franchisee, while we eat food poisoned by pesticides from European manufacturers and pay royalty on the poisons, too!” But for many farmer groups PGS itself is not working. Sunil Gupta, president of Dharani Suphalam, which represents 1,500 organic farmers, says he would like to switch to PGS but complains that PGS is becoming excessively bureaucratic and is taking far too long to respond to applications. PGS is governed by the National Centre of Organic Farming (NCOF) which comes under the ministry of agriculture; Dharani Suphalam’s application has been lying with it for the past eight months. NCOF director A K Yadav says PGS in India is still in its nascent stage: “We are working on modalities of it and we need to create awareness about it.” He concedes that the certification normally takes two years and because “farmers are unaware about the intricacies when it comes to organic, this period extends to three years.” But even if the certification is resolved, there are more problems ahead. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India rules are also a hindrance to the growth of organic farming. Under them, organic pulses, wheat and just about everything require AGMARK, whereas normal produce does not need any certification or quality marks.
CERTIFICATION CATEGORIES • • • •
The product should not have artificial additives, chemicals or preservatives Ingredients of the natural processed food should be derived from natural farming methods Certification process should have commenced Yellow sticker is pasted on such products
• • •
The product is in the process of acquiring certification; it can take about three years No chemicals are used in its production Dark blue sticker is pasted on such products
• • •
These are fully certified organic products Such products should have the SGS sticker and the India Organic sticker in addition to the green sticker India Organics gives claim of certification to Fabindia Organics
A Down To Earth annual
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LAND A N D AG R I C U LTU R E Growth
Experts say India is expected to become a significant player by 2015. Production is expected to touch `4,000 crore from the current `675 crore
India’s exports in 2010-11 totalled just `550 crore, according to Manoj Kumar Menon, executive director of the International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture or ICCOA, which is a knowledge centre of organic agriculture and also helps provide market linkages to all those engaged in this form of farming. The ICCOA is a crucial link to the market with its international trade fair Bio Fach India. Menon is confident that India will become a significant player by 2015 when production is expected to touch `4,000 crore, a huge leap from the current `675 crore. By then, the global trade is expected to cross US $104 billion at an estimated annual rate of 12.8 per cent. On the global organic map, India is a speck; it does not figure in the list of the top 10 countries. According to data released in June 2012 by the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) and the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture of Switzerland, there was a total of 37 million ha (mha) of agricultural land in the world that was organic in 2010. In addition, the organic universe had another 43 mha of non-agricultural areas, up from 41 mha in 2009. What was India’s share? It had 0.6 mha under cultivation, and another 0.18 mha under conversion along with a wild area of 3.56 mha. IFOAM statistics also put the total number of organic farmers worldwide at about 1.6 million, with the largest number, a whopping one million of them, in India. According to A K Yadav, director of National Centre of Organic Farming (NCOF): “The declining trend as seen in 2010 has been reversed and the area under certification process during 2011-12 is likely to be more than one million hectare.” He also makes the point that all the statistics with NCOF are for the area which is registered under the certification process. “There is no reliable data on farmers who are doing organic, but have not opted for certification.” In all probability it means that organic cultivation is more widespread than estimated, although the ministry of agriculture is doing its
MAIN ORGANIC CROPS — INDIA Miscellaneous (9.17%) Spicescondiments (3.35%) Rice (4.56%)
Cereals (except rice) (4.42%)
Cotton (14.24% )
Oilseeds (9.30% )
Medicinal and herbal plants (46.22%)
Total organic production: 3.88 million tonne This is just about 1 per cent of total agricultural production
AREA UNDER ORGANIC — INDIA In-conversion cultivated area: 0.18 million hectare (4%)
Organic cultivated area: 0.6 million hectare (14%)
Wild area: 3.56 million hectare (82%)
This is less than 1 per cent of the total cultivated area All figures for the year 2010-11 Source: Ministry of agriculture
best to undermine this through its various programmes. For instance, it has allowed its flagship scheme Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana to be used by states to convert tribal areas or the organic wild centres to conventional farming through the provision of free hybrid seeds in kits that also contain chemical pesticides and fertilisers.
Policies The centre currently has no policy on organic farming. The ministry of agriculture has asked Ardhendu Sen, a former bureaucrat now with Delhi-based The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), to draft a policy document for the promotion of organic agriculture. Some years ago, the ICCOA had proposed a
INDIA’S GREEN LEADERS States
Main cultivated crops
Madhya Pradesh
Cotton, oilseeds, cereals like maize and sorghum, pulses
Himachal Pradesh
Fruits/vegetables, cereals like maize and sorghum, wheat, pulses
Rajasthan
Oilseeds, cotton, cereals like maize and sorghum, spices
Maharashtra
Cotton, oilseeds, fruits and vegetables, pulses
Uttar Pradesh
Cereals like maize and sorghum, fruits and vegetables, wheat, rice
Uttarakhand
Cereals like maize and sorghum, herbs and medicines, oilseeds, rice
Source: Ministry of agriculture
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State of India’s environment 2014
Fresh fruits an d vegetables (8.66%)
AGNIMIRH BASU / CSE
research study to prove the scientific validity of organic agriculture since mainstream scientists were dismissive of this system of growing crops without synthetic fertilisers and chemicals. In the project proposal that was put to ICAR’s National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP), the outlay was whittled down to `12 crore from `42 crore. The proposal cleared four committees, and finally in February 2008 reached the then director general of ICAR, Mangala Rai — who junked it. Supporters of organics, however, point out that the shift from expensive high-input agriculture to knowledge-intensive practices is much kinder to the environment, with the emphasis on using naturally available resources (green manure and cowdung), biopesticides, crop rotation and water conservation. But almost everything that the ministry of agriculture and ICAR’s vast network of public research institutions do, undermines sustainable farming. Fortunately, there are open minds in the agriculture departments of states which, unlike ICAR, see merit in organic farming. At least seven states have sought ICCOA’s help to set up organic farming clusters for specific crops. The package includes capacity building, training on organic cultivation and help with certification and market linkages. An analysis of state agriculture policies shows that 10 states have clearly defined policies for organic farming. These are Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Nagaland and Mizoram. Of these, Uttarakhand (10 mountain districts), Sikkim, Nagaland and Mizoram have declared their intention to go 100 per cent organic. Uttarakhand is the third largest organic state with over 32,000 ha under organic or under conversion, bringing under this tag over 47,000 farmers. Neighbouring Himachal Pradesh has 48 clusters covering 5,800 farmers but has a much larger area under organic farming at 631,902 ha. In fact, Himachal Pradesh has an arguably better policy. The Department of Agriculture provides assistance of `1,500 per farmer per month for three years to facilitate documentation, database management, training and capacity building, apart from help with certification, market linkage and value addition. Farmers also get `3,750 per cluster for setting up vermicompost units — so far, 376,000 such units have come up in the state. For wider diffusion, the state has involved local NGOs and KVKs or the agriculture extension service centres to promote organic farming.
Karnataka, the first state to announce an organic farming policy in 2004, is doing further research. Biocentre, a certified 17-ha spread of plantations and nurseries, is developing workable models of organic production systems with medicinal and aromatic plants as one of the components. G V Ramanjaneyulu, director of the Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad was responsible for launching the non-pesticide movement in Andhra Pradesh that has freed around 1.5 mha from the grip of chemical pesticides through a community managed sustainable agriculture (CMSA) initiative. The state is now moving towards helping such farmers to get organic certification. The initiative was launched by the Andhra Pradesh ministry of rural development, and not by the agriculture department. The fundamental objective of CMSA is to provide healthy food, healthy crops, healthy soil and a healthy life to farmers by ensuring food security locally. The CMSA philosophy does not necessarily endorse organic as the ultimate objective, although both work towards the similar objective of eliminating chemical inputs. However, CMSA is ready to help farmers with certification if they want it. By 2012, CMSA had declared 124 villages pesticides-free, while 26 had been deemed organic. Not a bad record at all, although the programme only seeks to cut synthetic fertiliser by half, not bar it. For the Union government, CMSA offers a silver lining: it is saving `1.2 crore on fertiliser subsidy, while farmers are spared an expense of `1.47 crore by eliminating pesticides and cutting fertiliser use. ■
Ten states now have clearly defined organic farming policies
A Down To Earth annual
105
LAND A N D AG R I C U LTU R E ORGANIC COTTON: WILL INDIA BE ABLE TO SUSTAIN THE BOOM?
APARNA PALLAVI / CSE
In the past few years, India has become the world leader in organic cotton production. Nearly 200,000 farmers have turned organic, although Bt cotton still accounts for nearly 95 per cent of the cultivation in the country. In 2009-10, organic cotton production in India propelled world production to an all-time high of 241,697 tonne — a massive jump from 57,731 tonne in 2006-07. India accounted for 68 per cent of world organic cotton production in 2008-09; the share rose to 81 per cent in 2009-10. The story begins around 2006, the year when big international retailers began to turn organic. A 2007 report by UK-based Soil Association showed that retail organic market was valued at US $4 billion. Organic cotton accounted for a large chunk of it. Swedish multinational H&M started blending organic cotton in its products. In 2006-07, companies like C&A, Eileen Fisher and H&M reported stronger than expected sale in their organic portfolio. Twenty-five companies, including Walmart, Nike, Woolworth’s South Africa, Coop Switzerland and C&A, consumed 75 per cent of global organic produce. A report on organic cotton by Textile Exchange, a non-profit which works to extend textile sustainability across the globe,
106
State of India’s environment 2014
states that from US $300 million in 2001, sale of organic clothing had reached US $2 billion in 2007. India was a major player. It overtook Turkey as the biggest producer and exporter of organic cotton. However, farmers recieved no support from the government. What kept them going was the premium that private companies gave over the government’s minimum support price (MSP). The MSP of long staple cotton had been raised from `2,030 to `3,000 per 100 kg in 2008-09, while that of medium staple cotton went up from `1,800 to `2,500 per 100 kg. “Organic farmers were getting a huge 25 per cent premium over MSP,” says Kamal Kishore Dhiran, farmer of Palodhi village in Maharashtra’s Yavatmal district. This apart, organic farming has its own advantages. Under rain-fed conditions, organic cotton flowers twice in a season. Bt, on the other hand, flowers only once a season unless irrigated very well. But the curve of India’s organic cotton production reversed in 2010-11. Production dropped by a steep 47 per cent, although India maintained its world lead with over 60 per cent share. In
early 2010, the German edition of Financial Times had published a report titled ‘Label Scandal’ which said that global clothing brands such as H&M, C&A and Tchibo were selling clothes made of Bt-contaminated organic cotton. These brands were sourcing organic cotton from India. Sanjay Dave, the then director of Agriculture Processing and Exports Development Agency (APEDA) in India, admitted that organic cotton was getting contaminated “on a gigantic scale” in the country. The scandal, along with the European recession, reduced India’s cotton prices. The sharp cut in prices trickled down to the farmers and the premium that private companies were giving them crashed drastically. The drop in premium has hit farmers hard. In irrigated areas, keeping the costs down is difficult given the rising expenses on labour and power for irrigation; a premium of `1,000 per 100 kg is necessary to sustain. The biggest hurdle before organic cotton is that in the absence of a domestic market, it is entirely dependent on the vagaries of the international market. Much of the produce has to be sold in the open market. There is an urgent need for alternatives to reduce total dependence on international market. At present, there are very few players in the domestic market for apparel. Big domestic brands and retailers need to be engaged, with a multistakeholder approach and support from the government. Crucial factors like sustainability, farm economics, ecological
WORLD PRODUCTION — INDIA LEADS 300,000 World
India
Production (in tonne)
250,000
200,000
150,000
100,000
50,000
0 200506
200607
200708
200809
200910
201011
Year Source : Textile Exchange
balance and soil health must be taken into account. Formulating right policies to provide support to farmers’ initiatives will go a long way in the evolution of organic cotton.
THE COTTON STATES
RAJASTHAN No of producer groups: No of farmers: Area: Production:
GUJARAT No of producer groups: No of farmers: Area: Production:
MAHARASHTRA No of producer groups: No of farmers: Area: Production:
7 8,415 18,167 hectare 7,482 tonne
HARYANA No of producer groups: No of farmers: Area: Production:
MADHYA PRADESH No of producer groups: No of farmers: Area: Production:
6 14,679 15,292 hectare 6,298 tonne
29 39,805 63,476 hectare 26,141 tonne
KARNATAKA No of producer groups: 4 No of farmers: 664 Area: 339 hectare Production (fibre in million tonne): 139
4 2,224 526 hectare 217 tonne
TAMIL NADU No of producer groups: No of farmers: Area: Production:
2 24 4 hectare 2 tonne
53 85,106 133,812 hectare 55,108 tonne
ODISHA No of producer groups: No of farmers: Area: Production:
6 30,051 3,284 hectare 5,471 tonne
ANDHRA PRADESH No of producer groups: No of farmers: Area: Production:
6 12,013 3,871 hectare 1,594 tonne
Figures of 2010-2011; Source: Textile Exchange
A Down To Earth annual
107
LAND A N D AG R I C U LTU R E
The vegetable takeover
KUMAR SAMBHAV SHRIVASTAVA / CSE
Farmers are shifting from staple crops to vegetables, but production and marketing facilities are yet to fall in step
ured by a booming market, farmers of several villages in Ranchi, capital city of Jharkhand, have shifted to growing vegetables, dumping paddy and other staple crops. The district now supplies vegetables to Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha, and has earned a new distinction: the vegetable basket of Jharkhand. Jharkhand is not alone. Farmers from across the country, particularly those in drought-prone regions, are waking up to the potential of the crop. In the process they have earned India the status of being the world’s second largest vegetable producer, after China.
L
What prompts the switch-over What is pushing farmers towards vegetables is a combination of factors, the first of which is a shrinking farm size. The average size of agriculture landholding in the country in 2010 was 1.22 hectare (ha), half of holdings (2.28 ha) 40 years back. Staple crops like wheat and paddy 108
State of India’s environment 2014
are less productive when grown on small farms. Besides, cereal crops require assured irrigation. Given that 60 per cent of India’s farmland is rain-fed, farmers are not willing to take the risk. Dismayed by erratic monsoon, small and marginal farmers across the country have found refuge in vegetable farming. They contribute 70 per cent of the total vegetables produced in the country, but own just 44 per cent of the land, says a report of the Planning Commission Working Group on Horticulture. Fruits and vegetables, livestock products and fisheries are responsible for the high and persistent food inflation in the past five to seven years. Yet their share among all food items consumed remains high: 47.4 per cent in 200708, up from 41.3 per cent in 1993-94 and 37.3 per cent in 1983-84. Vegetables, clubbed under horticulture, now drive the country’s agricultural growth along with livestock. While production of rice saw a negative growth in the 2000s, Planning
Land under vegetable Source: National Sample Survey Organisation
Source: National Horticulture Board
2010-11
2009-10
2009-10
2004-05
2008-09
1993-94
0 2007-08
0
4
2006-07
Urban
10.5
2005-06
10
8
2004-05
Rural
12
16.7
15.2
15
13.9
2003-04
20
16
17.3
16.4
15.4
14.5
14.4
2002-03
32.97
20 160,000 140,000 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000 20,000 0
1991-92 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11
30
35.53
('000 ha)
40
49.14
Land under vegetables
38.57 35.41
9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0
Production ('000 tonnes)
Consumption (kg/year)
50.11 50
PRODUCTIVITY GROWS TOO
PRODUCTION BOOMS
60
5,593 58,532 6,156 88,622 6,082 88,334 6,744 101,246 7,213 111,399 114,993 7,581 7,848 128,449 129,077 7,981 7,985 133,738 146,554 8,495
RISE IN CONSUMPTION
Of the 400 vegetable species in the world, about 80 are reported to have originated in India
2001-02
Why is a country with an enormous vegetable diversity struggling to grow enough of it? The problems are multifaceted: loss of vegetable biodiversity, nascent and inadequate focus of the government, lack of scientific research and extension services for vegetable farming, and problems of storage. Of the 400 vegetable species in the world, about 80 are reported to have originated in India.
1991-92
The stumbling blocks
The Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, a unit of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), has a germplasm repository of 4,548 cultivated and wild vegetable species. Despite this, only 60 varieties are cultivated in the country. Analysts blame it on lack of research work on Indian vegetables. India still does not have a system of collating information on vegetable production. In 1983-84, the Centre launched a pilot scheme called Crop Estimation Survey (Fruits and Vegetables) to collate information about seven vegetables. It is in practice in only 11 states, which is not adequate and hardly organised. There are only a handful of institutions
In percentage
Commission estimates show a positive growth in vegetable production: 0.49 per cent in 2007-08, 1.69 per cent in 2008-09 and 6.4 per cent in 2010-11 (though, in 2011-12, its growth came down to three per cent). The demand for vegetables is expected to rise at four-five per cent per annum over the next 15 years. To meet the demand as well as help the agriculture sector achieve the desired four per cent growth during the 12th Plan period, the vegetable sector must grow by 7.5 per cent till 2017. The less than desired growth means a demand-supply imbalance, which is already playing out as food inflation. In 2012, the Reserve Bank of India — while decoding high inflation at a time of slow economic growth — blamed it on the sudden spike in vegetable prices. More than a key driver of agricultural growth, it seems, vegetables are emerging as a key driver of the overall inflation. In 2013, vegetable prices had reportedly soared by 80 per cent, the steepest rise among all commodities that decide overall inflation.
MEETA AHLAWAT / CSE
The demand for vegetables is expected to rise at four-five per cent per annum over the next 15 years. To meet this, the sector must grow by 7.5 per cent till 2017
Production Source: National Horticulture Board
A Down To Earth annual
109
PRASHANT RAVI / CSE
under ICAR to deal with more than 30 varieties of crops. Though the central allocation to horticulture has increased, there has been a consistent decline in number of professionals incharge of horticulture. Across the country, 33 per cent of sanctioned positions are lying vacant. In Jharkhand and West Bengal, it is more than 70 per cent. Most vegetables have a shelf life of 24 to 48 hours, but there is not enough cold storage facilities to cater to the entire produce. In Jharkhand, 25-40 per cent of vegetables rot or suffer quality damage by the time they reach the markets due to lack of cold storage facilities. Inappropriate packaging and poor transport make it worse. The law that controls the local agriculture market is another stumbling block. In 2007,
110
State of India’s environment 2014
28 22.5
30 25
1983
2010
20
6.4 1.5
1.3 3.5
2.0
0.1 2.3
0
0.4
5
0.9
10
8.9
15 1.6 5.9 0.6 1.4
0.78 0.6 –0.7 Rice
1.30 1.40 0.36 Wheat
Coarse cereals
Source: Computed from Agricultural Statistics at a Glance 2010 and previous issues, Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Union ministry of agriculture
Employment growth rate (%)
... CREATE EMPLOYMENT
1960s
–2.14 –1.61 –1.49
0.83 Pulses 0.09 -0.64
0.37 Foodgrains 0.03 -0.19
-4
0.21 Total cereals
1990s
3.02
2.57 Oilseeds -0.87
-2
Sugarcane
0
Fruits and vegetable
2
1.29 1.91 1.35
2000s 2.5 3.38
3.12 2.18
4
Cotton -0.97
Production growth rate (%)
6
–0.02 –0.29
5.3
VEGETABLES DRIVE AGRARIAN GROWTH ...
addressing a long-pending demand of fruit and vegetable farmers, the centre amended the Agricultural Produces Market Committee (APMC) Act and kept perishable items out of the ambit of the Act. The model APMC Act allows farmers to directly sell their produce to traders instead of going through a governmentregulated market. But only 16 states have so far adopted it. Unlike in the Green Revolution, where the government engineered a change in cropping patterns, in this case, the vegetable sector has evolved its own mechanisms. And as it emerges, vegetable growth now critically decides the country’s overall agricultural growth. Official policies aimed at increasing agricultural growth may not be sustainable without taking care of the vegetable surge. ■
a u sh rat esh mir and aka tr ad t a ad h kh de sh j a N s a a u n l a r r i r Pr G l Pr K ha a m a Ka J ah Ta ha u & hr M ac m nd A im am H J Source: Union ministry of agriculture
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A Down To Earth annual
111
AGRICULTURE AGGREGATES India accounts for 2.4 per cent of the world’s geographical area, but supports 17 per cent of its human and 15 per cent of its livestock populations. Fifty-five per cent of the country’s sown area is rain-fed; in the last four decades, net sown area has remained stagnant. India’s agricultural landscape is dominated by the small farmer, burdened by a crippling combination of fragmented land holdings, serious degradation in the quality of the land, and a lack of official financial support from an insensitive government. LAND DEGRADATION India loses around 5.3 billion tonne of soil every year due to various reasons. Out of a total geographical area of 328.73 million hectare (mha), 120.40 mha is impacted Mining and industrial waste: 0.26 mha
Water and wind erosion: 94.87 mha
Waterlogging: 0.91 mha Soil acidity: 17.93 mha Soil salinity: 2.73 mha
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State of India’s Environment 2014
Soil alkalinity/sodicity: 3.71 mha
DISTRIBUTION OF AVERAGE HOLDINGS Per capita land holding is reducing in India (area in hectare or ha) Size groups
1970-71 1976-77 1980-81 1985-86 1990-91 1995-96
2000-01 2005-06 2010-11
Marginal (below 1 ha)
0.40
0.39
0.39
0.39
0.39
0.40
0.40
0.38
0.38
Small (1-2 ha)
1.44
1.42
1.44
1.43
1.43
1.42
1.42
1.38
1.42
Semi-medium (2-4 ha)
2.81
2.78
2.78
2.77
2.76
2.73
2.72
2.68
2.71
Medium (4-10 ha)
6.08
6.04
6.02
5.96
5.90
5.84
5.81
5.74
5.76
Large (above 10 ha)
18.1
17.57
17.41
17.21
17.33
17.21
17.12
17.08
17.38
All size classes
2.28
2.00
1.84
1.69
1.55
1.41
1.33
1.23
1.16
Note: Total may not tally due to rounding off Source: Agriculture Census 2010-11
INVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURE Public investment stagnates while private investment picks up Year
GDP from agriculture and
GCF in agriculture and allied
GCF in agriculture and allied
sectors at 2004-05 prices (` crore) Total
sectors as % of GDP
allied sectors
Public
Private
Public
(` crore)
sector
sector
Private
sector
sector
Total
2004-05
565,426
16,187
59,909
76,096
2.9
10.6
13.5
2005-06
594,487
19,940
66,664
86,604
3.4
11.2
14.6
2006-07
619,190
22,987
69,070
92,057
3.7
11.2
14.9
2007-08
655,080
23,255
82,484
105,741
3.5
12.6
16.1
2008-09
655,689
20,572
106,555
127,127
3.1
16.3
19.4
2009-10
660,987
22,693
110,469
133,162
3.4
16.7
20.1
2010-11
713,477
19,918
111,306
131,224
2.8
15.6
18.4
2011-12
739,495
22,095
124,483
146,578
3.0
16.8
19.8
GCF: Gross Capital Formation Source: Central Statistics Office, National Accounts Division, 2012
Source: Indian Council of Agricultural Research (2010)
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State of India’s environment 2014
5
Industry and mining ■ Mining, and much that is illegal and arbitrary about it, was the high point of 2013. Karnataka and Goa became notorious for their iron mining, while the goings-on in UP kicked up the dust on mining of sand. ■ Industrial pollution continued to prick the nation’s conscience, with cases like mercury contamination in Singhrauli coming to the fore.
Industry claimed that the system of environmental clearances was becoming a roadblock to the nation’s progress, but an analysis of the number of projects cleared put that theory in doubt. ■
■ In Bhopal, almost 30 years after the world’s worst industrial disaster, contamination keeps spreading. A remedial action plan is suggested, but...
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2013: mining, people and environment The sector made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Corruption, illegality and evasion of green norms by iron ore mining companies, illegal sand mining and the coal scam of 2012 remained in news. But in the final analysis, they were all headlines and nothing more. No major legal and institutional reforms were done to stem the rot. The mining bill of 2011, which has the potential to reform the mining business, languished llegal mining, flouting of green norms, corruption, collusion, revenue loss to the exchequer — these were the terms that went with mining in 2013. The year began with the Comptroller and Auditor General’s (CAG’s) report on performance audit of the mining sector in Karnataka. The report highlighted that Karnataka has incurred a revenue loss of `2,976.26 crore between 2005 and 2011 due to illegal extraction and transportation of minerals, mainly iron ore. The year ended with the final report of the M B Shah Commission indicting the Odisha government for failing to stop illegal mining. When the year began, iron ore mines were being shut down in Goa following the Shah Commission’s report. When it ended, major iron mines in Karnataka had been given the permission to reopen by the Supreme Court.
I
The Shah commission reports The Justice M B Shah Commission was set up by the Union ministry of mines (MoM) in 2010 to probe illegal iron ore and manganese mining in the country. Till October 2013 when its tenure ended, the commission submitted many reports: an interim report in July 2011 and state-specific reports on iron ore mining in Goa, Jharkhand and Odisha. The commission was supposed to initiate its work in Chhattisgarh at the end of the year, but was refused extension by the ministry. During its investigations, the commission unearthed large-scale illegalities and irregularities in iron ore mining across India. While the onus for this was put on the profitable trade with China, the other reasons cited included lack of effective enforcement and shortage of adequate staff and infrastructure. In its interim report to the MoM in July 2011, the commission recommended a ban on exports of iron ore to check illegal mining, which the ministry rejected. The commission also suggested strengthening of state and central institutions to regulate mining and changing the procedure for renewal of mining leases. In September 2012, the commission submitted its report on Goa to the Parliament, listing illegalities such as mining without licenses, mining outside the lease area and transporting and exporting minerals unlawfully. It estimated that more than 127 million tonne (MT) of minerals had been extracted from the encroached areas, causing a loss of `35,000 crore to the state. Besides digging pits in the encroached areas, the miners had also extracted iron ore from the overburden dumps which lie outside the lease areas. Over the past five years, large amounts of iron ore had been exported illegally from Goa to China under the pretext of dump handling, noted the commission. In fact, it said mines in Goa were producing about 66 million tonne per annum (MTPA) of iron ore against the permitted 48 MTPA. As many as 62 lease holders were found to be operating under ‘deemed extension’ without the Centre’s approval. The commission recommended canceling of mine leases, fines on companies and restricting the amount of iron ore mined to mitigate the impacts of mining on the environment, especially in protected forest areas. The response of the MoM to the commission’s report was feeble. It advised the state to ensure proper accounting of dumps, issuing of transit passes to vehicles and that environmental clearance is obtained for dump handling. However, the state government suspended all mining activities. The 116
State of India’s environment 2014
same month, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) issued a direction under Section 5 of the Environment Protection Act, 1986 to suspend environmental clearances of all 139 mines in Goa. This was followed by a Supreme Court order in October 2012 in a petition filed by Goa Foundation, a local NGO, which banned all mining and export of iron ore from the state till further notice (see article on iron mining). The commission’s report on iron ore mining in Odisha, which was released at the end of 2013, was no less damning. It indicted the state government for failing to contain illegal mining leading to a colossal financial loss of about `60,000 crore to the exchequer. It found that most of the iron ore mines were operating in contravention of the relevant laws, especially the Environment Impact Assessment notifications of 1994 and 2006. The commission recommended stiff penalties for miners for violating green norms and suggested imprisonment and financial penalties on violators. The government has set up a committee of secretaries to take further action on the report. The Shah Commission reports have led to wide awareness about the rot in the sector. Only time will tell what will be the final outcome of all these investigations, especially considering what happened in Karnataka.
The story of illegal iron mining — as the nation knows it — has its genesis in Karnataka. It all started with a report by the Karnataka Lokayuka, the state’s ombudsman, in 2008 in which major violations of law and systemic corruption in mining in Bellary, including encroachment of forest land, massive underpayment of state mining royalties etc were reported. The state government did nothing. A petition was filed by Dharwad-based nonprofit, Samaj Parivartana Samudaya, against the Karnataka government for failing to curb indiscriminate and illegal iron ore mining in the region. The petitioners prayed for immediate directions to the state and central governments to stop all mining activities in the forest areas of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh which violated the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 and the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulations) Act of 1957, and take penal action against the violators. The Supreme Court’s Central Empowered Committee (CEC) then took up the investigation on illegal mining in Bellary and Hospet. Its reports revealed large-scale illegal mining and consequent damage to the forests, waterbodies and ecosystems. Its interim report on Bellary in April 2011 estimated that between 2003 and 2010, `15,245 crore worth of iron ore was illegally exported from the region. Based on the CEC’s recommendation, the court — in July and August 2011 — banned mining activities in Bellary and two other districts, Tumkur and Chitradurga. However, in its February 2012 report, the CEC recommended resuming iron ore mining in Karnataka subject to conditions (see article on iron mining). Following this, the Supreme Court allowed 90 mines to reopen. So,
KADAMBINI RAGHURAM
Culmination in Karnataka
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❮❮ Rewind 2013 Justice M B Shah Commission, set up to investigate illegal iron ore and manganese mining in India, completes its work with reports on Goa, Jharkhand and Odisha
And then there was sand 2013’s other big mining blow-up was on sand. In July, Durga Shakti Nagpal, a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Greater Noida, was suspended by the Uttar Pradesh government presumably as an “administrative compulsion to ease communal tension”. But it is widely believed that the action was taken against her because she took on politicians who were involved in illegal sand mining on the riverbed of the Yamuna. This created a major public outcry fuelled by media reports of illegal sand mining from across the country (see article on sand mining). In August, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), on a petition filed by the NGT Bar Association, ordered a restraint on any mining activity or removal of sand from riverbeds anywhere in the country without obtaining an environmental clearance (EC) from the MoEF or the concerned State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA). The NGT order reiterated the February 27, 2012 Supreme Court judgment on the matter of mining of minor minerals which included sand. Following the Supreme Court order, the MoEF had issued an office memorandum (OM) dated May 18, 2012 under which it listed mining projects with lease area up to less than 50 hectare (ha) including projects of minor minerals with lease area less than 5 ha under category B as defined in the EIA Notification 2006. This made environmental clearance a condition for such minor mineral projects. Earlier, these projects/mines were being regulated by state governments and district administrations, including state pollution control boards. In September 2013, the MoEF finally amended the EIA Notification and brought minor mineral leases of less than 5 ha under its purview as category B projects. But then in December 2013, the ministry did an about-turn and came out with another OM which said that river sand mining projects with lease areas that are equal to or greater than 5 ha but less than 25 ha will fall under category B2 — this means that such projects by default will neither require an EIA report nor a public consultation. This goes against the Supreme Court order of February 2012. And most importantly, it is back to square one as far as regulatory status of sand mining is concerned.
SAYANTONI PALCHOUDHURI / CSE
In October, the Minamata Convention on mercury is signed by 94 nations, but India is not amongst them
after all the brouhaha, nothing changed in Bellary. The crores of rupees that miners had illegally earned have not been recovered. The law remains the same, and so do the government departments and regulatory institutions.
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State of India’s environment 2014
Auctioning coal blocks
AMIT SHANKAR / CSE
The case of coal has had a different ending in the year. On February 2, 2012, the ministry of coal (MoC) had notified the ‘Auction by Competitive Bidding of Coal mines Rules, 2012’. This was the first legislative measure in India to introduce competitive mechanism for allocation of coal — or for that matter, any major mineral. This law came into practical effect in January 2013 when the MoC put out for auction 17 coal blocks with a total reserve of 8.5 billion tonne, to state-run firms. Allocation of mines has always been a controversial issue in India, with allegations of ad hocism, favouritism and corruption against state and central governments. All this came to the fore in 2012 when the CAG performed an audit on the coal sector in the country. The CAG report pointed out huge discrepancies in the processes and guidelines for coal block allocation. It alleged that the government had the authority to allocate coal blocks by a process of competitive bidding, but chose not to do so. As a result, companies made an estimated windfall gain worth `1,85,591 crore (US $28 billion). Part of this gain could have flown to the national exchequer had the competitive bidding process been in place. The audit strongly put forth the need for a “strict regulatory and monitoring mechanism” to ensure that the benefits of cheaper coal are passed on to consumers. After the release of the CAG report, many coal blocks have been de-allocated and bank guarantees of companies have been forfeited for failure to develop coal mines within the given deadlines. The Central Bureau of Investigation has filed cases against companies for alleged criminal conspiracy to get coal blocks by fudging their net worth figures and misrepresenting facts. All that this has meant is now we have a law that will ensure the competitive bidding process is used for allocation of coal resources — but the question that remains is, why not for other minerals?
Niyamgiri and FIPC The same question of ‘why not for all’ can be raised in context of another momentous event that took place between July-August, 2013. Deep inside the forests of the Niyamgiri hills in Rayagada and Kalahandi districts of Odisha, Kondh tribals were asked in a Supreme Court-ordered referendum whether they wanted the bauxite mines of Odisha Mining Corporation Limited (OMCL) or not. The mine was allocated to OMCL, but was to be operated by Vedanta, a London Stock Exchange-listed firm which has a alumina refinery at the foothills of Niyamgiri. This referendum was the first time when the principle of Free, Informed and Prior Consent (FIPC) was used to decide the fate of a development project in a tribal area of the country (see articles on this in other chapters). The genesis of this case lay in the rejection of forest clearance to the project by the MoEF in 2010, on the ground that mining in Niyamgiri violates the provisions of the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006. The OMCL had challenged the rejection in the Supreme Court in 2011. On April 18, 2013, the court ruled that gram sabhas (village councils) will not only consider fresh claims under FRA but also decide if mining will infringe religious and cultural rights of forest dwellers. The question to be asked now is what next: will this remain the sole example of FIPC in India, or will it be used universally to decide the fate of development projects in tribal areas?
The big picture The question of examples remaining examples and not getting converted into a national policy, a regulatory system or a law is the big quandary that 2013 throws to us. 2013 was a year of examples. It was a year of high profile media coverage on illegal mining, but with transient results. It was a year when learnings did not convert into concrete policy or legal and institutional reforms. The furor over illegal sand mining led to no major changes in the policy or regulation of minor minerals. The referendum in Niyamgiri has not led to even a decision on the ultimate fate of Niyamgiri hills, leave alone institutionalising FIPC principles in our laws (at the time of going to press, the MoEF had rejected the Vedanta project). The law for auctioning of coal mines remains applicable only to coal mines. Exposure of illegal iron ore mining has not led to any legal and institutional reforms either. In fact, the question is does the solution proposed by the Supreme Court’s CEC in Karnataka provide the design of an effective institutional framework for environmentally sound and regulated mining in the country? The answer is no.
❮❮ Rewind 2013 For the first time, coal blocks are auctioned to companies in India Illegal sand mining becomes top news with the Uttar Pradesh government suspending a young bureaucrat for trying to stop the practice A Down To Earth annual
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IND U ST RY A N D M I N I N G CHANGES EXPECTED DUE TO THE MINES BILL OF 2011 ●
The bill allows state governments to make provision for ‘preferential’ grant of mineral concession, of small deposits in isolated patches, to cooperatives of Scheduled Tribes in the Schedule V and VI areas. For mineral prospecting, companies will have to pay compensation and damages to the person holding occupation rights to the surface of land. For mining, the mine leaseholder will have to pay compensation to the person holding occupation, usufruct or traditional rights to the surface of land. The bill makes provision for the constitution of a trust called District Mineral Foundation (DMF). Its primary function is the distribution of monetary benefits to persons/families affected by mining operations in the district. Profit sharing concept has been introduced for the first time in mining laws in India. A mine leaseholder is to pay annually to the DMF, an amount equal to 26 per cent of profit after tax (for coal) or a sum equivalent to the royalty paid during the year (for major minerals). For minor minerals, the state government is to decide the profit sharing percentage in consultation with the proposed National Mining Regulatory Authority.
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The mining company has to provide employment and other assistance as per the rehabilitation package of the
❮❮ Rewind 2013 The new Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2011 is given a go-ahead by a parliamentary standing committee, but stalls after that
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state government to the people/families holding usufruct, occupation or traditional surface rights to the land over which the lease has been granted. After the termination of a mineral concession, the state government is to assess damages to the land, if any, and determine the compensation amount to be paid to the persons holding occupation or usufruct or traditional rights to the surface of the land; these persons will be consulted in the process of deciding the compensation. Mine leases will be given based on competitive bidding. Notification of public lands for inviting applications to bid for prospecting licence or mining lease is to be done in consultation with the gram sabha. The gram sabha or the district council is to be consulted before granting mineral concession. They are also to be consulted for developing the mine closure plan. The central government is to form a National Sustainable Development Framework (NSDF) in consultation with the state governments. The main function of the NSDF is to facilitate and ensure scientific development and exploration of minerals, protection of environment and prevention and control of pollution. There is also a provision for the formation of a State Sustainable Development Framework (SSDF).
The Karnataka model depends on committees of the court to oversee management, which is at best a short-term solution. It does not mean the end of illegal mining in the absence of legal or institutional reforms. The obsolete Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 remains the main law governing mining industry in the country. The departments of mines in different states remain the same with poor institutional capabilities. The Indian Bureau of Mines continues to do what it did with limited oversight functions. The MoM too carries on with its business-as-usual scenario. But that need not be the case. Since 2009, the country has been debating and formulating a new mining law. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2010 has been in the public domain since June 2010. A Group of Ministers has cleared the bill and based on the changes suggested, the MoM has now come out with a new MMDR Bill, 2011. The bill was given a go-ahead by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Coal and Steel in May 2013. But since then, it has been languishing and the government has not made any effort to get it legislated. Why? The answer is because this bill will completely change the way the mining industry operates in the country (see Box: Changes expected due to the mines bill of 2011). And the industry does not want this bill to be passed. There will be hundreds of Bellarys and Greater Noidas. We will have many more Shah Commissions. The Supreme Court and the NGT will close hundreds of mines. People will be jailed for illegality. Companies will be fined. Despite all this, illegal mining will go on. Massive environmental degradation will happen. Tribals will continue to be alienated from their lands. Corruption will happen in allocation of mineral resources. To stop these, we need more than a Shah Commission or Supreme Court investigations, though they have played their limited yet important roles. What we need is a new law and better institutions. Our mining laws and environmental and social regulations related to mining along with institutions governing these laws need to be seriously revamped and improved. ■
CHANDRA BHUSHAN 120
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IND U ST RY A N D M I N I N G IRON MINING
A knot becomes worse
CSE ARCHIVES
Karnataka’s Bellary district, and the state of Goa, typify India’s very own gold rush. Rampant violation of mining and environmental laws, unscientific exploitation of resources and concentration of mining profits in the hands of a few have been the fallouts of almost a decade-long plundering. The Supreme Court’s 2013 judgement on Bellary is the first of its kind in a mining case involving illegalities, irregularities, criminalities and corruption of unbelievable magnitude, and sets a precedent for all cases related to illegal mining. But can that be an effective template for the entire country?
he unbridled mining started in 2003-04, with China preparing for its 2008 Olympics; earlier, in 1993, India had opened its mining industry to private companies. Anticipating a spurt in demand, all — those who owned mines and those who did not — rushed at this opportunity; they mined without clearances, encroached upon forest lands, and excavated, transported and exported more than permitted. The states lost revenue and the nation, its resources. In the process of this reckless mining, forests were cleared, hills were ravaged, farmlands destroyed, streams and rivers polluted, groundwater
T 122
State of India’s environment 2014
contaminated, and the health of people and livestock was compromised. A public outcry followed this depredation, and forced the government to sit up and take notice. Karnataka and Goa were the first states to come under the scanner. In Karnataka, the Lokayukta in its July 2011 report, estimated the total loss to the state exchequer due to illegal mining at `16,085 crore. The Supreme Courtappointed Central Empowered Committee’s (CEC’s) interim report on Bellary in April 2011 estimated that between 2003 and 2010, `15,245 crore worth of iron ore was illegally exported from the region. The CEC recommended a ban on mining in the region.
Before the ban, Karnataka produced about 40 million tonne per annum of iron. Eighty per cent of this came from Bellary. The actual production through illegal mining was much more BELLARY, KARNATAKA In July-August 2011, the Supreme Court banned mining in Karnataka. In this period, only the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC), India’s largest public sector mining company, was allowed to operate. However, in its February 2012 report, the CEC did a volte face and recommended resuming iron ore mining in Bellary and two other districts — subject to conditions. It prescribed a model on the basis of which the legality of a mine can be categorised and it can be allowed to operate. It also suggested ways to restore the devastated ecology of the region. In 2012 and 2013, the court lifted the ban first on 18 and then on 90 iron mines, but with certain conditions. With this, 108 of the 166 mines in the districts of Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur would soon be back in business. While villages in the hinterland of the three iron ore mining districts are worried, mine owners and ore-starved steel industries rejoice over the judgement. “Since the ban we have been operating at 60-70 per cent capacity due to ore crunch,” says P K Murugan, vice-president of JSW Steel. JSW, one of the largest integrated steel companies in India, requires 60,000 tonne a day for its plant at Toranagallu in the heart of highgrade iron ore belt of Bellary-Hospet. “We want mining to come back in full swing,” he says.
Byword for plunder Bellary is known for its high-quality iron ore deposits, its mining mafia, its millionaires and the plunder that all this adds up to. The district’s reserve of ore with an iron content up to 65 per cent, is estimated (2005) at 1,148 million tonne (MT), according to the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM). Before the ban, Karnataka produced about 40 MT per annum (MTPA), one-fifth of the country’s annual iron ore production (see Graph: The iron states). Eighty per cent of this came from Bellary. But this was just the official figure. The actual production of iron ore through illegal mining was much more, and so was illegal export (see Table: Illegal export of iron ore from Karnataka).
THE IRON STATES: PERCENTAGE CONTRIBUTION IN INDIA’S ORE PRODUCTION (2005) RAJASTHAN (0.01)
ANDHRA PRADESH (0.67)
CHHATTISGARH (14.01)
ODISHA (36.71)
GOA (17.66)
MAHARASHTRA (0.73)
MADHYA PRADESH (0.84)
JHARKHAND (11.14)
KARNATAKA (18.21) Source: Indian Bureau of Mines
ILLEGAL EXPORT OF IRON ORE FROM KARNATAKA Year
Production
Export
Illegal export
2005-06
33.61
11.47
2.17
2006-07
40.32
10.80
4.74
2007-08
48.99
14.73
5.76
2008-09
46.97
11.06
3.39
2009-10
43.92
13.19
7.12
Figures in million tonne Sources: Central Empowered Committee report, Indian Council for Forestry Research and Education report
The impact of indiscriminate mining was devastating. The CEC, in its report, says that nearly 45 per cent of the green cover around Bellary may have been lost. Everything in Bellary turned red — trees, crops, streams. Suspended iron dust polluted the air. Agriculture was the worst hit. Farmers lost their crops, but were offered compensation of `2,000-`3,000 only if their farms were within 300 metre of the road. Farm labourers started working with mining companies which offered them up to `250 a day. In Hospet, most mines are located near the catchment areas of tanks which provide water from the Tungabhadra. People of this taluka also depend heavily on borewells. But many borewells have now gone dry, and the tanks are filled with silt. The Tungabhadra reservoir, just seven km from Hospet, which irrigates about two million hectare (ha) of agricultural land in Karnataka A Down To Earth annual
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BELLARY TIMELINE 2003 China boom begins; Karnataka de-reserves land for private mining 2004 Report of the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute on planning and management of scientific mining in Karnataka 2005-10 Demand peaks. Reckless mining and export begins. Loss to state: `16,085 crore 2006 State government appointed Justice U L Bhatt Commission to probe illegal mining. No significant result 2007 Investigation goes to the Lokayukta
2009 Non-profit Samaj Parivartana Samudaya files petition in Supreme Court 2010 Supreme Court asks CEC to investigate. Karnataka bans export of iron ore 2011 CEC submits interim report. Lokayukta submits second report. Yeddyurappa quits. Supreme Court imposes ban on mining, first in Bellary, then extends it to Chitradurga and Tumkur. CBI arrests Gali Janardhan Reddy for illegal mining 2012 Supreme Court allows 18 mines to resume operation 2013 Allows 90 mines to operate. Cancels 51 leases. Suspends seven. Caps production at 30 million tonne per annum
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M SUCHITRA / CSE
2008 Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde submits first report on mining irregularities. Indicts the then chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and many senior officials and companies. Government ignores the report
and Andhra Pradesh, has also reportedly seen increased siltation because of mining. The Sugalamma Devi temple, situated on the highest hill in the reserve forests bordering Anantapur district, was an integral part of the lives of the people of Bellary. In 2006, the mining mafia blasted it because they wanted the ore beneath.
Conditions apply For restarting mining, the CEC classified mines into A, B and C categories, taking encroachment as the criterion for determining whether their operations were legal or illegal. Forty-five mines which did not encroach or encroached in small ways outside their sanctioned area came under category A. Category B mines were those which encroached on an area up to 10 per cent of the lease area through mining pits and up to 15 per cent by way of waste dumping. The court allowed all category A and 63 out of 72 category B mines
State of India’s environment 2014
to resume operations. The remaining seven leases in category B were suspended till the boundary is fixed by the Surveyor General of India. Category C mines were where the leaseholder had encroached on more than 10 per cent of the lease area through mining pits and over 15 per cent by dumping waste. The court ordered cancelling 51 leases, including all 49 category C leases. The cancelled leases will now be auctioned through international tenders. This categorisation, however, takes encroachment as the only criterion for determining whether the operations were legal or illegal. Local activists say it is arbitrary to measure the extent of encroachment as percentage of the sanctioned lease area, instead of the actual encroached area. They feel there should be only legal and illegal categories, decided on the basis of encroachment, the quantity of ore extracted by leaseholders and
category A leaseholders have leases in other two categories.
Industry needs protected
other illegalities like mining without clearances, evading royalty and subletting leases. Moreover,
GOA Most of the mines in Goa are concentrated in four talukas — Bicholim in north Goa, and Sattari, Sanguem and Quepem in south Goa. In 2010, the Justice M B Shah Commission was set up by the Centre to probe illegal mining of iron and manganese in the country. In September 2012, days after the Commission submitted its report to Parliament citing illegalities in all mines in Goa, the state government temporarily suspended mining activities in the state. That
To meet the state’s requirement, the court has capped the amount that can be extracted from the region — 25 MTPA from Bellary and 5 MTPA from Chitradurga and Tukmur. It says the ore produced should be used only by steel and other industries in Karnataka and neighbouring areas. The judgement does not ban export, but says only the ore rejected by the domestic industries can be exported. It has also lifted the embargo on issuing new mining leases. To avoid illegalities, the court has asked the leaseholders who have been allowed to operate to get all clearances afresh. Besides, they will have to implement reclamation and rehabilitation (R&R) plans in a time-bound manner. The Dehradun-based Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) is preparing R&R plans for each mine and has done it for 70 leases. Category A mines can start mining after initiating R&R plans and after the monitoring committee, set up by the Supreme Court in 2011 to carry out e-auction of the ore, certifies its progress. Category B mines will have to complete R&R plans before resuming work. Though leases of category C mines have been cancelled, they will also have to implement R&R plans. “Nobody can escape from implementing R&R,” says Dipak Sarmah, additional principal chief conservator of forests and chairperson of the monitoring committee. At a production rate of 25 MTPA, the iron ore deposits of Bellary will be exhausted within 40 to 50 years. The nation will not be able to pass on its rich resources to the next generation.
month, the Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) issued a direction under Section 5 of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, to suspend environmental clearances of all 139 mines in Goa. The Supreme Court order came in October 2012, following a petition by Goa Foundation, a non-profit working on ecological issues. It ordered that the mine leases found violating the norms by the Shah Commission, should be suspended; the court asked the CEC to investigate the illegalities. Goa has also set up its own inquiry committee under retired judge R M S Khandeparkar to investigate the Shah Commission report. There is a constant fear that
In 2012, the Shah commission, set up to probe illegal mining of iron in the country, said in its report that all the mines in Goa were following illegal practices. The same year, the Supreme Court ruled that leases of all the mines found violating the rules should be suspended A Down To Earth annual
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IND U ST RY A N D M I N I N G GOA TIMELINE 2011 Goa’s Public Accounts Committee says almost half of active mines in the state are illegal. Two-thirds of the mines in forest areas do not have clearances
September 7, 2012 M B Shah Commission report, citing illegalities in all mines in Goa, tabled in Parliament. Union mines ministry asks Goa to immediately restrict removal of overburden dumps outside lease area till appropriate mechanism is evolved September 10, 2012 Goa suspends mining operations in all mine leases September 14, 2012 Union environment ministry issues notice to cancel environmental clearance of all 139 mine leases in Goa October 3, 2012 Goa sets up R M S Khandeparkar Committee to investigate Shah Commission report October 5, 2012 Supreme Court accepts petition by Goa Foundation and directs its CEC to look into mining illegalities December 7, 2012 CEC submits its interim report 2013 Directorate of Mines and Geology and the state government launch Mining Affected/Impacted Relief Scheme, 2013, to provide financial assistance to people who have been affected by the ban
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SUNITA NARAIN / CSE
August 2012 Indian Bureau of Mines tells Goa government overburden dump within lease area should be regulated in terms of approved mining plan; those outside need approval from mines ministry or a central authority. Goa government writes letter to IBM, saying removal of ore from overburden dump has been stopped since September 2011
the model pronounced in the Supreme Court judgement for reopening mines in Bellary could be used in Goa. Atul Jhadav, president of Goa Barge Owners’ Association, explains: “If the Bellary model is applied to Goa, most mines would fall in category C. The Supreme Court has cancelled leases of category C mines in Bellary because of highest number of illegalities, including dumping of overburden (soil removed to extract the minerals) outside the mine lease areas. Most mines in Goa dump their overburden outside the lease area.” Activists say that an estimated 100,000 people living in the villages in the four mining talukas are affected by mining. Besides loss of livelihood due to the ban, they are also suffering from the adverse effects of air, noise and water pollution. Mining has also affected the Salaulim dam on the Salaulim river in Sangeum taluka, which supplies drinking water to half the state’s population, besides providing water for irrigation and to industries. The Murmugao Port Trust has also been severely impacted by the mining ban. Since iron ore exports comprised 80 per cent of the port’s operation, commercial activity has come to a standstill. In 2012, this profit-making venture accrued a loss of `108 crore.
State of India’s environment 2014
The way ahead What does Goa have to look forward to given that illegal mining has taken its toll not only on its ecology but also on its economy? The CEC has recommended a model similar to that of Bellary, where environment impact assessments and reclamation and rehabilitation plans have to be made. It has also suggested a block-wise cap for mining. But is the Bellary formula the right template for the rest of the country? Can it bring order to the iron ore mining industry? The Bellary case — and perhaps now Goa as well — is setting a precedent for mining regulations in India. After all this and more than two years of judicial scrutiny, all mines — big offenders or small offenders — will continue in some form or other. The problem with the current form of categorisation is threefold. One, that CEC has defined the “nature” of offence in a very limited manner, which does not take into account the environmental fallout or the cumulative impact of the mines in the region. The best that is being offered is an R&R plan, which will take into account “afforestation, check dams, stabilisation of waste dumps, soil conservation, rainwater harvesting and use of modern mining technologies”. This rulebook could well end up incentivising large mines to commit large offences. The simple fact is that the Bellary formula will work against
Source: Google Maps
small mines, as it is based on quantifying the extent of violation as a percentage of the mine lease area. This will end up “legalising” noncompliance of large mines. Mines with large lease areas, for instance of 1,000 ha, can encroach 100 ha and still be legal in B category. The issue of illegal iron ore extraction and sales has been ignored by the CEC in defining illegality.
In 2012, the Supreme Court directed the CEC to assess within three months the actual quantity of illegal iron ore that was sold, so that companies could be fined. But this has not been done yet. So mines have opened and many more will open soon, and all the talk of recovering ill-gotten funds may well be brushed under the carpet (see Box: Some concerns about the Bellary model). ■
Pock-marked Intensity of mining is more in Goa, spread over 3,207 sq km, than in Bellary in Karnataka, spread over 8,000 sq km
SOME CONCERNS ABOUT THE BELLARY MODEL C for captive: Allowing C category mines once they are auctioned for captive use presumes illegal mining will remain in check. But the fact is, captive mines discount natural resource, allow transfer pricing and promote poor mining practices, as is evident from cases across the country. Worse, it will distort the market by creating certain companies who will have access to cheap iron ore through captive mines, while others will have to buy ore from the market at higher costs. Unscientific cap: The ‘cap’ on the quantum of iron ore mined in the Bellary region recommended by ICFRE and endorsed by the Supreme Court — 30 million tonne per annum (MTPA) — is based on the assumption that the annual iron ore requirement of Karnataka is around 30 MTPA and a majority of its demand is met from Bellary. This unscientific limit sets a bad precedence for environmental governance and has huge implications for inter-state matters. SPV for community: The Supreme Court has directed that a special purpose vehicle (SPV), the Karnataka Mineral Rich Region Development Corporation, be set up under the state chief secretary. The SPV will collect fines, penalties and money raised from the auction of C category mines and 10 per cent of the sale price of all iron ore sold from Bellary, and will implement projects for socio-economic development and mining infrastructure. In other words, a parallel government is being proposed to the district administration. The Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2011, presently with Parliament, includes provisions for benefit sharing and local area development. Will the SPV model be in contravention of the Bill or will it set a precedent? No accountability: The Bellary model does not provide the design of an effective institutional framework for environmentally sound and regulated mining in the country. The model, instead, once again depends on committees of the court to oversee management, which is at best a short-term solution. In this way, the Bellary case does not mean the end of illegal mining or a new dawn for sustainable mining in the country.
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IND U ST RY A N D M I N I N G SAND MINING
Minor mineral, major damage
AGNIMIRH BASU / CSE
Where there is a river, there is sand. No-holds-barred mining of this ‘minor mineral’ is throttling our rivers to death. Despite a Supreme Court order mandating environmental clearance for mining these minerals, states are blatantly bypassing it. Young IAS officer Durga Shakti Nagpal brought the story of this rape of our rivers out in the open in Uttar Pradesh, but the malaise has deep roots in other parts of the nation as well
n July 28, 2013, Durga Nagpal, a sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) in Greater Noida, was suspended by the state government. The reason given was her ordering the demolition of a portion of a wall of an underconstruction mosque in a village in Dankaur block of Gautam Buddha Nagar district, which the government said could incite communal tensions. The real reason, according to local villagers, was very different: Nagpal was not allowing the ruling Samajwadi Party bigwigs to run their sand mining business on riverbeds. In July, Nagpal and her officers had seized 274 dumpers carrying illegally mined sand from the rivers Yamuna and Hindon. Between July 18
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and 24, about 40 vehicles had been seized. Some of these vehicles belonged to powerful politicians who backed the mining mafia. According to an official of the mining department, 66 FIRs were lodged in six months and 104 people were arrested. A total of 81 machines involved in illegal mining, including cars, two-wheelers, earth movers and trucks, were seized. On July 25, mining officer Ashish Kumar who assisted Nagpal in these raids, was transferred to Bulandshahr. Three days later, Nagpal was suspended. The action against Nagpal snowballed into a major controversy, with the entire nation roundly condemning the state government. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) stepped into the fray and issued a restraint order against all sand
ILLEGAL MINING HOTSPOTS 10
1. GUJARAT Rivers Ambika, Purna, Kaveri, Tapi and Khapra are severely affected by illegal sand mining. It is forming cavities in the riverbed and accelerating water salinity. This is resulting in diminishing agricultural produce
11 9 1
12
8
2. MAHARASHTRA In October 2010, a new policy made gram sabha’s permission for sand mining essential. Now, sand mining projects also need environmental clearance. The creeks at Thane, Navi Mumbai, Raigad and Ratnagiri are most affected by mining
7
2 6 3
8. WEST BENGAL
3. KARNATAKA The Uniform Sand Mining Policy does not allow mining in Coastal Regulation Zones and prohibits use of machinery. The rivers affected are Cauvery, Lakshmanateerta, Harangi, Hemavathi, Nethravatai and Papaganii
4
5
Ruled by the mafia, stone quarrying in Birbhum’s Mohammad Bazaar is widespread. Minerals found in beach sand include ilmenite and sillimanite
4. KERALA
9. BIHAR
Kerala Protection of River Banks and Regulation of Removal of Sand Act, 2001, permits mining in areas that will be managed by a committee. The rivers affected are Bharatapuzha, Kuttiyadi, Achankovil, Pampa, Manimala, Periyar, Bhavani, Siruvani, Thuthapuzha, Chitturpuzha
Illegal mining is rampant in Bhagalpur, Banka, Munger, Jamui, Lakhisarai, Sheikhpura, Patna, Bhojpur, Saran, Rohtas, Bhabhua, Aurangabad, Buxar, Gaya, Nalanda, Navada, Siwan, Jehanabad, Gopalganj, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Bettiah, Supaul, Motihari, Madhubani, Kishanganj, Saharsa and Madhepura
5. TAMIL NADU
10. UTTARAKHAND
A policy ensures that quarrying in government poramboke land and private patta land can only be undertaken by the government. The rivers affected are Cauvery, Vaigai, Palar, Cheyyar, Araniyar, Kosathalaiyar, Bhavani, Vellar, Vaigai, Thamiraparani and Kollidam
Illegal sand mining and stone crushing along the Ganga near Haridwar is a major worry for the inhabitants of Matri Sadan ashram, the abode of Swami Nigamanand who died while on protest fast. Illegal mining along the Gomti is another cause for worry for the farmers of Telihat village
6. ANDHRA PRADESH
11. NAGALAND
A policy allows only manual labour and bullocks for mining. Contractors can be allotted sand through open bidding by a panel headed by the district joint collector. Rivers affected are Godavari, Tungabhadra, Vamsadhara, Nagavali, Bahuda and Mahendratanaya
Sand mining is carried out along the Dansari river in Dimapur to boost the booming construction industry in the state. Dansari is the largest river in the state and has the highest concentration of sand
7. ODISHA Despite public agitation, sand is mined extensively. Districts like Jajpur are severely affected. Odisha’s coastline holds deposits of ilmenite, garnet, sillimanite, rutile, zircon, monazite, magnetite and pyriboles
12. MADHYA PRADESH State exempts sand mining from environmental clearance. Mining areas are not demarcated. Therefore, mining far exceeds the allotted area. A strong nexus between contractors, politicians and bureaucrats facilitates illegal mining. It is rampant in the rivers Chambal, Narmada, Betwa and Ken
Source: Down To Earth, April 16-30, 2012
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IND U ST RY A N D M I N I N G 200 kg/year Per capita sand consumption in India 1.5 tonne per annum Per capita consumption of concrete (1 part cement + 2 parts sand + 4 parts coarse aggregate), the largest synthesised material, in India 150 and 90 million tonne Projected use of sand by road and power infrastructure respectively, as per the 12th Five Year Plan
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mining activities being carried out across the country without environmental clearance. While passing the order, the NGT reaffirmed the Supreme Court order of 2012 which had banned any kind of mining of minor minerals, including sand, without environmental clearance from the Union ministry of environment and forests. The NGT bench observed that a “majority of persons carrying out mining activity of removing mineral from the river bed have no licence to extract sand; they also have not obtained clearance from MoEF/SEIAA at any stage in terms of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 (EP Act, 1986) as well as Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 and Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.”
Why mine sand? Categorised as a minor mineral, sand fulfils a major requirement of the booming construction industry in India. India has the world’s third largest construction business after China and the US. Malls, houses, offices and flyovers are springing up all over the nation with incredible speed and scale. The 12th Five Year Plan projects an investment of 10 per cent of the national GDP, or `45 trillion, in infrastructure. Is the massive scale of sand mining that India has seen in the past few years a direct consequence of this growth? Every one rupee investment in the construction industry for manufacturing cement or for mining sand causes `0.80 increment in the GDP as against `0.20 and `0.14 investment in the agriculture or the manufacturing industry. Economic activity in this sector generally creates 4.7 times increase in income and 7.76 times increase in employment, according to construction industry expert Amit Rampure. Despite a worldwide economic slowdown, construction in India grew by over seven per cent between 2009 and 2010. The sector’s worth is now assessed at over `4,000 billion. The country produces about 250 million tonne (MT) of cement every year. Yet, there is no official figure on the quantity of sand required or produced. Legal or illegal, sand continues to be a scarce commodity. The construction sector, mostly real estate, constantly complains of acute shortage of this minor mineral. When the 11th Five Year Plan began in 2007, there was a backlog of 24.7 million houses. By the 12th Five Year Plan, the backlog increased to 42 million units. The Union ministry of urban development projected a sand shortage of 91,666.7 MT by 2011-end. The real estate sector is not limited to
State of India’s environment 2014
housing alone. Mumbai, Bengaluru and Delhi, along with their satellite towns, contribute 70 per cent of the country’s commercial space. Under the 12th Five Year Plan, road infrastructure would require 75 MT of cement; power infrastructure, about 45 MT. Considering the formula of mixing two parts sand into one part cement, road infrastructure needs about 150 MT of sand and the power infrastructure about 90 MT. Figures released by the Union mines ministry show that sand contributes only 9.4 per cent to the total minor minerals mined in the country valued at `18,734 crore. In 2009 and 2010, India ranked 12th in sand and gravel production. Andhra Pradesh (39 per cent), Gujarat (17 per cent), Rajasthan (14 per cent), Maharashtra (13 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (7 per cent) are the leading producers of sand. According to the Minerals Resource Book (MRB) prepared by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), in 2010, production of silica sand was 2.28 MT. The MRB states that about 62 per cent of the total sand production was from 15 silica sand mines and two associated mines that also produce other minor minerals. These mines have the capacity to produce more than 50,000 tonne annually. Thirty-three per cent came from 56 sand mines and one associated mine, each producing between 5,000 and 50,000 tonne. The remaining five per cent of the output was contributed by 62 sand mines each producing less than 5,000 tonne annually.
What does sand mining do Sand removal has always been done to de-silt rivers and channelise the flow. But the current rapacious manner of removing sand literally wipes rivers clean from the bottom. As a result, the crucial recharge zone — which is like a sponge that holds water and slowly seeps it out into the surrounding for use — is destroyed. When sand mining becomes intense, vertical and lateral movement of water is checked affecting groundwater recharge. The river is hollowed out, its ecology disturbed and fish habitats damaged. Studies conducted in Kerala and Karnataka show that the effect of mining on floodplains of small river ecosystems is alarming. More than 60 per cent of the wells in the floodplains are drying up. This is because excessive sand mining is lowering the riverbed. The past few decades of indiscriminate mining have led to destruction of riparian vegetation which acts as resting and nesting ground of many migratory birds. The in-stream
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IND U ST RY A N D M I N I N G Studies in Kerala and Karnataka show that the effect of mining on floodplains of small river ecosystems is alarming. More than 60 per cent of wells in floodplains are drying up fish wealth of rivers is also decreasing, says a research by the Thiruvananthapuram–based Centre for Earth Science Studies.
The regulatory and legal gaps Sand is classified as a minor mineral, which means state governments are allowed to set rules and auction this resource. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) rules do not categorise minerals as minor or major; they just stipulate that environmental clearance is needed only for mining leases over 5 ha. So sand mining has been thriving unchecked. In February 2012, while listening to the case of auction of leases in rivers across Haryana, the Supreme Court asked state governments to amend rules to regulate mining of minor minerals and to ensure environmental management. Till this was done, it directed, all minor minerals would require environmental
clearance from the ministry of environment. In September 2013, the MoEF finally amended the EIA Notification. But then in December 2013, the ministry did an about-turn and said that river sand mining projects with lease areas that are equal to or greater than 5 ha but less than 25 ha will fall neither require an EIA report nor a public consultation. Removal of sand needs to be assessed for environmental damage, restricted and carefully regulated. Illegal mining must stop, and rules for legal and regulated mining should be a top priority. State governments, which have so far abetted illegal mining, voluntarily or involuntarily, need to become accountable. Also, alternatives to sand and other natural aggregates in construction must be encouraged (see Box:In place of sand). But foremost, this common mineral should be given the same stature as other prized minerals like iron and bauxite. ■
IN PLACE OF SAND
PAPIA SAMAJDAR / CSE
The construction industry is slowly recognising alternatives to sand. While some call for deriving sand from crushing stones or using fly ash, many see prospects in recycling construction waste or in using industrial waste. Copper slag: Currently, about 33 million tonne (MT) of copper slag is generated annually worldwide, with India contributing 6-6.5 MT. A study by the Central Road Research Institute has shown that copper slag can be used as a partial replacement for sand, as fine aggregate in pavement grade concrete up to 40 per cent. Granulated blast furnace slag: According to the report of the Working Group on Cement Industry for the 12th Plan, around 10 MT blast furnace slag is currently being generated in the country from iron and steel industry. M C Nataraja, in his study published in the International Journal of Structure & Civil Engineering Research in May 2013, says that granulated blast furnace slag sand (GBFS) can be used as an alternative to natural sand from the point of view of strength. Fly ash: India currently produces over 100 MT of coal ash. Out of the total ash produced in any thermal power plant, approximately 15-20 per cent is bottom ash and the rest is fly ash. Fly ash is preferred for construction of durable housing as a lightweight aggregate. Foundry sand: India ranks fourth in terms of total foundry production (7.8 MT), according to the 42nd Census of World Casting Production of 2007. Foundry sand which is very high in silica is regularly discarded by the metal industry. Currently, there is no mechanism for its disposal, but international studies say that up to 30 per cent foundry sand can be utilised for economical and sustainable development of concrete. C&D waste: There is no documented quantification of amount of construction and demolition (C&D) waste being generated in India. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi says it is collecting 4,000 tonne of C&D waste daily from the city — this amounts to almost 1.5 MT of waste annually in Delhi alone. If recycled, this waste can substitute natural sand. But the Bureau of Indian Standards stipulates that concrete can be made only with “naturally accessed material”. This rules out the use of recycled material such as copper slag and construction waste, which is widely used in other parts of the world as aggregates.
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Bhopal, continuum Thirty years have passed since that dreadful night in December when methyl isocyanate leaked from a Union Carbide plant and littered Bhopal’s streets with the dead and the dying. What most people don’t realise is that the legacy of that plant continues to spill toxins into the city’s land and water. An action plan for cleaning the plant site has finally been agreed upon, but will the government move on it?
SAYANTAN BERA / CSE
nion Carbide India Limited’s (UCIL’s) Bhopal plant operated for barely 15 years (1969-1984), but it has left behind a legacy like no other industrial plant. This plant caused the world’s worst industrial disaster that killed thousands. People affected by the gas leak on the fateful night of December 2-3, 1984 are still suffering and dying. There is another equally deadly legacy of UCIL that people of Bhopal continue to contend with: for 15 years, UCIL dumped toxic wastes generated for manufacturing carbamate and organochlorine pesticides at different locations
U
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inside and outside the plant. These wastes are still lying at the site, polluting the environment and threatening the health of the local community. Why have we not been able to remediate the site and clean the surrounding environment even three decades after the tragedy? There could be several answers — of varying significance. But the fundamental answer is all those connected with the issue — the government, NGOs, technical experts, pollution regulators and industry — never came together to develop an action plan to clean the UCIL site. In 2009, a Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) laboratory study had indicated widespread contamination of soil and
A 2009 study by Centre for Science and Environment had pointed towards widespread contamination of soil and groundwater in and around the Union Carbide plant site groundwater with heavy metals, organic chemicals and pesticides in and around the UCIL site. CSE also analysed 15 other studies on pollution at the UCIL site conducted by various government and non-government organizations, and found a high degree of convergence in the findings — all the studies confirmed that the soil at the UCIL site was contaminated with chemicals that can be traced to the manufacturing process in the plant. All the
studies also indicted the plant for contaminating groundwater in the surrounding areas. In April 2013, CSE anchored a discussion of stakeholders: representatives from specialised technical institutes, companies that deal in managing hazardous wastes, pollution control bodies and affected communities deliberated on a time-bound action plan on how the toxic waste should be disposed, how soil and groundwater should be decontaminated, how the site should
Contagion A map shows the spots from where CSE collected samples in 2009, and their contamination levels. Contamination had spread to 5 km around the factory
Shiv Nagar Distance from UCIL plant: 3km
New Arif Nagar Distance from UCIL plant: 400mts
Groundwater Pesticide concentration: 0.0193ppm more than 38.6 times Indian standard
Groundwater Pesticide concentration: 0.0297pp
59.3
times more than Indian standard
nd a L
es p slo
ay w is th
Union Carbide plant Surface Water Pesticide concentration: 0.2805ppm
561
times more than Indian standard
Soil Pesticide concentration: 22.5ppm - 9866.77ppm
Garib Nagar
UNION CARBIDE
Distance from UCIL plant: 1.8km Groundwater Pesticide concentration: 0.0024ppm more than 4.8 times Indian standard
Jai Prakash Nagar Distance from UCIL plant: 100mts Groundwater Pesticide concentration: 0.0042ppm more than 8.5 times Indian standard
Source: Down To Earth, December 1-15, 2009
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SURYA SEN / CSE
On deadly ground Contamination does not recognise boundaries. A shimmer of mercury inside the plant (photo on far right) reveals the danger, while children play oblivious to it in the field right outside
be remediated and what should be the fate of the UCIL site. On August 1, the action plan was unveiled in Bhopal. Earlier, efforts were being made to dispose of the waste in various ways; suggested sites were Ankleshwar in Gujarat (for incineration), Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh (landfill, see The MIC trail).
The action plan recommendations Based on the criticality and required time-frame for implementation, the measures have been divided into two sections – immediate and medium/long-term. Immediate measures ● Securing the site and solar evaporation pond (SEP) area by fencing and guarding to prevent access of people, especially children, hence their exposure to toxic chemicals; stopping construction in the SEP area; and protecting annual surface water runoff from the site during monsoons. ● Excavation and recovery of all the waste from the site; characterisation and inventorisation of the collected waste for proper treatment and disposal. ● Characterisation of the 350-tonne waste that is stored at the site and the results to be shared in the public domain. Under the supervision of the CPCB and affected community, incinerable waste is to be incinerated after the stabilisation of the trial results at Pithampur. 136
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SAYANTAN BERA / CSE
Medium and long-term measures Groundwater contamination assessment through detailed field investigation and lab analysis to develop a remediation plan. Possibility of hydraulic containment is to be explored as an interim containment measure. ● Characterisation and remediation of the waste dumped in SEP area, particularly the landfill to prevent continued contamination of the groundwater in the local area. ● Detoxification, dismantling and decommissioning of the plant after preserving structures such as MIC plant including the vent, vent scrubber, storage tanks and control room. ● Remediation of the UCIL site that involves building a memorial and centre of excellence for industrial disaster management after decontaminating the site. The action plan, say CSE experts, is implementable and has been developed out of the consensus within the expert group. Following the release of the plan, the state government filed an affidavit on September 5, 2013, in Supreme Court, in which it agreed to incinerate 10 tonne of the UCIL waste in Pithampur in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district — this had been suggested by the CPCB through an affidavit submitted earlier. However, the government requested to defer the incineration until December 15 due to the state elections. Two days later, the Supreme Court gave 10 weeks’ time to the government to file an affidavit on the plans to incinerate. ■ ●
THE MIC TRAIL 1969 UCIL sets up the plant to manufacture pesticide Sevin
THE COMPENSATION MONEY ●
1979 UCIL starts manufacturing methyl isocyanate (MIC), used in producing Sevin, in the plant premise 1980-82 In December 1981, a plant operator killed by phosgene gas leak. Another leak in January 1982 injures 28 workers
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DECEMBER 2-3, 1984 MIC leaks from tank no 610; about 4,00,000 people affected 1985 Indian government files claim for US $3.3 billion from Union Carbide in US court ●
1986 Union Carbide persuades US court to send the case to Indian courts where compensation liability is lower
Indian government demanded US $3.5 billion as compensation. In 1989, it accepted US $470 million (one-seventh of the amount asked for) from Union Carbide. The Supreme Court, guardian of the money now stashed away in a Reserve Bank of India dollar account, issued guidelines for the money to be handed over to the people. The dead were to get `13 lakh, the disabled `50,000-2 lakh, those with temporary injuries, `25,000-1 lakh. Overlooking the range set by the court, the Madhya Pradesh government decides to fix the amount at `1 lakh for death and
`25,000 for injury.
●
The value of the money now
SURYA SEN / CSE
FEBRUARY 1989 Indian government and UCIL strike an out of court settlement. Compensation
●
stands at about `3,000 crore (after accounting for rupee devaluation and interest accrued). Of this, `1,360 crore remains unspent. Original number of compensation claims was about two lakh. This swelled to about 1.29 million over the years. State government says almost all claims have been disposed off and `1,511 crore disbursed. But the Bhopal Gas Tragedy Relief and Rehabilitation Department claims to have cleared much more — five times the number of estimated claims have been reportedly settled, but using only half the compensation fund! Another 16,000 fresh claims are pending.
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amount brought down to US $470 million APRIL 1992 Indian court declares Warren Anderson, UCIL’s CEO, a fugitive from law NOVEMBER 1994 Supreme Court allows Union Carbide to sell off its encumbered assets, technically wiping out the company’s physical presence in India NOVEMBER 1999 Victims file suit against Union Carbide and Warren Anderson in federal court in New York. Both are charged with violating international human rights law, environmental law and international criminal law FEBRUARY 2001 Union Carbide and Dow Chemical Company merge. Dow inherits assets and liabilities of Union Carbide, except the Bhopal plant. Survivors demand Dow be held responsible for all medico-environmental liabilities in Bhopal and that pending criminal liabilities against Carbide be transferred to Dow JANUARY 9, 2002 Dow accepts Carbide’s liabilities in the US and settles a Texas asbestos lawsuit originally filed against Union Carbide. But insists Bhopal is not similar AUGUST 28, 2002 Despite pressure from the Indian government, charges of culpable homicide reaffirmed against Warren Anderson in Bhopal court. It demands his immediate extradition SEPTEMBER 30, 2002 A study by the Peoples’ Science Institute, Dehra Dun confirms the presence of highly toxic mercury in Bhopal’s drinking water and warns of grave risk to health OCTOBER 21-23, 2002 Indian government says India is proceeding with an application to extradite Anderson DECEMBER 23, 2002 Dow sues women survivors who peacefully protested outside its Mumbai office on December 2
ASHOK CHADHA / CINEMART FOUNDATION
MARCH 11, 2003 Activists deliver 250 gallon of contaminated Bhopal water to the Houston Dow Center. Dow gets people in chemical suits to remove the water but has no scruples about Indians using it every day. A US lower court throws out a civil damages lawsuit filed by survivors JULY 21, 2003 US senators write to Dow asking that the company take responsibility for the disaster and cooperate in meeting the demands of its victims. Company replies that it cannot jeopardise interests of its shareholders MARCH 30, 2005 Madhya Pradesh High Court (HC) sets up a task force under the secretary of the department of chemicals and petrochemicals, Government of India for A Down To Earth annual
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IND U ST RY A N D M I N I N G removal of toxic waste from the plant
waste should be sent for incineration to BEIL in Ankleshwar, Gujarat and the remaining 40 tonne of lime sludge transported to the landfill in Pithampur
2005 The court orders NEERI to undertake pre-treatment study. 40 tonne of waste is found to be suitable for landfills
OCTOBER 2007 Following protests from environmental NGOs, Gujarat government withdraws its NOC for one-time disposal of waste
MAY 2005 Government files an affidavit to direct Dow Chemicals to deposit `100 crore as advance for environmental remediation
OCTOBER 18, 2005 Gujarat Pollution Control Board tells CPCB it has no objection to transportation of tarry waste to the state NOVEMBER 10, 2006 Then finance minister P Chidambaram writes to the prime minister on issues raised in the Indo-US CEO forum, including Dow’s legacy. The note explains that Dow has said that it is not possible for the company to proceed with its proposed investments in India unless the liability issue is cleared
SURYA SEN / CSE
FEBRUARY 2007 MP HC directs that 350 tonne of the
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SOUPARNO BANERJEE / CSE
JULY 4, 2005 MP government conveys that it is considering that the plant should not be dismantled and a memorial built at the site
JANUARY 2007 Ratan Tata writes to prime minister reiterating his proposal that the private sector could contribute to create a remediation fund for clean-up of the site
JUNE 2008 40 tonne of hazardous waste sent to landfill site at Pithampur. Activists alleged this was in gross violation of hazardous waste rules as the landfill site is within 500 metre of habitation JULY 20, 2009 Expert group under CPCB to examine alternatives to incineration in Gujarat DECEMBER 1, 2009 State government opens the site for ‘disaster tourism’, saying there is no contamination. CSE releases its report showing contamination of the site
SURYA SEN / CSE
JANUARY 28, 2010 Supreme Court orders incineration of 346 metric tonne of waste in Pithampur FEBRUARY 24, 2012 GIZ submits proposal to Madhya Pradesh government saying it can transport and dispose off the waste in Hamburg, Germany. Terminates its offer in September due to protests in Germany MARCH 4, 2013 10 metric tonne of hazardous waste from Hindustan Insecticides Limited Factory, Kerala identified as similar to Union Carbide’s waste. Supreme Court directs that this waste be transported to Pithampur MAY 8, 2013 The court allows 10 weeks' time to complete the entire process of trial incineration of 10 metric tonne of waste AUGUST 1, 2013 CSE releases environmental remediation
action
plan
on
SURYA SEN / CSE
SEPTEMBER 5, 2013 MP government agrees to incinerate the waste in Pithampur, but requests to defer the incineration until December 15 due to state elections DECEMBER 17, 2013 Supreme Court gives 10 weeks’ time to the government to file an affidavit on how it plans to incinerate JANUARY 3, 2014 Date of next hearing. A Down To Earth annual
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On its way out
SUGANDH JUNEJA / CSE
Nations across the world are getting ready to phase out mercury, a debilitating element, from products and processes, but will India follow suit?
n October 2013, 94 governments signed the Minamata Convention on mercury in Japan under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The Convention is now a legally binding treaty. It has been named after Japan’s Minamata city that witnessed one of the worst incidents of industrial poisoning by mercury which killed and disabled many people in the 1950s and ‘60s. Mercury is a highly toxic element that debilitates people and causes dementia and other diseases. The treaty aims to stop the production and use of mercury. Under the agreement, a range of products will be phased out by 2020 and mercury mining will be phased out in the next 15 years. Items to be phased out include some batteries, switches, some fluorescent lamps, soaps, cosmetics, thermometers, blood pressure devices,
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etc (see Box: What is banned). From 2020, the convention will ban the production, import and export of products that contain mercury. An important exercise expected out of the signatories is identification of stocks of mercury exceeding 50 tonne and sources generating more than 10 tonne annually. The treaty recognises that mercury from small-scale gold mining and coal-based thermal power plants is the biggest source of mercury pollution worldwide. The UNEP estimates that global mercury emissions to air from anthropogenic sources reached 1,960 tonne in 2010; about 727 tonne came from small-scale gold mining operations alone while coal burning emitted 475 tonne. In the case of gold mining, the convention has stipulated reduction in usage of mercury, but without a time frame. For coalbased thermal power plants, the signatory
countries will be required to include equipment to help minimise mercury emissions for all the new plants, which will have to meet this criterion within five years of the convention coming into force. For existing sources, the governments will need to prepare national action plans to control emissions no later than 10 years of the convention coming into force. The power to decide emission limits, goal for controlling emissions, use of best available techniques, etc have been left to the signatory governments. The treaty also makes it mandatory to prepare an inventory of mercury emissions from relevant sources within a period of five years. The UNEP has exempted the usage of mercury for religious purposes. The treaty makes a provision for countries to ask for one or more exemptions where each such exemption may be granted for a five-year period. The convention has also decided to set up a Global Environment Facility Trust Fund with an investment of US $10 billion for research and development. Africa has the highest number of signatory countries to the treaty with 24 nations adopting the convention, while only Canada has signed among the three North American nations. Though India approves the treaty, it wants a Montreal Protocol-like arrangement to phase out mercury. India is the second largest emitter of mercury after China. In 2011, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) found 0.15 parts per million (ppm) mercury in coal at Anpara village of Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. CSE’s findings show that a 1,000-MW thermal power plant is emitting at least 500 kg of mercury every year. The district is home to 10 thermal power plants with a capacity of 13,200 MW and 14 coal mines of 83 million tonne per annum (MTPA) capacity. It is set to get another 50 MTPA of coal mining capacity and 9,600 MW of thermal power. The region would generate more than 50 million tonne of fly ash, close to half a million tonne of suspended particulate matter and more than a million tonne each of oxides of sulphur and nitrogen every year.
The Singhrauli case The following year, CSE performed more laboratory tests in Sonbhadra and came out with shocking results: there were high levels of mercury in human blood, hair and nails, groundwater, effluents, soil and fish collected from the district. What was very surprising was the fact that the government has been well aware of mercury being a concern in the area since the 1990s. A few studies were conducted at that time looking at mercury pollution in the
WHAT IS BANNED ● ● ● ●
● ● ● ●
● ● ●
Lights and bulbs: Compact fluorescent bulbs of 30 watts or less (if they exceed 5 milligram of mercury). Mercury mining: Primary mining. Mercury mines already in operation can continue for 15 years. Gold mining: Only allowed in artisanal and small-scale gold mining. Dental fillings: Exempted. Countries have agreed to a phase-down of mercury in fillings by promoting alternatives, creating dental programmes to minimise the need for fillings etc. Vaccines: Exempted. Batteries (except button-cell batteries used in implantable medical devices) Switches Soaps and cosmetics (products containing more than one parts per million of mercury): Mascara and other eye-area cosmetics are exempt because they have no safe substitutes. Medical and monitoring devices Manufacturing (chlor-alkali and acetaldehyde production by 2025 and 2018, respectively) Pesticides, biocides and topical antiseptics
environment, which confirmed high levels of mercury, but the government never made these reports public. There are no standards for mercury in emissions from thermal power plants, soil, human blood, nails or hair in India. The matter has been discussed in the Supreme Court: in 2000, a petition was filed on mercury pollution in the Rihand river in Chhattisgarh. The state government maintained that mercury levels were not very high. The court ordered it to collect samples and check — a study sponsored by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) found high levels of mercury in the area. In 2009, CPCB and the environment ministry, in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi, released a comprehensive environment pollution index for 88 industrial clusters in the country. The researchers calculated the pollution index for air, water and land. After the results, the environment ministry declared the SonbhadraSingrauli region the ninth most critically polluted area in the country. It imposed a moratorium on any new project or expansion of present projects, but the environment ministry lifted the moratorium in July 2011. The CPCB has reimposed the moratorium recently, saying the pollution has worsened since 2011. Sonbhadra has now reached the National Green Tribunal. In September 2013, a case was filed in the tribunal about the region’s mercury pollution problem. A hearing is scheduled in January 2014. ■
In 2011, CSE found 0.15 parts per million (ppm) mercury in coal at Anpara village of Sonbhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. CSE’s findings show that a 1,000-MW thermal power plant is emitting at least 500 kg of mercury every year A Down To Earth annual
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CLEARANCE CON
So what is all this ballyhoo about environmental concerns impeding development? Is industry really being stopped from reaching for the skies? Or is it the environment — and the people of India — who are the ones being short-changed and hoodwinked?
Iron ore mining 65
Number of projects
Projects are coming up at break-neck speed all across the country — and they seem to be getting environmental clearances easily. The numbers are there, but they don’t tell the complete story. In the case of thermal power plants, for instance, the total targeted capacity during the 11th (200712) and 12th (2013-17) Five Year Plans is 178,799 megawatt (MW). But till September 2013, the environment ministry has already granted clearance to 245,944 MW!
41 30
11 2007
2008
2009
Source: www.greenclearancewatch.org
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2010
8
7
8
2011
2012
2013
Coal mining
71
Thermal power plants
55 54 45
43
47
50 45 40
26 16
15 14 8 2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2007 2008
2009 2010
2011 2012 2013
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6
Air pollution ■ Latest Global Burden of Disease report says air pollution is one of the world’s top 10 killers. Adding more weightage to this is the World Health Organization’s assessment that pinpoints diesel exhausts and fumes as a cause for cancer. ■ The health-air pollution linkages have been clear enough for some time now, but these new reports serve to provide a greater urgency to the issue. Are our governments, lawmakers and planners listening?
Apparently not. Urban India of 2013 did nothing much to put a stop to the spiralling air pollution levels. Whatever efforts it made did not suffice in the face of a problem which has taken on gargantuan proportions. ■
Our cities are still choke-a-bloc with vehicles, large numbers of them running on dirty diesel. Zero emission transport options such as walkers, cyclists and rickshaws do not find the space they need. ■
SAYANTAN BERA / CSE
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Stopped in their tracks It’s been some years since our cities started fighting the menace of galloping air pollution levels. The problem has now far outstripped whatever puny solutions they have been working towards. Urban India is cringing under the burden of worsening air quality, even as new studies provide conclusive evidence that air pollution kills 013 began with a shocker. A new global review of the burden of disease, carried out by 450 experts in a consortium of five partners, including the World Health Organization (WHO), and led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), ranked exposure to air pollution as one of the top 10 risk factors for health globally. The Indiaspecific findings of this Global Burden of Disease (GBD) assessment released in February 2013 showed air pollution as the fifth largest killer in India. The public health implications of the heavily polluted air in Indian cities (see Graph: India’s air quality status, 2006-10) were made more stark when in June 2013, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified outdoor air pollution and particulate matter as class 1 carcinogens and the leading environmental causes of lung cancer deaths. These scientific verdicts came as a grim reminder that the national air quality management system that has taken roots in India over the last couple of decades has failed miserably to prevent deterioration of air quality and protect public health. As per the latest available air quality data from the Central Pollution Control Board, close to half of total urban population is exposed to air quality that exceeds the standard of PM10 (particulate matter of less than 10 micron size). One third of our urban population lives in cities with PM10 levels classified as critical. Cities with better air quality monitoring systems throw up evidence to show that several other deadly pollutants, including ozone and a range of air toxics, are also present. Another ugly manifestation of the growing pollution is the severe and frequent smog episodes in Delhi and several north Indian cities during winter. In 2013, early onset of cool and calm weather and the daily pollution dose triggered severe smog in November. Once again, Delhi was unprepared to deal with this INDIA’S AIR QUALITY STATUS, 2006-10 winter dilemma. The process of putting in place Half of the residential areas in cities monitored are critical both short-term as well as long-term pollution control measures that was started last year to Particulate matter (PM10) meet the clean air standard by 2017, had not yet 100 been completed. The draft clean air action plan 80 that was finalised by the department of 60 environment of the Delhi government did not get the final Cabinet nod. Delhi lost crucial time 40 to gear up to address winter smog and protect 20 public health. 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Other opportunities, however, opened up when smog control was taken up as a larger Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) regional and an air-shed issue by the Supreme Court appointed Environment Pollution 100 (Prevention and Control) Authority. It took 80 steps to involve the neighbouring state 60 governments to develop a composite action 40 plan for the entire national capital region to 20 address the movement of pollution across 0 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 borders. This allowed wide coverage of action Low Moderate High Critical on all sources of pollution including vehicles as Source: Based on CPCB air quality data well as farm fires in Punjab and Haryana, with Air quality status of cities (%)
Air quality status of cities (%)
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incentives for alternative farming methods and use of paddy straws. A notable trend in the year is the much sharper public outcry and intense global glare on Delhi smog as the city is now seen as joining ranks with the likes of Hong Kong, Beijing and Shanghai, which represent the Asian pollution phenomenon. In the past, Hong Kong has seen flight of capital because of high pollution. This year, bad smog episodes in Chinese cities notoriously branded as “Airpocalypse” by the media in January 2013, are reported to have affected tourism in Beijing. These are certainly the signs that Delhi and other Indian cities need to read and act on. Delhi is dragging its feet in announcing air quality index and public health advisories that are needed to inform people about the severity of the daily air quality and the precautions that people must take to protect themselves from its harmful effects. Indian cities fear public and political backlash from such measures. But Chinese cities have already adopted air quality index and health alert systems. For instance, the smog this time led to closing of some of the large cities in the northeastern provinces — like Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang province — and forced schools to suspend classes. In Beijing, the government has proposed banning half the private cars on roads based on odd and even license plate numbers if the red alert on pollution persists for three or four days.
More evidences have emerged in 2013 to indicate the astounding health costs of dirty air. The World Bank’s evaluation of health costs from a wide gamut of environmental damage including both outdoor and indoor air pollution, inadequate water supply, poor sanitation and hygiene, shows that outdoor air pollution tops the rank. It is the highest among all damages — with a cost amounting to over `110,000 crore. Every year, outdoor air pollution claims 109,000 lives of adults, and 7,513 lives of children below five years in India. The cost of outdoor and indoor air pollution together is the highest annual burden on India's economy – accounting for nearly half of all damages (at 29 per cent for outdoor and 23 per cent for indoor air pollution). Annually, over 3.7 lakh hospital admissions are reported in India due to outdoor air pollution in urban areas. These stark numbers are from the World Bank’s Diagnostic Assessment of Select Environmental Challenges in India released in 2013. The cost of particle pollution-related health damage amounts to 1 per cent of India's GDP. The report states that higher costs for outdoor and indoor air pollution are driven by high exposure of the young and productive urban population to particulate matter pollution. That leads to substantial cardiopulmonary and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease mortality load among adults. New cases of chronic bronchitis reported are about 48,000 per year. Annual hospitalisations due to pollution are estimated at close to 370,000 and emergency room visits/outpatient hospitalisations stand at 7,300,000 per year.
KADAMBINI RAGHURAM
New evidence on health costs
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AIR PO LLU TI O N The Bank estimates that mitigation costs must not deter policy as the benefits from mitigation far outweigh the costs. About 10 per cent reduction in PM10 (particulate matter less than 10 micron in size) by 2030 can yield a benefit of US $10-20 billion; a 30 per cent reduction by 2030 could result in a benefit of US $47-105 billion. Such health-based mitigation will also help to give climate mitigation benefits. With 10 per cent PM10 reduction by 2030, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions can also be reduced by 10 to 20 per cent. With 30 per cent PM10 reduction, CO2 can be reduced by about 30 to 60 per cent.
Vehicular pollution under spotlight The year came with yet another grim reminder that while traffic is exploding and adding to the toxic risk in Indian cities, there is no roadmap to significantly cut emissions from the new vehicle stock. Nearly 70 per cent of the total vehicle stock to roll by the end of this decade is yet to be sold. Future stock must be linked with effectively stringent emissions standards roadmap (see Graph: Vehicle numbers: Explosive growth predicted). Vehicular emissions pose special problem because they occur within our breathing zone. Earlier, studies carried out by the US-based Health Effects Institute have proven that the effect of vehicular pollution is maximum up to 500 metre from the road side; 55 per cent of Dellhi’s 17 million people live in this influence zone. Globally, more evidences have mounted to show the insidious effect of vehicular pollution on health. While a range of cardiac and respiratory consequences are already known, newer studies have exposed more connections. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health found the risk was doubled for women living in the most polluted locations. Exposure to traffic-related air pollution, nitrogen dioxide, PM2.5, and PM10 during pregnancy and during the first year of life is associated with autism. Yet another extensive study by Barcelona-based Centre for Research on Environment Epidemiology shows exposure to merely five microgramme per cubic metre of PM2.5 during pregnancy can increase risk of low birth weight by 18 per cent. The latest reports from the European Environment Agency (EEA) state that people living near busy roads across Europe are particularly exposed to excessive air pollution levels.
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73 per cent of the vehicle stock in 2030 and 87 per cent of the stock in 2050 are yet to roll out. Without stringent measures, the future vehicle stock will lead to enormous pollution, carbon burning and energy guzzling 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0
Source: CSE
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2043
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2027
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2023
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1019
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Two-wheelers Cars, jeeps & taxis Buses Goods vehicles Other vehicles
2013
The cost of outdoor and indoor air pollution together is the highest annual burden on India's economy, says the World Bank’s Diagnostic Assessment of Select Environmental Challenges in India, released in 2013
VEHICLE NUMBERS: EXPLOSIVE GROWTH PREDICTED
2011
Only two towns in Kerala — Malappuram and Pathanamthitta — meet the clean air benchmark of the Central Pollution Control Board, says a report by Centre for Science and Environment
Growing use of poor quality diesel in cars and its expanded use have remained a serious public health concern in India (see Graph: Toxic profile). There has been a lot of talk on rationalisation of fuel and car taxes to neutralise the difference in diesel and petrol prices, as also on using additional fiscal measures for refineries to produce clean diesel (see Graph: Fuel prices). Cheaper subsidised diesel is pushing the market towards bigger cars and SUVs and encouraging more fuel consumption in the rebound. In 2013, we witnessed some significant developments. In January 2013, the UPA government finally allowed oil marketing companies to raise diesel prices in small amounts from time to time until the subsidy was fully pruned. A hike of about 50 paise per litre per month is now expected to roll
Vehicle population (numbers)
❮❮ Rewind 2013
Exposure to traffic-related air pollution during pregnancy or the first year of life has been linked to autism. A study also shows that only five microgramme per cubic metre of PM2.5 during pregnancy can increase risk of low birth weight by as much as 18 per cent FUEL PRICE
A comparison of toxicity of emissions from diesel and petrol passenger cars meeting different norms in urban traffic
A. Price of fuel — in case of diesel, price charged to dealer has under-recovery of Rs 9.24/litre
20
60
18
50
16 14
Petrol car
12
Diesel car
Comparison of new vehicles
10
` per litre
Toxicity (unit risk x emissions in cubic metre per kilometre)
TOXIC PROFILE
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8 10
6 4
0 Petrol
2
Desired price
0 PreEuro
Euro II
Euro III
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Diesel car with particulate trap
Diesel Price charged to dealerrs
B. Taxes and commission — in case of diesel the taxes and duties are 50% less than that of petrol
Source: Michael Walsh 2003, The global impacts of heavy-duty diesel vehicle emissions, Arlington, USA
14 12 ` per litre
10 at the retail end to recover the entire loss on account of having to sell diesel below the cost. Soon after, the excise on SUVs was 8 increased in the Union Budget for 2013-14. 6 Since the pricing reforms, there have been some interesting 4 market trends. It has been reported that diesel demand has 2 declined for the first time in over a decade — Indian Oil has 0 informed that there has been a 0.8-1 per cent de-growth in 2013. Petrol Diesel Diesel rates have increased by a cumulative `6.62 per litre since Specific excise duty Dealer commission VAT January. Even if economic slowdown is also a contributory factor, Source: Based on data from Hindustan Petroleum, January 4, pricing reforms have had an effect. 2014 This has also impacted on diesel car sales. Sales of petrol cars have overtaken their diesel variants after a gap of about 25 months. Carmakers are changing production patterns with a bias for petrol variants. Only 42 per cent of customers bought diesel cars in the first quarter of the fiscal year compared to around 54 per cent in the corresponding period in the previous year. This dent in diesel car sales is a relief given the fact that there is still no official timeline for clean diesel (10 ppm sulphur) and clean diesel technology nation-wide, or Euro VI standards that make emissions from diesel and petrol vehicles comparable. Indian policy must respond to the science that has established diesel emissions as class I carcinogen.
Whither Auto Fuel Policy? In 2013, after inordinate delays, the Union ministry of petroleum and natural gas finally set up the Auto Fuel Policy Committee to recommend an emissions standards roadmap for vehicles and fuels until 2025. This is the most critical decision that awaits India. As of now, the Bharat Stage IV standards that are seven years behind Europe and the Bharat Stage III standards that are 12 years behind Europe, prevail in India. These cannot address the country’s public health concerns. Moreover, the two levels of emissions standards create two classes of citizens with the majority getting a lower level of public health protection. This is fundamentally flawed and violates the constitutional provision of right to life. A Down To Earth annual
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❮❮ Rewind 2013 June 2013. International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies outdoor air pollution and particulate matter as class 1 carcinogens and the leading environmental causes of lung cancer deaths The Agenda for Air Pollution Control, which seeks to meet ambient air quality standards in Delhi by 2017, not passed by the Delhi cabinet. Government wants to tread carefully on parking, urban transport and traffic just months before the elections
India needs uniform Bharat Stage IV standards across the country by 2015; these should be then quickly aligned with Euro VI standards by 2020. But the refineries and the automobile industry are trying to push Euro V standards beyond 2022. A new report released by the US-based research body International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT), on the technology roadmap for clean vehicles in India, states that delays in the timeline of moving to Euro V and Euro VI emissions standards will come with serious health and cost penalties. Each year of delay results in an extra 13,000 to 16,000 cumulative deaths through 2045. The annual economic losses are likely to range between `1.45 and 1.83 lakh crore. Over half a million premature deaths could be avoided over the next 25 years if strong action is taken to reduce PM2.5 emissions from on-road vehicles in India alone. The Auto Fuel Policy Committee cannot let industry folklore compromise stringency of the roadmap and hurt public health. The industry myth that incremental costs associated with higher emissions standards will put them out of business is baseless as at no time in history costs associated with improvement in emissions standards have dented vehicle sector growth. The Indian market has already absorbed significant cost change since 2000 when the Euro I emissions standards were introduced. Moreover, the refinery costs associated with fuel quality improvement can be easily addressed with a fiscal strategy. Globally, a wide variety of fiscal strategies have been used to meet the costs of refinery improvement and to get clean diesel with 10 ppm sulphur needed for advanced emissions control technologies. These include differentiated taxation policy; tax reduction/credits to refiners that provide lower sulphur fuels etc. In Japan, for instance, the government has instituted direct tax incentives in two phases to subsidise refinery investments for reducing sulphur in diesel fuel. India needs to explore the options of direct tax incentive and one-time capital subsidies. The cost of this fiscal incentive can be offset with additional taxes on diesel cars; or, a differentiated tax on all cars can help offset the subsidy and revenue shortfall from tax concessions. A dedicated fund can be created from this revenue to cover the cost of refinery upgrades within a short time frame. A small cess on each litre of fuel sold can help offset costs. In fact, the Delhi programme of imposing an environment cess of 25 paise per litre of diesel fuel to create the Air Ambience Fund for pollution control is a model. This minimal increase in fuel price due to extra cess will be well within the normal market fluctuation.
Mobility management for clean air Along with technology improvement, cities need aggressive mobility management policies to reduce dependence on personal vehicles. This year saw some excitement when the Union petroleum minister Veerappa Moily declared Wednesday as ‘bus day’ and promised to use public transport every Wednesday to reach his office — to promote fuel conservation and help cut India’s US $5 billion oil import bill. He claimed that on the day of the debut trip on October 9, the ministry had saved fuel worth `2 crore as a large number of officials participated in the initiative. However, the response from the other government departments to the bus day notification has been lukewarm.
SCAM OF THE YEAR Automobile major General Motors committed a ‘corporate fraud’ — it manufactured vehicles that blatantly violated emission rules. The company was eventually forced to recall 114,000 Chevrolet Taveras manufactured between 2005 and 2013. This was one of the largest vehicle recalls in India to date. Over 300,000 vehicles have been recalled since India’s auto industry adopted a voluntary recall policy in July last year. In August 2013, Ford recalled over 110,000 vehicles in India to check for potentially faulty parts that could cause breakdowns or fires. The probe in the GM scam carried out by the governmentappointed panel headed by Nitin Gokarn, CEO, National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project, found that
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company officials had submitted vehicles fitted with special ‘low emission’ engines for testing; subsequently, they replaced the approved engines with non-compliant ones. Also, the vehicle was sent for type approval in the higher weight category with more lax standards and subsequently downweighted to the lower weight category. The panel has recommended a host of measures to make testing of vehicles more stringent and scientific. This incidence has proven once again that India requires regulations to ensure vehicles remain low emitting throughout their useful life. This requires strong in-use compliance regulations that the Auto Fuel Policy Committee must address and recommend rigorous emissions warranty and recall programmes.
The transport reform agenda, however, is expected to move forward, especially after the sanction of funds under the 2013-14 Union Budget for 10,000 more buses. The Union ministry of urban development has also reformed the monitoring methods to track change in cities. The ministry has issued series of guidelines to the state governments on bus, walk and cycling reforms. These include advisories on multi-modal integration plans to include feeder buses, public bike sharing and pedestrian plans. In its circular of August 30, 2013, the ministry has stated that henceforth all terms of reference and detailed project reports of mass transit systems must include feeder buses, public bike sharing and pedestrianisation in the influence zone of the stations, within the project costs. The ministry provides financial assistance of about 80 per cent for traffic transportation studies, city mobility plans and preparation of detailed project reports. The ministry has also asked the state governments to assess viability of congestion charging. The August 30 circular from the ministry has also asked for innovative financing for metro projects to ensure non-fare box and dedicated streams of revenue.
Action in cities The development in cities in 2013 reflects contradictory trends — proactive moves to encourage public transport and walk-and-cycle reforms in some cities, and setbacks in others. The reform process has been uneven. Cities that have witnessed sharper public opinion have seen more proactive policy action in the areas of public transport, walking and cycling, parking reforms and urban transportation fund. Bengaluru, for example, has finally got the official nod for its comprehensive parking policy: it is set to introduce one of the highest parking charges in the country as well as other elements of parking management in both commercial and residential parking. Delhi is steadily expanding and modernising its bus fleet and service. In Fazilka in Punjab, the eco-cab movement — labeled dial-a-cycle rickshaw — is spreading to other cities of Punjab and Haryana; it has, in fact, even found place in car-manic Chandigarh with government patronage. The Chennai Municipal Corporation has adopted 72 bus routes to redo the walkways for improved accessibility according to robust street design guidelines. In the process, it is reclaiming motorised space to widen the footpaths. Gujarat cities are strident on public bike sharing to promote non-motorised transport. The Mumbai transport department has moved a proposal to levy an additional tax on purchase of fuel and cars — especially on the purchase of a second car — to generate funds for improving public transport and reducing congestion. The worrying factor is that the year also witnessed several regressive steps that will hurt sustainable mobility practices. In Kolkata, for instance, cycles have fallen victim to policy disdain and banned from several key roads. This has been done to improve the speed of motorised vehicles, and ostensibly to push car usage and sales. Similarly, Ahmedabad has rolled back plans for providing cycle tracks. In Indore, the car lobby has dragged the BRT (bus rapid transit) construction to court, thus halting its implementation. Delhi today boasts of 66 flyovers and is in the process of clearing more for construction. Its government has spent `3,148 crore on 18 flyovers — an astounding `437 crore per km for a flyover. This is much more than the per km cost of a metro track and several times more than that of the BRT track. The Public Works Department says the flyovers lead to carbon and fuel savings due to improved journey speed, but ignores how they are increasing distances for criss-crossing traffic at the intersections, adding to more fuel guzzling, and converting short distance zero emitting walk and cycling trips to polluting motorised trips. In this election year, manifestoes of the key political parties in Delhi indicate they have not been able to ignore the bus or the walk-and-cycle paradigm. As the country awaits the general elections, a resounding reminder must go out to all political parties that they cannot ignore the majority of the electorate who walk, cycle and take the bus in our cities. They will have to protect all road users and prioritise dedicated and safe access for walkers, cyclists and bus users, and improve alternatives to cars to make cities liveable and equitable. ■
❮❮ Rewind 2013 The year saw the aftermath of the release of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) report, which ranked air pollution as one of the 10 most deadly killers in the world National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 introduced by ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises. Lays the targets and vision for realising the potential that exists for electric vehicle technologies
ANUMITA ROYCHOWDHURY
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On the trail of a killer Two global reports prove what we have always known. That air pollution kills. One connects diesel exhausts to lung cancer, the other says air pollution is one of the 10 top killers in the world today
PRADIP SAHA / CSE
he International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a part of the World Health Organization (WHO), has given a scientific verdict which could have far-reaching implications in the coming years. It has said that diesel engine exhaust can cause lung cancer in humans. In 2012, the IARC-WHO reclassified diesel exhaust from its group 2A list of ‘probable carcinogens’ to its group 1 list of substances that have definite links to cancer — the status of diesel exhaust now stands as class I ‘carcinogen’. This classification brings diesel exhaust to the same class of deadly carcinogens as asbestos,
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arsenic and tobacco. The decision on reclassification of diesel exhaust emerged from a rigorous review of the latest scientific evidence on the cancer-causing potential of diesel and petrol exhausts. The IARC-WHO says this decision is unanimous and is based on compelling scientific evidence. The agency has urged for worldwide efforts to reduce exposure to diesel fumes as much as possible. The clinching evidence came from one of the largest US studies done by the US National Cancer Institute. The study analysed 12,300 miners for several decades, beginning 1947. Researchers found that miners exposed to diesel exhaust had a higher risk of dying of lung cancer.
Diesel sulphur levels in India are as high as 350 parts per million (ppm); the level is considered clean at 10 ppm. Only a few cities have introduced 50 ppm sulphur diesel Air pollution analysts and experts say this is certainly a wake-up call to India which is in the grip of rapid dieselisation. A World Banksupported study on source apportionment of PM2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 micron in size) in select Indian cities, released in 2004, shows that, depending on the season, the contribution of diesel fuel to the total PM2.5 ambient concentration can be as high as 61 per cent in Kolkata, 23 per cent in Delhi and 25 per cent in Mumbai. The Indian auto industry claims that it has moved to modern diesel engines. But the diesel sulphur level remains as high as 350 parts per million or ppm (the level is considered clean at 10 ppm). Only a few cities in India have introduced 50 ppm sulphur diesel — which is still five times higher than the global best! Distorted fuel pricing has driven the move towards diesel in India. Despite the recession, diesel car sales clocked a 34 per cent growth in the country in 2012. In the year 2000, diesel cars
were only 4 per cent of India’s new car sales. They are expected to touch the 50 per cent mark soon. According to official reports, diesel cars are already the second largest users of diesel in the country — cars are using more diesel than agriculture and buses. Car-makers are hard-selling diesel cars to ride on this trend (though, in 2013, diesel price reform has made a small dent in sales). But the cost of supporting this car segment’s profits, though crippling, is being generously borne by the government and the oil marketing companies. The government earns much less excise on a litre of diesel used by cars, as opposed to petrol. Oil firms, on their part, face huge under-recovery of costs. Public health costs do not even figure in diesel’s balance sheet. The situation is particularly alarming for a city like Delhi, where more than 55 per cent of its 17 million people live within 500 metre of the major roads and are directly affected by traffic emissions.
FIFTY PER CENT OF URBAN POPULATION OF INDIA BREATHES IN POISONOUS AIR The Centre for Science and Environment analysed air quality data of 180 cities available from the Central Pollution Control Board for the year 2010. The estimates show that half of the urban population of India breathes air laced with particulate pollution levels that exceed the standards. As much as one third of the urban population is exposed to critical levels of particulate pollution. Smaller and more obscure cities are amongst the most polluted in the country.
Trends National PM10 levels: About 78 per cent of the cities (141 cities) exceed the PM10 standard. 90 cities have critical levels of PM10 and of these, 26 have most critical levels, which exceed the standard by more than three times. Gwalior, West Singhbhum, Ghaziabad, Raipur and Delhi are the top five critically polluted cities. National NO2 levels: About 10 per cent of the cities (19 cities) exceed the NO2 standard. Of these, about nine cities have critical levels of NO2. The remaining 10 have high levels. Howrah, Barrackpore, Badlapur, Ulhasnagar and Asansol are the top five critically polluted cities. National SO2 levels: One city — Lote in Maharashtra — exceeds the SO2 standard. Moderate levels of SO2 are noted in
Jamshedpur and Saraikela Kharsawan in Jharkhand; Chandrapur, Badlapur, Ulhasnagar and Pune in Maharashtra; Ghaziabad and Khurja in UP; Dehradun in Uttarakhand; and Marmagao and Curchorem in Goa. Cities with double trouble — particulates and NO2: Howrah, Barrackpore, Asansol, Durgapur, Sankrail, Raniganj, Kolkata (West Bengal), Badlapur and Ulhasnagar (Maharashtra) have critical levels of NO2 and PM10. Delhi, Haldia, Bicholim, Jamshedpur, Meerut, Noida, Saraikela Kharsawan, Jalgaon and Raipur have high levels of NO2 as well as critical levels of PM10. Worsening trend since 2005: The PM10 monitoring network has doubled between 2005 and 2010 from 96 to 180 cities. During this period the number of cities with low levels of pollution has fallen from 10 to two, while the number of critically polluted cities has increased from 49 to 89. In 2005 about 75 per cent of the cities exceeded the standard. In 2010, 78 per cent were exceeding the standard. NO2 monitoring had expanded from 100 cities in 2005 to 177 in 2010. In 2005, only one city had exceeded the standard for NO2; in 2010, 19 cities exceeded it. The tightening of the national ambient air quality standards has also changed the air quality profile of the cities.
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AIR PO LLU TI O N INDIA’S DEATH BURDEN Leading risk factors for deaths in 2010 in India 0 High blood pressure Household air pollution from solid fuels Tobacco smoking, including second-hand smoke Diet low in fruits Ambient particulate matter pollution High fasting plasma glucose Alcohol use Physical inactivity and low physical activity Diet low in nuts and seeds Diet high in sodium Diet low in vegetables Diet low in whole grains Diet low in seafood omega-3 fatty acids Occupational risk factors for injuries Childhood underweight High total cholestrol Lead exposure High body-mass index Sub-optimal breastfeeding Diet high in processed meat
Deaths attributable to ambient particulate matter pollution in India in 2010
Deaths in millions 0.4 0.8 1.2
Lower respiratory infections (40,717)
Cerebro-vascular disease (159,912)
Ischemic heart disease (305,367)
Chronic obstructive pulmonary (108,694) Ambient PM2.5 caused an estimated 627,000 deaths in India; 6% of all deaths in 2010
The Global Burden of Disease Report
About 620,000 premature deaths occur from air pollution-related diseases in India — a six-fold increase from the last decade 156
The IARC-WHO verdict came just before another landmark report: the 2012 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study, which ranked air pollution as a major killer in the world. Every 10 years, the GBD — a global initiative — tracks deaths and illnesses from all causes across the world. The 2012 report said there has been a threefold increase in the number of deaths caused by outdoor air pollution in 10 years. In South Asia, air pollution ranked as the sixth most dangerous killer — three places behind indoor air pollution, which is the second highest killer in this region. The latest GBD results have been produced by a rigorous scientific process involving over 450 global experts and partner institutions including the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation, the World Health Organization, the University of Queensland, Australia, Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University and the Health Effects Institute. The report’s India-specific analysis has been calculated from the larger global efforts using estimates of air pollution exposure at the national level and the India-specific deaths and incidence of leading causes of deaths (see Graph: India’s death burden). The new estimates of particulate air pollution are based on ground-level measurements, satellite remote sensing and global chemical transport models to capture population exposure. According to the latest tally, air pollution causes 3.2 million deaths worldwide. This has
State of India’s environment 2014
Trachea, bronchus and lung cancers (12,736)
Source: Aaron J Cohen 2013, Global Burden of Disease 2010
increased from 800,000, last estimated by GBD in the year 2000 — a whopping 300 per cent increase. The report calculates over 2.1 million premature deaths and 52 million years of healthy life lost in 2010 due to fine particle air pollution in Asia, which is two-thirds of the burden worldwide. Killer outdoor air contributes to 1.2 million deaths in East Asia which is in the throes of high levels of economic growth and motorisation and 712,000 deaths in South Asia (including India) which is at the take-off stage. This is much higher than the combined toll of 400,000 in EU- 27, Eastern Europe, and Russia. In South Asia, air pollution has been ranked just below blood pressure, tobacco smoking, indoor air pollution, poor intake of fruits and diabetes. This is scary as outdoor air pollution is a leveler that makes everyone — rich and the poor — vulnerable. In India, the report says air pollution is the fifth leading cause of death. The top four killers are high blood pressure, indoor air pollution, tobacco smoking and poor nutrition. About 620,000 premature deaths occur from air pollution-related diseases — a six-fold increase from the last decade. These deaths are caused primarily due to a range of cardiorespiratory ailments such as stroke (25.48 per cent), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (17.32 per cent), ischemic heart disease (48.6 per cent), lower respiratory infections (6.4 per cent), and trachea, bronchus and lung cancers (2.02 per cent). ■
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AIR PO LLU TI O N
Make way for NMT Cyclists, walkers and cycle-rickshaws — collectively referred to as nonmotorised transport or NMT — are a significant part of the Indian commuting practice. These zero emitters are the answers to killer pollution. Despite their massive numbers, most cities tend to ignore them
SAYANTONI PALCHOUDHURI / CSE
he year 2013 has sent out mixed policy signals on walking and cycling. While some cities have turned hostile towards cyclists, others have taken small steps forward. The policy disdain is most evident in the high numbers of road accident deaths and injuries. Unsafe roads hogged the headlines this year also when environmental activist Sunita Narain met with an accident while cycling in Delhi. Official statistics from the Union ministry of road transport and highways put the number of road accident fatalities in the year 2010 at 160,000. Pedestrians and cyclists constituted more than half of all these road fatalities (see Graph: Share of bicyclists and pedestrians in road accidents). The World Health Organization now includes traffic accidents and injuries as one of
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State of India’s environment 2014
the health outcomes of transportation — and qualifies it as a disability burden of the country. This is a reflection of policy neglect of infrastructure for safe walking and cycling and poor protection of rights of walkers and cyclists. Yet walkers and cyclists outnumber those who use vehicles. Earlier, a nation-wide assessment (2008) by Wilbur Smith Associates for the Union ministry of urban development (MoUD) on traffic and transportation policies and strategies in urban areas had shown that the share of walkers can vary between 16 to 57 per cent of all trips depending on the nature and size of the city. Nearly one-third of daily travel trips in Delhi, and more than half in Mumbai, are walking trips. Delhi has the highest number of cycle trips. But policy makers are yet to wake up to the dangers of building cities around only the motor vehicle.
SHARE OF BICYCLISTS AND PEDESTRIANS IN ROAD ACCIDENTS 70 Bicycle accidents (%)
60
Pedestrian accidents (%)
50 40 30 20
Bhopal
Chennai
Jaipur
Ahmedabad
Agra
Pune
Kanpur
Hyderabad
Kochi
Delhi
Mumbai
Nagpur
Surat
0
Bengaluru
10 Kolkata
% share of bicyclists and pedestrians in road accidents (2005)
80
Source: 2008, Study on traffic and transportation policies and strategies in urban areas in India, Wilbur Smith Associates, ministry of urban development
BAD NEWS OF THE YEAR As cars get priority on our roads, there is an orchestrated assault on cycling in cities. Kolkata — callous and insensitive: On May 29, 2013, the Kolkata police commissioner restricted cycle, hand carts and all other forms of nonmotorised transport (NMT) from 174 major thoroughfares. Earlier on August 11, 2008 the traffic police had restricted cycling on 38 roads. One is allowed to pedal only during odd hours — between 11 pm and 7 am. Cyclists are regularly made to pay upwards of `100 without any receipts. This monetary penalty is illegal as the police commissioner’s order has no provisions for fines. The Kolkata traffic police claims that cycles slow down vehicular traffic. Derek O’Brian, MP from Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in West Bengal, wrote in his blog on October 9,
titled ‘Stop pedalling fiction about Kolkata’: “….This prevents accidents and saves lives, including those of cyclists who otherwise have to negotiate tight traffic that allows neither them nor bigger vehicles much room for manoeuvre.” Thus, the concern over safety is used against the cyclists to make way for cars. This has triggered strong protests from civil society and widespread criticism in national and international media. This finally led to a strongly worded letter from Sudhir Krishna, secretary, Union ministry of urban development to the chief secretary of West Bengal on October 18. “The decision reeks of insensitivity towards the common citizen... there could be multiple arguments in favour of the ban, but the lack of awareness about a sustainable transport system and disregard towards the needs of users and their rights reflects a callous approach to dealing with the problems of urban transport,” wrote Krishna. “I
NMT DIPS, CARS MOVE UP
NMT modal share (%)
70
2007
2011
2021
Personal motorised travel will increase rapidly in most city classes until 2031
2031
60 50 40 30 20 10 0 <5 <5 (plain (hilly terrain) terrain)
5-10
10-20
20-40
40-80
Cities in different population classes (in lakh)
>80
Private vehicle & IPT modal share (%)
Share of non-motorised transport will decline drastically in all cities by 2031
80
2007
2011
<5 <5 5-10 (plain (hilly terrain) terrain)
10-20
2021
2031
70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 20-40
40-80
>80
Cities in different population classes (in lakh)
Source: Based on MOUD/WSA 2008 study
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AIR PO LLU TI O N CITIES ON THE MOVE TO WALK AND CYCLE Chandigarh and other cities of Punjab and Haryana A series of orders from the High Court of Punjab and Haryana has led to several progressive steps to reinvent cycle rickshaw services in cities of these states. These cities will now have to report on the status of implementation of car/vehicle-free zones and form committees under the respective chief secretaries for evolving NMT-inclusive comprehensive mobility plans. Eco-cabs have been introduced in more than 23 cities of Punjab, while a dial-a-rickshaw facility is available in the three cities of Fazilka, Patiala and Chandigarh. Chandigarh, otherwise a car-manic city, has replaced its rickshaw licensing system with simple, cost-free registration. It has also taken steps to introduce geometric improvement of road infrastructure and intersections in Chandigarh for safe movement of cycle rickshaws. The city has already restored and retrofitted 169 rickshaw stands and created about 30 new stands. Cycle rickshaw and autorickshaw operators have been included in the Rashtriya Swasth Bima Yojana. Chandigarh’s Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar has created the country's first non-motor transport society.
extended support to such initiatives on designated roads that are kept vehicle-free for the assigned time. Beach Road in Puducherry, Necklace Road in Hyderabad and similar stretches in Visakhapatnam have been earmarked for these initiatives; Gurgaon’s Raahgiri day is the latest in this genre of recreational events that have caught the imagination of the middle class as means to sensitise people about their rights to roads. What had originally begun as a fun-and-fitness activity has now evolved into a critical review of the state of urban mobility. It now awaits the next level of transition to serious and safe cycling for daily commuting.
Cycling power of the urban middle class In several cities including Indore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Puducherry, Visakhapatnam and Gurgaon, citizens’ groups have begun organising car-free days and cycling events to involve the middle class. These are largely done on weekends or at designated morning hours set side to enjoy the road without motorised hurdles. City authorities have
Chennai reclaims space from motorised vehicles Chennai wants to achieve 70 per cent public transport ridership by 2023. A small part of that vision is seeing fruition through its plans to provide pedestrian infrastructures all along bus routes. The city corporation has selected 448 bus routes (358 km) for improvement. Work has begun on footpaths of 71 routes, approximately over 49 km.
Hill towns take the lead Evidence of progressive moves is also coming, most notably from a few hill towns — for instance, Gangtok (Sikkim) has freed up stretches of its central artery, the Mahatma Gandhi Road, from vehicles. Nainital (Uttarakhand) has made the surroundings of its Naini Lake vehicle-free and organised a cycle rickshaw service. Shimla has already made its core area vehicle-free.
would request you to look into the matter personally and direct Kolkata Traffic Police to lift the ban on cycles immediately and undertake a proper study to resolve the traffic problems in a more equitable and sustainable manner,” he added. These widespread protests and criticism have finally provoked a statement from the minister of transport, West Bengal, Madan Mitra: “I fully support cycles and non-motorised transport and care for their safety and promote their use. The government has not ratified the notification issued by Kolkata police and hence no ban exists.” A cycling ban makes little sense in polluted Kolkata where trips by cycles (11 per cent) and walking (19 per cent) outnumber trips made by cars (8 per cent). Only 1.5 per cent of road accidents happen due to cyclists’ fault compared to 71 per cent because of drivers of motor vehicles. Ahmedabad stepping back: The Ahmedabad 160
State of India’s environment 2014
Janmarg Limited (AJL), which operates the BRTS in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, has decided that future corridors will not have any physical barriers to separate cycle lanes from the main carriageway. The narrow width of the roads has been cited as the reason. AJL does not plan to introduce any traffic calming measures or speed limits for the safety of pedestrians or cyclists. A study by the city’s Centre for Environment Planning and Technology university shows that the Ahmedabad BRTS stretches for 78 km, but only 26.2 per cent of the network has cycle tracks. Not all the tracks are fit to use. Similarly, while 83.7 per cent of the BRTS has footpaths, only half of them are unobstructed and open for use by pedestrians. Reportedly, the lack of a plan to integrate cycling and walking with BRT is leading to a decline in non-motorised transport in the city. It is time to change the rules of the game and make implementation of improved guidelines for walking and cycling infrastructure mandatory and non-negotiable. ■
COME OUT AND CLAIM THE ROAD Sunita Narain wrote this editorial in Down To Earth (November 16-30, 2013) while recovering from a road accident. She was hit by a car while cycling
I write this column from my bed, recovering from an accident that broke my bones. I was hit by a speeding car when cycling. The car fled the scene, leaving me bleeding on the road. This is what happens again and again, in every city of our country, on every road as we plan without care for the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. These are the invisible users. They die doing nothing more than the most ordinary thing like crossing a road. I was more fortunate. Two cars stopped, strangers helped me and took me to hospital. I got treatment. I will be back fighting fit. And this is one battle that needs our combined attention. We cannot lose the space to walk and cycle. Since my accident, relatives and friends all have berated me for being so reckless as to cycle on Delhi’s roads. They are right. We have built the city roads only for cars. They rule the road. There are no dedicated lanes for cycles and sidewalks. The little stretches that do exist are either dirty or taken over by parked cars. Roads are for cars. The rest don’t matter. But cycling and walking are difficult not just because of poor planning. It is also because of our mindset that only those who move in a car have a status and road rights. Anyone who walks or cycles is poor, wretched and destined to be marginalised, if not obliterated. This is what must change. We have no option but to reinvent mobility, as I keep repeating. This week toxic smog in Delhi has reached a new peak. Last month the World Health Organization declared air pollutants a human carcinogen. We must realize that this pollution is not acceptable. It is killing us, and no longer softly or slowly. But if we are serious about combating air pollution then we have no option but to think of restraining the growth of cars. Learn how to move people not cars. When Centre for Science and Environment began its campaign against air pollution in the mid-1990s, it did everything conventional. It pushed to clean up the quality of fuel; improved emission standards of vehicles; got inspectional and maintenance systems for checking tailpipe emissions in place. It also pushed a leapfrog solution transition to compressed natural gas (CNG) for
gross polluting vehicles like diesel buses and two-stroke autorickshaws. All that made a difference. There is no question that the quality of air would have been even worse, even more deadly, without these steps. But this is not good enough. We soon realised this. Pollution levels are rising again, inexorably and inevitably. All research points to one cause and one big solution: building transport systems differently. We also have the option of doing this. We have still not motorised; still not built every flyover or four-lane road. Most importantly, most of India still takes the bus, walks or cycles in many cities as much as 20 per cent population bikes. We do this because we are poor. Now the challenge is to reinvent city planning so that we can do this as we become rich. For the past few years this is exactly what we have been working on how to bring back integrated and safe public transport options to our cities, so that even if we own a car, we don’t have to drive it. But the keyword is integration. We can build a metro or get new buses, but if we do not have last mile connectivity, then it will still not work. It has to be seamless and effortless. That is why we need to think differently. This is where we are failing. Today, there is talk of transport, even cycling and needs of pedestrians. But it is empty talk. Every time there is an attempt to take a part of the existing road and convert it into a cycle track, it is virulently opposed. The argument is it will take away space from cars and add to congestion. But that is exactly what we need to do; reduce lanes for cars and add space for buses, cycles and pedestrians. This is the only way to get out of the ever-growing car-bulge on roads. This takes courage of conviction. In our overcrowded and chaotic roads, planning for cycle tracks and keeping sidewalks clean and clear will take lots of effort. I have absolutely no illusion that this will be easy to plan or to implement. But why should that deter us? The rest of the world has learnt successfully to rework road space so that it provides dignity and accessibility to cyclists and pedestrians. They have learnt to restrict space for cars and yet build extremely liveable cites. Just think of the double bonus: clean air by getting rid of the most noxious source of pollution and healthy bodies by having the option of getting some exercise while commuting. This is what we have to fight for. And we will. I hope all of you will join us in making the right to cycle and walk with safety non-negotiable. PS: Many thanks to the kind strangers who took me to hospital and the excellent doctors at the AIIMS Trauma Centre to whom I owe my life.
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Metro and the money Private sector investment in public transport he year 2013 has witnessed an extra push towards high-end and high-cost metro rail systems. The working group of the 12th Five Year Plan has recommended metro systems in two-million plus population cities, preferably on a publicprivate partnership (PPP) model. As these projects come with a high cost tag, governments are increasingly looking at ways to bring in more private sector investments. During this year, the experience with private sector investments has thrown up some bitter lessons. The message that private investments require strong terms of accountability and delivery of services came from the ugly spat over private sector financing of metro rail in Delhi. Delhi Airport Metro Express Line (DAMEL), a special purpose vehicle of Reliance Infrastructure Ltd, terminated its agreement with Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for the city’s airport metro line. This has made the future of PPP for high cost public transport projects bleak. Reliance Infra invoked the termination clause on the grounds that DMRC has failed to take care of the technical defects in civil structure built by it. But this tangle requires immediate regulatory solutions to hold private parties accountable and responsible for more equitable risk sharing. The PPP agreements are making governments and public agencies vulnerable to serious financial risks at an enormous public cost. In this case, the government is also to be blamed for evading its own norms. The draft performance audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, shows that to meet the deadline, the ministry of urban development did not even put the project through the PPP Appraisal Committee (PPPAC), constituted in 2008 to evaluate such deals. All infrastructure projects on PPP mode costing over `100 crore are mandated to be appraised by the PPPAC. Taking advantage of the gaps and fissures in the agreement, Reliance Infra held DMRC and the government to ransom. For a project that has gone awry the concessionaire expected its entire money — `2,800 crore — back and also to be compensated for losses. If the arbitration goes against the government and DMRC, the government will have to pay 130 per cent of the equity and 100 per cent of the debt incurred by
T
Delhi Metro’s airport line was projected to carry 40,000 people a day; but its highest ridership has not exceeded 21,000 a day. It is not seen as a profitable line
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Reliance Infra. If Reliance Infra loses the government will still have to pay 80 per cent of the debt. Thus, the private sector gains either way without any accountability. There is now a demand for due diligence in drawing up PPP contracts in future. The contracts should set a floor level to the debt-toequity ratio for the project that the concessionaire cannot breach and that financial institutions can monitor. Experts have asked for these regulations to prevent “perverse incentives for concessionaires”. Also as per the global practice, profits from dilution are also expected to be shared with the government.
The mobility question Profitability of a transportation system is ultimately linked with its usage and ridership. The passenger forecast for the airport line was 40,000 persons a day; with a 7.3 per cent growth per annum, it was projected to increase to 86,000 by 2021. This forecast became the basis of the financials for the project. But Reliance Metro’s own consultants indicated only 14,126 passengers for the year 2011 and 35,741 for 2021, far below the projections of DMRC. The highest number of passengers on this line has not exceeded 21,000 passengers a day. The advertisers and developers do not see profit in this line. Planning and operation of metro in isolation without multi-modal integration, feeder links and poor accessibility can make such expensive systems sub-optimal. In this case, there is much anecdotal data on how people using this line find it inaccessible, unsafe at nights and with poor last mile connectivity to stations along the way especially near the domestic airport. There is little aggression on strategies needed to improve access to the line from other modes and neighbourhoods, which is the core function of the project. Passengers can bring only one fourth of the earnings. Clearly, the lesson this year is that PPP models will require stringent quality, technical and ridership audits and robust rules for risk sharing, accountability and routine qualitative checks. These should be the most important requisites to approve any project on PPP mode. What matters more in public transport projects, is the delivery of public service for public good at affordable prices. ■
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MOTORISATION MENACE We buy cars to help us move. But do they? Rapidly growing vehicle numbers are cramping the roads in our cities — big or small — leading to massive pollution, congestion and traffic gridlocks. They are bringing us to a standstill. And exposing us to killer doses of extremely poisonous emissions. 8,000
MOTORISATION IN METROPOLITAN CITIES
Registered vehicles in thousands
7,000
6,000
2002
2011
5,000
4,000
3,000
2,000
1,000
0
Kolkata
700
Greater Mumbai
Pune
Hyderabad
Chennai
Bengaluru
MOTOR VEHICLES PER 1,000 PEOPLE IN MILLION-PLUS CITIES IN 2011
500 400 300 200 100
Source: Based on Union ministry of road transport and highways data 2012
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State of India’s Environment 2014
Coimbatore
Allahabad
Jodhpur
Jaipur
Kota
Pune
Bhopal
Chennai
Varanasi
Delhi
Patna
Meerut
Kochi
Srinagar
Jamshedpur
0 Kolkata
Registered vehicles
600
Delhi
VEHICULAR EXHAUST EXPOSURE IN INDIA Exposure (iF) is calculated as gramme of vehicle pollution inhaled per gramme of vehicle pollution emitted
Delhi
Ahmedabad
Kolkata
Mumbai Hyderabad Location World
Bengaluru Chennai
iF (PPM)
URBAN POPULATION
100
> 3 million
30
> 600,000, < 3 million
10
> 100,000, < 600,000
Exposure (iF) 39
India (average)
51
Hyderabad
63
Bengaluru
68
Ahmedabad
69
Chennai
72
Mumbai
79
Delhi
100
Kolkata
150
Note: iF is a measure of vehicular exhaust intake fraction Source: Estimates from Apte, et al (2012), ‘Global Intraurban Intake Fractions for Primary Air Pollutants from Vehicles and Other Distributed Sources’, Environmental Science and Technology, 46(6), 3415–3423
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7
Climate change ■ Scientists working in an observatory in the Hawaii are saying that global concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere — the main cause of climate change — has crossed the 400 parts per million mark for the first time in recorded history.
Many other events, studies and prognoses — including the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment report — are pointing to the inevitable: that the world is heading for trouble. ■
Recurring extreme weather events remind us that there might be a link between them and changing climate — but more significantly, one which we still do not understand completely. ■
■
Are our leaders listening?
IAN UMEDA
???????? / CSE
■ The deliberations at various global meets and summits, including the 19th Conference of Parties in Warsaw, give no indications of that.
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C LIM AT E C H A N G E
The writing on the wall The warnings are all there. Atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide has crossed 400 parts per million (ppm). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says it’s all human-induced. Typhoon Haiyan has wrecked the Philippines. But the world continues to look the other way. At the 19th Conference of Parties in Warsaw, the world missed another chance to build trust and put in place a roadmap to achieve an ambitious global deal in Paris in 2015
KADAMBINI RAGHURAM
n May 9, 2013, two independent teams of scientists confirmed that the global concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere — the main cause of climate change — had crossed 400 parts per million (ppm). At the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, US, which has been monitoring CO2 concentration in the atmosphere for the past 55 years, scientists from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography confirmed that the daily average CO2 concentration for May 9 was 400.03 ppm. So, what does this mean for the world? The parties to the UN climate convention have pledged to limit the increase in global average temperature to 1.5-2°C compared to the pre-industrial levels. It is generally accepted that keeping the temperature increase below 1.5°C and 2°C means keeping CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere below 350 ppm and 450 ppm, respectively. The crossing of the 400 ppm mark means that the world will not be able to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C. Additionally, with CO2 concentration increasing at 2 ppm annually, the world is likely to hit the 450 ppm target much before 2050. If the world does not implement far-reaching measures to reduce emissions, then meeting even the 2°C will become impossible. This was also the message that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) gave in its new report.
O
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State of India’s environment 2014
Countries like Japan and Australia have gone back on their commitment to reduce emissions, while the US and the EU have refused to increase their targets IPCC’s Assessment Reports
–2.0 1950
The Warsaw warp
2000
2050
2100
Northern hemisphere spring sea ice extent will dip with the rise in global mean surface temperature 10.0 39 (5)
6.0 29 (3) 4.0 RCP2.6 RCP4.5 RCP6.0 RCP8.5
(106 km2)
8.0
37 (5)
2.0 0.0 1950
2000
2050
2100
Global ocean surface pH, indicating acidification, will speed up 8.2
12 9
8.0 10
7.8
7.6 1950
RCP2.6 RCP4.5 RCP6.0 RCP8.5
(pH unit)
The Warsaw climate talks, a preparatory round leading to the CoP in 2015 in Paris where a new deal on climate change is supposed to be signed, was tagged as a procedural conference. Only few outcomes were expected, but each of them significant in their ability to influence the level of ambition and trust needed to keep a 2015 deal within reach. The major expectation was to lay a foundational framework for the deal in 2015. However, right from the first day, the conference was overshadowed by the debate on loss and damage (L&D) arising out of climate change. Typhoon Haiyan, which devastated parts of the Philippines just few days before the start of the CoP, became the catalyst for the demand for a separate mechanism to pay for L&D in developing countries. Extreme weather events such as cyclones and floods and slow onset events like sea level rise are now imposing huge losses on lives and livelihoods of communities across the developing world. At the 2012 Doha CoP, the developed world accepted the principle of L&D for the first time. They also agreed to set up a mechanism to address the issue of L&D. However, at Warsaw, talks on L&D broke down due to disagreement between the developed and developing countries on the nature and structure of the L&D mechanism. Developing countries demanded a separate mechanism to
RCP2.6 RCP4.5 RCP6.0 RCP8.5
(°C)
The first part of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of IPCC was released in September 2013 (see article on AR5 in this section). The report of the Working Group I looked at the physical science basis for climate change. It examined the scientific evidence to infer why climate change is happening and what are the changes observed in the climatic systems so far. The report also projected the future climate scenarios. The AR5 says: "It is extremely likely (95 per cent confidence) that human influence on climate caused more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature from 1951-2010." The Fourth Assessment Report of IPCC, which was released in 2007, had put the confidence level at 90 per cent. According to the projections made by AR4, global surface temperature change for the end of the 21st century is likely to exceed 2°C relative to 1850-1900 (see Figure: Predictions of AR4). In a businessas-usual scenario, the temperature could rise to 3.6-4.8°C by 2100. The result of this temperature rise would be catastrophic. ● Global mean sea level could rise by 0.26-0.98 metre (m) during 2081-2100 relative to 1986-2005. ● Acidification of oceans will accelerate. ● Arctic sea ice cover will continue to shrink and thin. The PREDICTIONS OF AR4 Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover will decrease during the 21st century as global mean surface Global average surface temperature could rise to 4.8°C by 2100 temperature rises. Mean over 6.0 2081-2100 ● Global glacier volume will further decrease, endangering Historical water security in countries like India. 4.0 RCP2.6 39 The world, however, continues to ignore these warnings. RCP8.5 At the 19th UN climate change CoP held at Warsaw, the report 2.0 of the Working Group I (AR5) was acknowledged, but not 42 0.0 acted on. 32
2000
2050
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C LIM AT E C H A N G E WHAT IS THE TREND? ● ● ● ●
Each of the past three decades has been successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850. Over the last two decades, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass, glaciers have continued to shrink almost worldwide, and Arctic sea ice and Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover have continued to decrease in extent. The rate of sea level rise since the mid-19th century has been larger than the mean rate during the previous two millennia. Over the period 1901–2010, global mean sea level rose by 0.19 m. The atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide have increased to levels unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years. CO2 concentrations have increased by 40 per cent since pre-industrial times, primarily from fossil fuel emissions and secondarily from net land use change emissions.
❮❮ Rewind 2013 Scientists confirm global concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has crossed 400 ppm The first part of the Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) of IPCC is released. Report reiterates the human-induced nature of climate change 170
compensate for L&D; this was to reinforce the point that loss and damage is ‘beyond adaptation’. Developed countries, however, insisted that it be addressed under existing mechanisms like the Adaptation Framework set up under the 2010 Cancun Agreement, to deny the special status that a separate mechanism would ensure. Ultimately, the developed world lodged two wins: it not only secured the mechanism under the Adaptation Framework, it also refused exclusive funds for L&D. The only consolation for developing countries was a review of the mechanism in 2016. But pushing the L&D mechanism to 2016 means that the least developing countries and small island states, that have the most interest in the L&D mechanism, will reach Paris with dissatisfaction and a trust deficit. This does not augur well for the 2015 deal. In all the hullaballoo on the L&D mechanism, the developing world also lost something much bigger on how the world is going to reduce emissions from now till 2020 and then beyond 2020. At the Durban CoP in 2010, the world had agreed to set up an Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) to finalise a legal agreement by 2015 to cut emissions from 2020 onwards. Under ADP, countries are also discussing to increase their mitigation ambition for near term — pre-2020 — to bridge the ‘gigatonne gap’. The gap represents how much countries have pledged under the Cancun Agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions till 2020 and what science demands to avoid catastrophic climate change. Negotiations on the pre-2020 front were damaged severely in the first week of the talks itself. Developed countries not only failed to ratify the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol as promised at Doha, but some even backtracked on their past commitments. Japan, instead of its earlier commitment of reducing emissions by 25 per cent by 2020 relative to the 1990 levels, brought this down to only 3.8 per cent from its 2005 level by 2020. This is actually an increase of 3.1 per cent over the 1990 levels. Australia had said that it would reduce its emissions by up to 25 per cent with respect to 2000 levels by 2020 if countries like India and China pledge mitigation actions as well. India and China have put forward their pledges, but now Australia wants to reduce its emissions by only 5 per cent. Other developed countries maintained the status quo. The EU, which has already met its target for 2020, did not increase its ambition; the US’ target remains somewhere between 0 and 3 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. Low ambition from the developed countries meant that the ‘gigatonne gap’ would remain. A clear demand of major developing countries such as India and China was that developed countries step up their targets to close the gigatonne gap. But the clear lack of progress on this front further strained the trust deficit between developed and developing countries and lent to the weak outcome in the post-2020 track. Central to the disagreement under the post-2020 track was the question of whether major developing countries like India and China should undertake voluntary “action” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or come on board with rich countries and take up binding “commitments” to do so. India’s strategy of using ‘equity’ as a negotiating tool to avoid binding international commitments backfired in Warsaw. In a choreographed negotiating strategy, developed countries pushed India to the wall where India agreed to ‘contribution’ by all countries. ‘Contribution’ signals the voluntary nature of the agreement, meaning every country will now have an option to propose whatever emissions reduction target it wants. However, as these contributions will apply to both developed and developing countries, this further erases the differentiation between them, one that India has fought hard to retain for the past two decades. Furthermore, the final text of the Warsaw CoP makes no explicit mention of the key
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❮❮ Rewind 2013
ARNAB PRATIM DUTTA / CSE
principle of common but differentiated responsibility and respective capability (CBDR-RC) under the UNFCCC, a milestone that the developed countries have reached in diluting the differentiation between the industrialised countries and their developing counterparts. The worst part is that all countries, most importantly developed countries, will lower their mitigation ambition for the post 2020 deal. The world, therefore, is likely to see “mega gigatonne gap” post 2020 which will have disastrous consequences for the poor in the developing countries like India. The only saving grace of Warsaw CoP was an outcome on ways to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation, popularly called REDD+. The mechanism aims to provide monetary incentives to forest communities for protecting forests, which are major carbon sinks. The framework agreed to at Warsaw puts in place a rulebook for REDD+ projects, but how forest communities will grapple with the ground realities of such rules is not yet clear. For instance, the framework will give results-based finance to the communities. Under this approach, payments will be made after communities establish that they have reduced emissions by protecting forests. This potentially opens up the entire REDD+ mechanism to markets-based funding and carbon credits. If this happens, then carbon storage in forests (for instance, through fast growing plantations) will override the imperatives of conservation of natural forests and biodiversity. Similarly, the high cost of technology such as satellite imagery needed to prove that deforestation was actually avoided means that only countries and communities with greater capacity will be able to take the advantage of this mechanism. The US, UK and Norway promised US $280 million for REDD+ projects at Warsaw, far from the billions that experts see as required to build the capacity of countries to participate in REDD+ mechanism. The final outcome at Warsaw presents a re-run of the Polish CoP in 2008. At the Poznan conference, countries had agreed to make the Adaptation Fund operational, which was to use money generated by carbon credits under the Clean Development Mechanism to help developing countries adapt to climate change. Today, the carbon market is dead, and so is the fund. The loss and damage mechanisms agreed to at Warsaw cannot escape the fate of the Adaptation Fund unless the developed countries deliver on predictable and sustainable finance. In the lead-up to Paris, the real challenge is to stitch the differences between the developed and developing world. For this, the developed world will need to show real ambition and real money. The developing world, particularly India, will need to go back to the table and rework its strategy. With little time remaining, one can only hope these differences do not go to Paris when we are negotiating the 2015 deal. Otherwise, we will see a repeat of Copenhagen in 2015 — marked by secret deals, deep distrust and no consensus. ■
The 19th UN Conference of Parties on climate change takes place in Warsaw. Nations do little to address critical issues of finance and loss and damage, even as a spate of extreme weather events lashes the earth In Bangkok, parties to the Montreal Protocol meet to discuss ozonedepleting substances. The meeting does not reach a decision on whether hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) should be discussed under the Protocol In October, IITMadras hosts India’s Fourth National Research Conference on Climate Change. Over 100 scientists from across the country participate
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Is this climate change? Are extreme weather events because of climate change? There is not enough data or study yet to establish definite connections, though scientists are increasingly veering towards the opinion that they are. In 2013, India was pounded by the untimely rains and resultant flash floods in Uttarakhand, and the fury of cyclone Phailin in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Are these indicators of more turbulent times ahead? EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS IN INDIA IN 2013
Cloudburst
Uttarakhand, flash floods, November 13, affected 110,000 people, killed nearly 7,000 people Saurashtra/Gujarat, drought, March, affected 4,000 villages
Flood
Cyclone
Drought
Assam, floods, July 3, affected 250,000 people
Bihar, floods, July-September, affected 1.6 million people Bihar, drought, June-September, affected 33 districts
Malda/West Bengal, floods, July 15, affected 200,000 people
Chandrapur/Maharashtra, floods, August 5, affected 3,000 people, economic losses of `1,835 crore Maharashtra, drought, July-September, affected 12,000 villages
Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, cyclone Phailin, October 12-13, affected 1,481 villages, led to 45 deaths and economic losses of `4,292 crore Andhra Pradesh, cyclone Mahesan, May 8, affected 30,000 people Andhra Pradesh, cyclone Helen, November 21, affected 11,000 people, economic losses of `1,628 crore Andhra Pradesh, cyclone Leher, November 28, affected 44,000 people
Kerala, drought, April-June
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Gudalur/Pandalur district/Tamil Nadu, Nilgiris, cloudburst, June 26
SANJAY SEMWAL
reliminary estimates suggest that the Uttarakhand disaster cost the state `50,000 crore in infrastructural losses. This is almost equal to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) for 2011-12. According to the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC’s) November 2011 Special Report on Managing the Risks of Extreme Events and Disasters to Advance Climate Change Adaptation (SREX), ‘extreme weather events’ — such as what happened in Uttarakhand — led to estimated annual global monetary losses of between a few billion US dollars to a mammoth US $225 billion in the period 1980-2010. The report went on to say that if the loss is valued in terms of GDP, between 2001 and 2006, low income countries lost about 0.3 per cent due to these events; developed nations lost only about 0.1 per cent. The worst hit were countries with a rapidly expanding assets base, like India and China, which lost about one per cent of their GDP. What are these extreme weather events? Are
P
they linked to changing climate? It is widely accepted that keeping global temperature rise below 2°C will exercise a moderating influence on climate change, and keep it from becoming ‘catastrophic’. The current average annual global temperature increase is 0.8°C; experts say an addition of another 0.8°C is inevitable because of the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) the world has already pumped into the atmosphere. This means the world is, even now, close to the limit. In fact, many believe that 2°C is already too high and that we should be limiting the increase to 1.5°C. In 2007, the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report had said that emissions must be capped at 450 parts per million (ppm) by 2020 to keep the world within the 2°C temperature rise limit. In May 2013, the Hawaii-based Mauna Loa recording station of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, came up with a startling discovery: the carbon dioxide level had already breached the 400 ppm mark! The SREX report, culled from scientific studies undertaken across the world, makes a strong link between extreme weather events and
The swirl of destruction Uttarakhand lost infrastructure worth `50,000 crore in the disaster that wrecked it in 2013. Many factors played a role in triggering it, and a changing climate was probably one of them
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43 per cent One of the highest departures from normal monsoonal activity over the entire monsoon period was seen in Vidarbha Drought Maharashtra faced its worst drought in 50 years. Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Bihar were the other states that had to contend with severe drought conditions
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greenhouse gas concentrations from anthropogenic emissions. The report points out that droughts have intensified since 1950 and are prolonged, especially in western Africa and southern Europe. The frequency of cyclones may have remained the same, but their intensity and maximum wind speeds are likely to increase. This will increase the number of people who get affected. In 1970s, the number of people exposed to tropical cyclones was about 73 million. With increased intensity, the number may double by 2030. The report sounds a red alert on inundations due to high rainfall events like the one in Mumbai in 2005. Such events occur once every 20 years. By the end of the century, these may become as frequent as once every five years. But are the linkages that clear? In 2013, India witnessed a wide range of weather events — from the floods of Uttarakhand, and a succession of cyclones that hit its eastern coast, to episodes of intense rainfall in typically dry/arid regions. The country is not a stranger to such events. However, it is when such events show a departure from the normal trend that the question of whether climate change is influencing the change rises. What do the events point to?
India 2013 ● Cold wave and monsoons: India started the year with a cold wave spell that took more than 250 lives in the northern parts of the country. In the first week of January 2013, Delhi reportedly recorded a temperature of 1.9 degrees, the lowest in 44 years. The monsoons behaved erratically as well — according to the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD’s) climate bulletin, the northeastern region, which typically records some of highest rains in the country, received lesser rainfall than usual, while the central and peninsular parts of the country received excess rainfall. The southwest monsoons arrived on time on June 1, but it came to an end by June 16, almost a month ahead of its normal date. This pace of advance was unprecedented and has been the fastest during the period 1950-2013. Western Vidarbha, a region that typically falls in the arid/semi-arid category, is a case in point for climate anomalies that depart from the norm. Following severe drought in 2012-13, in August, the drought-prone districts of Buldhana, Akola, Washim, Amravati and Yavatmal received 1.5 to two times the average rainfall. Washim received 457 mm of rainfall, which was 167 per cent more than normal. Many regions also witnessed unprecedented intense rainfall episodes — 300400 mm rains within 24 hours. This led to an
State of India’s environment 2014
estimated 350,000 ha of agricultural and residential land to go under water. According to the IMD, Vidarbha showed one of the highest departures from normal monsoonal activity, pegged at 43 per cent over the entire monsoon period. Saurashtra and Kutch regions in Gujarat indicated a 64 per cent departure from normal — instead of the usual 473 mm of rainfall, the region received 777 mm. ● Cyclones: The first cyclone that crossed the Indian subcontinent was Mahasen, followed by Phailin, which was the most intense cyclone to hit India after the super cyclone that had flattened Odisha in 1999. Andhra Pradesh encountered two more cyclones: the Helen and Lehar. According to scientist M R Ramesh Kumar of the National Institute of Oceanography in Goa, though three of these cyclones were severe, it still is not enough to establish an increase in the occurrence or intensity of cyclones over the Indian coast. A long-term average, he points out, shows no increasing trend. ● Floods: The first recorded flood of 2013 was in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu in March. The months of June till September were when large swathes of the nation went under water. Uttarakhand received rainfall which was 375 per cent more than normal, resulting in one of the worst flash floods India has ever seen. Among the other states that experienced the fury of floods were Assam, Maharashtra, Bihar, Arunachal Pradesh and West Bengal. ● Drought: Maharashtra faced the worst drought in 50 years; the state government asked for a `2,400-crore aid package from the Centre to tide over the crisis, which was largely attributed to reasons such as mismanagement of funds and resources. Andhra Pradesh declared 234 mandals as drought hit, while for the first time ever, Kerala declared a drought in all its districts. Thirty-three districts in Bihar and 17 in Gujarat were identified as drought-hit. What is increasingly becoming clear in all this is that there is no completely credible data to establish a trend. Moreover, the reasons behind the devastation caused by extreme events are, more often than not, complicated and may involve mismanagement of resources and bad planning. There is also another question — how much has human influence loaded the weather dice to make a particular event more likely? From what happened in Uttarakhand, the possibility of human interference playing a not so unsubstantial part becomes stronger. ■
REUTERS
PHAILIN Tropical cyclone Phailin (‘sapphire’ in Thai) had originated over east-central Bay of Bengal; it hit the Odisha coast at 9:15 pm on October 12, 2013 with a speed of 210 km per hour. The cyclone was 250 km wide and carried moisture sucked from an area half the size of India. In 36 hours before the cyclone hit the coast, government officials along with the Army and paramilitary forces evacuated close to 900,000 people to safer places in five districts. This was the state’s largest – and probably the country’s fastest -- evacuation exercise. By October 13, Phailin weakened; it crossed five states before dissipating in Nepal on October 17-18. In the meantime, a severe flood caused by incessant rains for 48 hours after the cyclone hit shore, led to floods in six major rivers—the Budhabalanga, Bansadhara, Baitarani, Bramahani, Kani and Rushikulya. Though the cyclone and the ensuing floods did not claim many lives (22 by the state government’s reckoning), the loss of property was estimated at over `80 crore, while damage to power infrastructure was estimated at more than `1,000 crore. According to official figures, Phailin affected eight million people in 13 districts — Puri, Ganjam, Nayagarh, Kendrapara,
Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Gajapati, Balasore, Bhadrak, Khurda, Cuttack, Keonjhar and Balasore; Ganjam was the worst-affected. Of the 400,000 houses that were completely or severely damaged, 240,000 were reported from Ganjam. Affected villages numbered over 18,000 in Odisha and 294 in Andhra Pradesh. At least 668,268 ha of standing crops were destroyed across coastal Odisha, according to the initial estimates of the state agriculture department. It might seem a small area compared to the 1.2 million ha of standing crops destroyed by the super cyclone of 1999 and given that the net sown area in the state is 607 million ha; however, in terms of livelihood, it was a disaster for farmers in at least nine districts. The crop loss has been estimated at `2,300 crore, according to R S Gopalan, director of Odisha’s agriculture department. Odisha sought financial assistance amounting to `4,242 crore from the Centre, while Andhra Pradesh estimated a loss of `50 crore. Was Phailin a result of changing climate? The IPCC’s SREX report says the frequency of cyclones the world encounters may remain the same, but their intensity and maximum wind speeds are likely to increase. This will increase the number of people who get affected by it. Modelling studies indicate that global warming
1999, super cyclone Maximum pressure drop: 98 hectopascal (hPa) Average speed: 15.5 km/hr Land elevation: 5m Wind speed: over 235 km/hr 2013, Phailin Maximum pressure drop: 70 hPa Average speed: 17.5 km/hr Land elevation: 7 m Wind speed: 210-220 km/hr
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Source: NASA
22 Districts affected in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh by Phailin 12 million People affected in the two states Over 3 lakh Houses damaged 1 million People evacuated during the cyclone
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NAME OF THE STORM AND THE LOCATION
WIND SPEED (1 MINUTE SUSTAINED WINDS)
Atlantic and northern Pacific: hurricane • Category 1 Hurricane • Category 2 Hurricane • Category 3 Hurricane • Category 4 Hurricane • Category 5 Hurricane (Sandy, October 2012, Manhattan, USA)
119 km/hr-152 km/hr 154 km/hr-176 km/hr 180 km/hr-207 km/hr 209 km/hr-252 km/hr >254 km/hr
Northwestern Pacific : typhoon • Typhoon • Super typhoon (Haiyan, November, 2013, Philippines)
133 km/hr-239 km/hr 240 km/hr>254 km/hr
Northern Indian Ocean : severe cyclonic storm • Severe cyclonic storm • Very severe cyclonic storm • Super cyclonic storm (Phailin, October 2013, India)
102 km/hr-131 km/hr 133 km/hr-239 km/hr 240 km/hr>254 km/hr
Australia and South Pacific :tropical cyclones • Category 1 Tropical cyclone • Category 2 Tropical cyclone • Category 3 Tropical cyclone • Category 4 Tropical cyclone • Category 5 Tropical cyclone (Yasi, February 2011, Queensland, Australia)
70 km/hr-100 km/hr 102 km/hr-131 km/hr 133 km/hr-180 km/hr 180 km/hr-226 km/hr 228 km/hr>254 km/hr
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will cause the average intensity of tropical cyclones to shift towards stronger storms, with intensity increases of two–11 per cent along with 34 per cent decrease in the average frequency of tropical cyclones by 2100. Given the still uncertain science and the ambiguities in clearly attributing such events to climate change, what governments can and should do is be prepared. Odisha in 2013 was certainly better prepared to
deal with a cyclone than it was in 1999. PostPhailin, the state government has decided to assess the vulnerability of its infrastructure to extreme weather events and to regulate ‘development’ strictly. However, the mapping for this is yet to be done, points out the State Climate Change Action Plan. This is worrying -- given that 35 per cent of the state’s population lives in its nine coastal districts.
On June 16, 2013, the state of Uttarakhand received 220 mm rainfall within 24 hours. This deluge came earlier than expected and caught thousands of pilgrims on the Chhota Char Dham Yatra (Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri) off guard. According to the Char Dham control room records, there were 26,000 people in the Kedar Valley on June 16, while 39,000 had left the valley that day for Badrinath, Gangotri, Yamunotri and Hemkunt Sahib. The rains swelled the Bhagirathi, Alaknanda and Mandakini which swept away whatever came in their way. As many as 2,052 houses were wiped out, 147 bridges collapsed and 1,307 roads were destroyed, said Rakesh Sharma, state infrastructure development commissioner. The Gangotri and Yamunotri highways were damaged at several places. The rivers damaged the 36-km stretch from Uttarkashi to Bhatwari at six places. Higher up, roads were damaged due to landslides. Three drinking water projects were washed away in Garur block, while 71 streams and 40 canals were damaged. As per preliminary estimates, the disaster cost Uttarakhand `50,000 crore in infrastructural loss. The Uttarakhand Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited suffered losses of `77 crore while `50 crore was lost in power generation. The disaster was caused by a combination of factors — early onset of monsoon was the trigger. Rivers in the region already have heavier flow in June than at other times of the year because of the seasonal melting of glaciers. Between 1951 and 2000, India witnessed short spells of heavy-intensity rainfall—lasting less than four days—during monsoons. Scientists agree that the Indian monsoon is weakening, primarily due to climate change; local systems are substituting it. For example, localised clouds formed due to intensive evaporation can cause rain. In fact, no one can categorically specify the reason for the changes in precipitation, claim scientists -- they can only speculate and global warming seems to be the most likely factor behind it.
SOMA BASU / CSE
UTTARAKHAND
In Uttarakhand, there is a glacier three km from the town of Kedarnath. There is evidence that a glacial lake had formed during the rains. It was a 100 square ha lake which contained 10 million litre of water. The lake burst due to a breach in its boundary. Coupled with heavy rains in the area, this caused flash floods. Human-made factors compounded the scale of the disaster. Unabated expansion of hydropower projects and construction of roads to accommodate ever-increasing tourism, especially religious tourism, habitation on the path of Alaknanda river and the Mandakini flood ways,
Lost She sits quietly in front of her damaged house on DharchulaTawaghat road for hours along with her dog. Still in a state of shock, she lives in a refugee camp set up by non-profits
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SANJAY SEMWAL CSE ARCHIEVES
RAJ SHEKHAR PANT
The woods overrule Nature’s fury is unleashed on the gods’ abode, but with active human connivance. Massive deforestation, rampant construction and unregulated tourism result in this
were also major causes for the unprecedented scale of devastation. While extreme weather and unregulated planning are being blamed, deforestation is regarded as another factor. The worst affected districts of Chamoli, Pithoragarh, Rudraprayag and Uttarkashi are the areas where maximum forestland has been diverted for development activities. According to official figures, about 600 villages were affected in the disaster. In 2010, the disaster-prone state had 243 vulnerable villages. The number rose to 550 in 2013. After the disaster, 1,150 villages need rehabilitation. But till the time of going to press, only Chhatikhaal in Rudraprayag district had been partially rehabilitated. 178
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The problem is “Uttarakhand does not have a resettlement and rehabilitation policy. Whether people are displaced by dams or by disaster, the government always has to start from scratch,” says Ravi Chopra of Dehradun-based advocacy group People’s Science Institute. Almost 15 days after understanding the enormity of the disaster, the state government announced setting up of the Uttarakhand Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority, which would supervise the rebuilding and rehabilitation work in Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Uttarkashi, Tehri and Pithoragarh, the worst affected districts in the state. It was also given charge of handling disbursement of compensation. ■
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2001-10: THE HOTTEST DECADE High-impact climate extreme events have been witnessed globally on an unprecedented scale in the decade 2001-10. This had also been the warmest decade so far since the initiation of modern measurements in 1850. These observations have been made by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in a 2013 report titled The global climate 2001-2010: a decade of climate extremes. The 100-page report has compiled and analysed data on global and regional temperatures and precipitation collected from multiple agencies. The decade was the warmest for both hemispheres and for both land and ocean surface temperatures. Arctic sea ice declined rapidly, and there was loss of mass
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from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets and the world’s glaciers. The global mean sea level rose about 3 mm per year, compared to an average of 1.6 mm rise per year for the 20th century. The average land and ocean-surface temperature for the decade 2001-10 was estimated to be 14.47°C, which is 0.47°C above the 1961-90 global average and 0.21°C above the 1991-2000 global average. Every year of the decade, except 2008, was among the 10 warmest years on record. Nearly 94 per cent of reporting countries had their warmest decade in 2001-10. With regard to greenhouse gases, global average concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere rose to 389 parts per million(ppm) in 2010, methane to 1,808 parts per billion (ppb) and nitrous oxide to 323.2 ppb. Since the start of the industrial era in 1750, this is an increase of 39 per cent, 158 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively.
Source: NOAA-NCDC
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Who pays? Economic losses due to extreme weather events reach record high while nations spar over liability DTE
he world’s weather is breaking all records. A quick Google search reveals 2012 was the hottest year in US history and the second wettest one in the UK. Data from 2011 and 2010 show similar extremes. But not only is climate change getting worse, it is also getting costlier. A report by United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) reveals 2012 was the third consecutive year to suffer economic losses of over US $100 billion due to extreme weather events. Sixty three per cent of the losses were in the Americas, mainly due to Hurricane Sandy (US $50 billion) and the drought (US $20 billion). Developed nations tend to accrue large
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economic losses in the face of a natural disaster as they have more assets and infrastructure. Most developing countries, however, rank far higher in terms of number of disasters that hit each year, number of deaths and percentage of population affected but do not show large financial losses owing to negligible number of insured assets. Asia was the worst affected in terms of casualties due to natural disasters — 65 per cent of those killed in 2012 were Asians. About 20 typhoons and storms hit the Philippines each year and cost five per cent of its GDP. Typhoon Bopha that killed 2,000 people in the archipelago ranks the highest for 2012 in terms of deaths due to a natural disaster, followed by floods in Pakistan and Nigeria. “Most victims this year (2012) were
Asia was the worst affected in terms of casualties due to natural disasters — 65 per cent of those killed in 2012 were Asians of floods and droughts, which were responsible for nearly 80 per cent of all deaths. But as they occurred in poorer countries, the economic losses are low,” says Debby Guha-Sapir, a professor at University of Louvain in Belgium. It is well-known that economic as well as environmental impacts of climate change will not be felt evenly — those who pollute the most might not suffer the most. This raises the question of liability and compensation.
Loss and damage At the 18th climate change Conference of Parties in Doha (CoP-18), countries had fought a bitter battle to answer just this. In what was considered a mighty win for developing nations, the CoP had agreed upon “institutional arrangements, such as an international mechanism,” to address loss and damage due to climate change in particularly vulnerable developing countries. According to Meena Raman of the Third World Network, an international NGO, “The agreement was very significant in accepting the concept of loss and damage as going beyond adaptation. It recognises that there are situations where developing countries will not be able to have any adaptation response but will suffer loss and damage like loss of land, crops, etc.” Many understand loss and damage as going beyond adaptation: addressing those impacts of climate change that cannot be avoided. But the line between adaptation and loss and damage remains a fuzzy one. Most elements currently
being discussed under the loss and damage work programme include conventional ways to address weather-related disasters such as risk reduction and management. But these are actually ways to anticipate and reduce the impacts of a climatic disaster and fall under adaptation realm. They also do not address slow onset events, like sea level rise and glacial melt. Establishing a clear boundary between adaptation and loss and damage is, thus, the key to defining the scope and scale for a compensation mechanism. The Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a grouping of 43 nations, has long demanded such a mechanism. But the term ‘loss and damage’, has always frightened historically highemitting developed nations — it could bring liabilities of potentially unlimited economic value. Many elements — like definition, attribution, approach and beneficiaries — under this complex issue also remain unclear.
Roadblocks ahead The UNFCCC still does not have a working definition for loss and damage. Many parties are concerned that losses could be narrowed down to economic loss. What about the non-economic losses, they ask? Who would be liable for the loss of cultural identity and indigenous knowledge when an island goes down or when an area turns to desert? While this makes reaching at a solution more challenging, it is crucial to the issue. “Australia is talking to small Pacific islands about rehabilitation. It does not mean just money or
The term ‘loss and damage’ has always frightened the developed world, as it can bring liabilities of potentially unlimited economic value
HOW IT BEGAN
IS INDIA SERIOUS ENOUGH?
● First
The Climate Change Vulnerability Index for 2011, compiled by UK-based Maplecroft, shows India is the second most vulnerable after Bangladesh in a list of nations at “extreme risk” from climate impacts. Other reports suggest India is as vulnerable as some Least Developed Countries (LDC). However, there is an emerging consensus within civil society that this does not reflect in India’s approach at global climate negotiations. Since the inception of the loss and damage work programme in 2010, the Indian government has made just one submission on the issue: that too has primarily addressed India’s adaptation needs, mentioning loss and damage just once. While most emerging economies that rank highly on the vulnerability indices, like the Philippines or Ecuador, along with the Alliance of Small Island States and LDCs made submissions prior to the CoP at Doha to address the role of the convention in dealing with loss and damage, India did not make any contribution. As the debate gains complexity at a quick pace, not engaging with it in early stages could cost the country dearly in the long run.
decade of climate change negotiations revolved around greenhouse gas mitigation. ● Second decade veered away from mitigation-centric approach to an adaptation-centric one. ● A CoP in 2007 discussed risk reduction strategies, mentioned loss and damage for the first time. ● A CoP in 2010 called for a separate group to address loss and damage and recognised the concept of ‘slow-onset’ damages like sea level rise, glacial melt, salinisation and biodiversity loss.
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C LIM AT E C H A N G E giving them some land,” says Harjeet Singh of Action Aid. “These people are about to lose their land, culture and sovereignty.” Attribution or identifying the proportion of loss and damage due to human-induced climate change as opposed to other factors like climate variability, poor governance or poverty is also technically challenging on many levels and fraught with uncertainties. This has been the largest contention, particularly for the US. Allen Myles, who heads the Climate Dynamics Group at University of Oxford, says for any compensation settlement one would need to differentiate between what fraction of a loss was due to human influence on climate and what fraction might have happened anyway. Some, like the European Union, point to the expertise that already exists outside UNFCCC in the area of disaster management and question the level of engagement the convention should have on the subject. But most developing country
GLOBAL LOSS OF LIVES DUE TO EXTREME EVENTS (1991-2000 TO 2001-10) 400,000 Casualties 1991-2000
Casualties 2001-2010
350,000
Numbers
300,000 250,000 200,000 150,000 100,000 50,000 0 Heat
Cold
Drought Storms (all)
Floods
Total
parties want any mechanism on loss and damage to be anchored in UNFCCC. They argue that the convention has several clauses that clearly direct developed countries to take a lead in mitigating emissions and providing financial and technical support to the most vulnerable countries. Experts, however, believe that even if a consensus is reached on loss and damage, there’s a pressing need for developed nations to mitigate emissions and check further environmental damage.
Developments in Warsaw The final agreement in CoP-19 in Warsaw acknowledges that in some cases, climate change impacts cannot be reduced by adaptation. The text lays strong emphasis on a technical mechanism which will conduct long-term impact assessments; enable knowledge and data management; and develop new approaches and tools to build capacity to address loss and damage from the adverse effects of climate change. However, the irony of this agreement lies in the fact that this mechanism does not have an identity of its own but has been placed under the Adaptation Framework. G77 and China had submitted a detailed proposal delineating the framework for this mechanism. Part of this proposal was about monetary compensation for loss and damage through a financial facility, which is missing from the final agreement. The Warsaw conference failed on another count — the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) clearly states that a warmer world will lead to both extreme weather events and slow onset events like ocean acidification and sea level rise that could, in turn, lead to distress migration from low fish-catch, crop failures and loss of livelihoods. The new agreement ignores these aspects. ■
Source: EM–DAT/CRED
Annual reported economic damage from natural disasters: 1980-2012 400
Selected disasters with largest economic impact
Earthquake/Tsunami Tohoku, Japan ($214 billion)
350 300
US $ billion
250 Earthquake Kobé, Japan ($150 billion)
200 150 100
Earthquake Naples Province, Italy ($55 billion)
Earthquake Izmit, Turkey ($27 billion)
Earthquake Northridge, USA ($46 billion)
Earthquake Sichuan, China ($90 billion)
Hurricane Katrina, Rita and Wilma USA ($182 billion) Earthquake Niigata-ken, Japan ($34 billion)
Hurricane Sandy, USA ($50 billion)
Earthquake of Maule Region, Chile ($31 billion)
50 0
1980
1982
1984
1986
1998
Source: UNISDR
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State of India’s environment 2014
1990
1992
1994
1996
1998
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
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C LIM AT E C H A N G E
No good news IPCC’s Fifth Assessment report says warming is unequivocal he Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its First Assessment Report, had concluded that temperatures had risen by 0.3-0.6 degree centigrade over the last century. The IPCC does not conduct any research, nor does it monitor climate-related data or parameters. It reviews and assesses the most recent information produced worldwide, relevant to the understanding of climate change. In 2012-13, the Panel released its Fifth Assessment Report (AR5), as put together by its first Working Group.The report of the Working Group I, as it is referred to, has examined the scientific evidence to infer why climate change is happening and what are the changes observed in the climatic systems. The report has contributions from 209 lead authors and 50 review editors from 39 countries, along with more than 600 contributing authors from 32 countries. The full report will be available in 2014. The report says: “It is extremely likely (95 per cent confidence) that human influence on climate caused more than half of the observed increase in global average surface temperature from 1951-2010." The report also reiterates the inevitability of climate change and the urgency of the situation: “Warming of the climate system is unequivocal, and since the 1950s, many of the observed changes are unprecedented over decades to millennia. The atmosphere and ocean have warmed, the amounts of snow and ice have diminished, sea level has risen, and the concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased.”
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1990 First Assessment Report concludes temperature have risen by 0.3-0.6°C over last century 1995 Second Assessment Report concludes “a discernible human influence” on climate 2005 Third Assessment Report released 2007 Fourth Assessment Report says 90 per cent likelihood that humans are responsible 186
The report has concluded: ● Each of the past three decades has been
successively warmer at the Earth’s surface than any preceding decade since 1850. ● Over the last two decades, the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets have been losing mass, glaciers have continued to shrink almost worldwide, and Arctic sea ice and Northern Hemisphere spring snow cover have continued to decrease in extent. ● The rate of sea level rise since the mid-19th century has been larger than the mean rate during the previous two millennia. Over the period 1901-2010, global mean sea level rose by 0.19 m.
State of India’s environment 2014
RUSTAM VANIA / CSE
1988 IPCC formed to collate and assess evidence on climate change
● The atmospheric concentrations of carbon
dioxide (CO2), methane, and nitrous oxide have increased to levels unprecedented in at least the last 800,000 years. CO2 concentrations have increased by 40 per cent since pre-industrial times, primarily from fossil fuel emissions and secondarily from net land use change emissions. ● While monsoon winds are likely to weaken, monsoon precipitation is likely to intensify due to the increase in atmospheric moisture. Monsoon onset dates are likely to become earlier or not to change much. Monsoon retreat dates could get delayed, resulting in lengthening of the monsoon season in many regions. ● Continued emissions of greenhouse gases will cause further warming and changes in all components of the climate system. Limiting climate change will require substantial and sustained reductions of greenhouse gas emissions. Does the AR5 say anything new? Most of the issues and concerns that this report has put forth have already found a mention in the Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) which was released in 2007 and for which the IPCC was awarded the Nobel Prize. The fourth report had failed to propel the world towards urgent and decisive action on climate change. If the half-hearted manner global negotiations are being conducted in this issue is any anything to go by, the fifth report seems headed for a similar kind of response: mildly curious, and eventually tepid. ■
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FILES•CSE BAGS•BOOKS•FILMS•T-SHIRTS•DOWNTOEARTH•GREEN FILES•CSE BAGS•BOOKS•FILMS•T-SHIRTS•DOWN TO EARTH•GREEN FILESBOOKS•FILMS•T-SHIRTS•DOWN TO EARTH•GREEN FILES•CSE BAGS•BOOKS•FILMS•TSHIRTS•DOWN TO EARTH•GREEN•CSE BAGS•BOOKS•FILMS•T-SHIRTS•DOWNTO EARTH•GREENFILES•BOOKS•FILMS•T-SHIRTS•DOWNTOEARTH•GREEN FILES•CSE BAGS•BOOKS•FILMS•T-SHIRTS•DOWNTOEARTH•GREEN FILES•CSE BAGS•BOOKS•FILMS•T-SHIRTS•DOWNTOEARTH•GREEN FILES•CSE BAGS•BOOKS•FILMS•TA Down To Earth annual 187
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DOWN TO EARTH•GREEN FILES•BOOKS•FILMS•T-SHIRTS•BAGS
C LIM AT E C H A N G E
EMISSIONS ETCETERA Despite China's galloping emissions, the developed world continues to account for the lion's share. In 2010, the US, with only 5 per cent of the world's population, produced 17 per cent of the global carbon dioxide emissions. India has 18 per cent of the population and 5 per cent of the emissions. Within India, the energy sector accounts for the highest greenhouse gas emissions (see the pie charts)
European Union Share of global CO2 emissions 12.33% Share of world population 7.33%
USA Share of global CO2 emissions 17.24% Share of world population 4.51%
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Brazil
Saudi Arabia
Share of global CO2 emissions 1.46%
Share of global CO2 emissions 1.49%
Share of world population 2.84%
Share of world population 0.40%
South Africa Share of global CO2 emissions 1.45% Share of world population 0.73%
China Share of global CO2 emissions 27.04% Share of world population 19.51%
Russia Share of global CO2 emissions 5.07%
Japan
Share of world population 2.08%
Share of global CO2 emissions 3.66% Share of world population Sectoral contribution to 1.86% greenhouse gases â&#x20AC;&#x201D; India Energy 58% Waste 3%
Agriculture 17%
Industrial process 22%
Australia Share of global CO2 emissions 1.30%
India
Share of world population 0.32%
Share of global CO2 emissions 5.20%
Energy Electricity generation 65% Fugitive emissions 3% Agriculture/Fisheries 3% Other energy industries 3% Residential 13% Transport 13%
Share of world population 17.86%
Rest of world
Share of global CO2 emissions 12.52%
Share of world population 32.12%
Source: CSE
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8
Elections 2014 ■ India goes to the polls in 2014 to elect members to its 16th Lok Sabha. What are the issues and pointers that will exercise an influence on the manner the country votes?
Of its almost 800 million registered voters as per census 2011, almost 50 per cent are women. Parties are going all out to woo them. ■
A host of other issues may play decisive roles in the way the mood of the electorate swings — from a large population of first-time voters, to the influence of regional satraps and parties, to the rise of the ‘aam aadmi’ phenomenon. ■
Finally, the quintessential question? Is India ready for a Green Party of its own? Does emvironment play a role in shaping political manifestoes? ■
SAYANTAN BERA / CSE
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Where is the green party? Whenever a general election to India’s Lok Sabha approaches, two questions tend to emerge: When will India get a green party? Are environmental issues important in our elections? The answers are interlinked; they relate to the nature of the Indian electoral system as well as the nature of India’s environmental concerns
KADAMBINI RAGHURAM
ur parliamentary democracy borrows its structure from the Westminster system of first-past-the-post, which makes it difficult for any pan-India issue-based party to succeed. For instance, it is no surprise there exists a Green Party in Germany that even comes to power within a coalition government, but cannot in the UK. In elections for the European parliament some years ago, the UK Green Party got a substantial percentage of votes. In other words, there is a green concern in the UK, but because of UK’s electoral system, the concern cannot translate into a presence in parliament. Of course, it is also true that in Europe, the green agenda has been incorporated as a set of mainstream issues by all parties — left, right or centre. All parties, for instance, do accept the need to protect the environment, to mitigate emissions necessary to tackle climate change and even agree to invest in low-carbon technologies such as renewables and hybrid vehicles. The challenge these governments face, once voted to power, is whether they can bite the bullet and make the structural alterations in their economy that climate change imperatives demand. This, for Europe, has been, and remains, their green Waterloo. Consider, in this light, the conservative government of Germany’s Angela Merkel. It took on the Green Party agenda so totally that it almost marginalised the Green Party. But now, when the government has to take some tough decisions about acting on climate change, on one hand, and moving fast on the economy and job-losses on the other, its true anything-but-green colours are
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It is easy to talk about green issues. But it is difficult to join the dots — to show how the country will green its economy itself, so that it can provide growth for all showing. The very German government which once stood for green matters, is now backtracking — it is seeking emissions allowance for big industry, giving the automobile industry benefits in terms of subsidies to car owners to buy new vehicles, even desperately lobbying for time for this industry to tighten fuel efficiency standards. It is the same in the case of Australia, where, interestingly, the major political party came to power saying it was against the environmentally hostile policies of its opponent (the John Howard government). But now the new party is in power, its actions on environment and climate change are even more pathetic and miserable than its predecessor. It is tough to walk the talk when it comes to reinventing the economy for real change. It will be no surprise (it will definitely be disappointing) if Barack Obama finds he, too, has little room to make the changes he has so persuasively promised us all. For us in India, the issue is similar, yet different. Green issues, including climate change, have made it to all major party manifestos. All the major parties promise to protect the environment, check river pollution and invest in renewable energy systems for a low-carbon economy. There are even nuances and differences in approach. The BJP, for instance, says it will also protect the tiger and other wild animals through a permanent task force, while the CPM says it will review the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) draft notification, which is seen as industry-friendly. In general, it is clear all ‘pure’ green issues have been listed and there is a minimum common agreement on this matter. Here, I have questions: are these ‘pure’ green issues really the core environmental issues that need to be addressed? Can these be addressed without tackling the key issues of growth and economic change? Such questions directly lead to the nature of India’s environmental concerns. The fact is in our country, the bulk of the people depend on the environment — the land, the water, the forests — for their survival. The core environmental issue is to improve the productivity of these natural resources in a sustainable manner and to ensure the benefits of such increased productivity go to the local people, and to building a local economy and livelihood. It is about investing in the resources of the poor. It is about the political framework — the rough-and-tumble of governance — in which this investment will benefit people and build green futures. We need to care about the pollution of our rivers because people depend on their waters for drinking and survival. We need to revise our strategy for ‘development’ because these projects take away land, or forests, critical for livelihood security. We need to invest in decentralised water or energy systems so that we can minimise the damage to the local environment and provide access to resources to all, not some. But this is where political party manifestos get frayed on the green edge. It is easy to talk about green issues — particularly those the middle classes of India understand as ‘green’. But it is difficult to join the dots — to show how the country will green its economy itself, so that it can provide growth for all, without compromising on the present and the future generations. Interestingly, no manifesto discusses how parties intend to deepen democracy in India — move it from the representative nature, which exists even in the Panchayati Raj system, to a participatory system. The green agenda demands that local communities must have rights over their resources and that participatory democracy — through the strengthening of gram sabhas, for instance, must work. The green agenda is a political agenda, not a technocratic laundry list. This is why it is easy, here, to look like a ‘green party’ but not promise a ‘green revolution’.
The green agenda demands that local communities must have rights over their resources and that participatory democracy must work
SUNITA NARAIN
PS: This article was published in Down To Earth (April 16-30, 2009). We believe that some of the issues that had relevance in 2009 (the last general elections) still hold good in the present context. A Down To Earth annual
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Chromosomal change in democracy Out of India’s total voters, 49 per cent are women. They may not have proportional representation in legislative bodies, but they are increasingly voting more than men. They will be a much sought after vote block during general elections in 2014. Why are women voting more? And how are political parties responding to this trend?
SAYANTONI PALCHOUDHURI / CSE
his is a trend that our politicians can’t afford to ignore: the share of women in overall voters is increasing sharply, and women are also voting more than before. In the four states that went to polls in November-December 2013 — Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi — participation of women voters has been much more than in earlier elections. Analysts attribute the huge overall turnout to the increasing number of women voters (see Table: Women come out to vote — December 2013). Going by the electoral data of the Election Commission of India, Rajasthan has reported an increase of 20 per cent in women voters in the last quarter of the century. Percentage of women voters in the state was higher than that of men in 197 seats out of the 200 that went to polls. In Delhi, in the last two decades, it has gone up by 20 per cent. In Chhattisgarh, 77 per cent of the women voters voted against 76 per cent of men. Chhattisgarh’s 13 seats reserved for scheduled tribes also reported more women voters than men. This has been a trend since the last two elections. Realising this, political parties are now finetuning
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During the last general elections in 2009, six states witnessed a turnout of more women voters than men. The Congress garnered substantial women’s votes due to MGNREGA that offers equal wages to men and women WOMEN COME OUT TO VOTE — DECEMBER 2013 Year
Madhya Pradesh (%)
Chhattisgarh (%)
Male
Delhi (%) Female
Male
Female
Male
Female
Male
Rajasthan (%)
1998
50.89
46.41
66.45
53.53
-
-
67.45
58.88
2003
54.89
51.53
71.94
62.14
74.65
67.9
69.91
64.21
2008
58.34
56.62
72.30
65.91
71.8
69.2
67.10
65.31
2013
65.48
64.69
73.95
70.1
77.37
77.27
75.03
75.33
Female
Source: Based on Election Commission of India data, 2013
their campaigns and policies to gain more votes from women. Finance minister P Chidambaram has proposed to set up an exclusive public sector bank for women in 2013-14. The UPA government has also proposed a special fund for women. Under the gender budgeting provision, adopted since 2007, it allocated `97,134 crore for women-related programmes. Usually conservative and careful in selection of words, Chidambaram used “woman” 22 times in his short budget speech in February 2013. The budget is being seen as a step by the UPA government to appease the country’s women, still outraged over the gang rape and murder of a girl student in Delhi in December 2012.
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This is more to do with a new reality: emergence of women as a much sought-after vote bank. The difference in men-women turnout has diminished by one-fourth in the past five decades (see Graph: Diminishing gender gap). No political party, national or regional, can ignore this constituency that accounts for 49 per cent of the total voters. “The two national parties (Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party) are creating stunts to treat women as a political constituency,” says Archana Prasad, associate professor at the Jamia Milia Islamia University in Delhi. During the last general elections in 2009, six states witnessed more women voter turnout than men. Congress, which leads the UPA, garnered substantial women’s votes due to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA) that offers equal wages to men and women. Women account for half of the jobs created under this programme. The trend has also been evident in assembly elections. On the day Chidambaram presented the budget in February 2013, the Nagaland assembly election results were declared. Over 91 per cent of women had voted against 89.92 per cent of the men. Five of the seven states that went to the polls in 2011 had witnessed women casting votes in higher numbers than men. In Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state and not known for women’s empowerment, 60.29 per cent women exercised their franchise compared to 58.82 per cent men. “This change can be attributed DIMINISHING GENDER GAP to an unprecedented increase in 20 Number of women voting has increased political participation by women, consistently, thus closing the gap with men voters panchayat reservation and women16 centric development programmes that have boosted women’s 12 participation (in politics),” says Zoya 8 Hasan, who teaches political science at the Jawaharlal Nehru University 4 (JNU) in Delhi (see Box: Quantum 0 leap). The change has also triggered designing of more schemes, mostly conditional cash transfer prograGeneral elections mmes, to gain women’s votes. Source: Election Commission of India A Down To Earth annual
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ELEC T ION S 2 0 14 QUANTUM LEAP In 2013, India completed 20 years of its experiment with local democracy. In 1993, through constitutional amendments, panchayats were made the third tier of elected governments in the country, after the Union and state governments. India, already being celebrated as the largest democracy in the world, witnessed unprecedented widening of its democratic space. Before the panchayati raj, India had just 4,963 elected representatives in state assemblies and the parliament. With panchayati raj in place, people elected close to three million representatives spread over 500 district panchayats, 6,000 intermediate panchayats and 250,000 village panchayats. India has more per capita elected representatives than doctors or police. Panchayats have moved from being a cultural reality to a constitutional one and now are in a consolidation phase to deepen participatory governance. Arguably, this is the only government among the three — local, state and central — where elected members implement development programmes. A prime minister does not have the
Studies in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh show the self-help movement has led to larger electoral participation of women
power to sign cheques for programmes, but the sarpanch has. Just to get a sense of their power and authority, consider this: panchayats implement close to `70,000 crore of central government development programmes. On the accountability front, a panchayat member is technically more accountable than other elected members. In a few states voters can recall them; in most of the states the government can throw them out. Voters, in fact, throw out more panchayat members more often than MLAs or MPs. Though panchayats are infamous for widespread corruption, their influence on state and national elections are increasingly being reported. Panchayat elections in states get political attention similar to those of state assembly elections. What assembly elections are to national elections, panchayat elections are to the state elections: the barometer of electoral moods. With the rise of regional parties in many states, it is but natural that panchayat elections are now attracting political attention of the national parties.
The turnaround The increasing political consciousness among women is broadly due to two factors: years of structural changes in India’s governance and the self-help movement. The Panchayati Raj acts, both for rural and urban local bodies, reserve 50 per cent of seats for women. Three decades ago, the Committee for Status of Women Report noted the absence of women among elected representatives. In 1983, Karnataka became the first state to reserve seats for women in panchayat elections. The 73rd constitutional amendment that created the panchayats as the third tier of elected government in the country, adopted this model. Currently, there are about a million elected women panchayat leaders in India. Reservations for women in panchayats has not only raised awareness among them, it has also nurtured them to become leaders. Soroor Ahmed, a senior journalist in Patna, says, “Up to 50 per cent reservation for women in Bihar and further reservation of extremely backward castes has led the most dominant of the communities, mostly Yadavs, to field women candidates in panchayat polls.” The rising political participation of women also finds its roots in the ever-increasing self-help groups (SHGs) in the country. According to the National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Development (NABARD), there are eight million SHGs in the country with about 97 million members. SHGs have emerged as dynamic village-level institutions led by women and are involved in almost all development activities. Studies in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh show the self-help movement has led to larger electoral participation by women. It is no surprise that states now overtly declare schemes and incentives to SHGs to get their political support. To put the growth of the SHG movement in perspective, in 2004 these groups availed a total loan of `3,500 crore that has grown to `32,800 crore by end of 2013. Its political implication is hard to miss as the Congress Party has been using this to show its commitment to women’s empowerment. In January 2013, Navin Patnaik, chief minister of poll-bound Odisha, declared a grant of `10,000 to each of the state’s 100,000 SHGs with a million members. In Bihar, the state government has announced cheap loans for SHG members.
The political gender Women as a targeted constituency have gained political weightage since the re-election of Nitish Kumar as the chief minister of Bihar in 2010. He had launched a series of populist schemes and declared 50 per cent reservation for women in panchayats to nurture this constituency. Schemes like cash incentives to girl students scoring high marks in examinations and cycles for higher school students created a captive vote bank for him. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP-ruled government has also floated similar incentives. Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan has launched several schemes for women and girl children, including cash benefits for education and marriage after eligible age. So 196
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In India, women got the right to vote in the year 1930 but they are still not seen as a coveted constituency. Even after coming to occupy some of the highest offices in India today, women members of parliament account for only about 85 seats in a total strength of 787 MPs
SAYANTONI PALCHOUDHURI / CSE
strong is his focus on women-related schemes that he is popularly known as ‘mamu’ (maternal uncle) among women. For the Congress, the budget of 2013-14 is not the first salvo to capture women voters. In fact, it is the latest in a long series of programmes and policies the party has evolved since it came to power in 2004. Between 2005 and 2011, the government announced major programmes for women, cutting across age, socio-economic and religious lines. These include the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls; Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana to support poor pregnant women; Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Yojana for women farmers; the Scheme for Leadership Training of Minority Women; Ujjawala for combating trafficking; and Dhanalakshmi to tackle declining sex ratio. In 2010, it launched the National Mission for Empowerment of Women. Before the announcement of a women’s bank, it had restructured the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh (the national credit fund for women) into a non-banking finance company with an enhanced corpus of `500 crore. This will financially help 200,000 economically backward women. More recently, under the National Food Security Act, women will be treated as the household heads. Under the MGNREGA, more women are working: so, in December 2013, the government declared extensive expansion of social safety programmes for workers who have worked for 50 days under the programme. Around 15 million women will get benefits like easy loans and government insurance schemes. Analysts, however, disagree that political parties are making serious efforts to empower women. Anupama Roy of the Centre of Political Studies, JNU, says just economic empowerment will not help women emerge as a political constituency. “There needs to be changes in social policies,” she adds. Ayesha Kidwai, a social activist and professor at JNU, stresses on reservations in all political spheres to empower women. Rajeshwari Deshpande, who teaches political science at the University of Pune, says, “The new politics of gender does not encourage political participation of women. It keeps women’s issues confined to sporadic protests and creates an impression of the consolidation of a ‘woman’ constituency.” She says such politics emboldens the likes of religious leader Asaram Bapu and chief of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Mohan Bhagwat to disregard women and their interests.
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ELEC T ION S 2 0 14 The elected women panchayat members are usually younger than their male counterparts — in contrast to the trends in parliamentary elections
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Women in panchayat In India, women got the right to vote in the year 1930, but they are still not seen as a coveted constituency. Even after coming to occupy some of the highest offices in India today, women members of parliament account for about 85 seats in a total strength of 787 MPs (in both houses of parliament). More to it, despite 20 years of reservation in local bodies, why are elected women leaders of panchayats not graduating to the state or national level? Panchayats, in fact, are turning out to be the most preferred democratic institution for women. They are the first elected government in India to have reservations for women. The elected women panchayat members are usually younger than their male counterparts — a contrast to the trend in parliamentary elections. With the 50 per cent reservation, India has more than 1.4 million elected women panchayat leaders. The percentage of women representatives at the gram panchayat level was 38.40 per cent in 2010 compared to 31.37 per cent in 2000. Representation at the panchayat samiti level rose from 20.71 per cent in 2000 to 37.19 per cent in 2010, while at the zilla parishad level it stood at 35.80 per cent in 2010. In Bihar’s last panchayat elections, 300,000 women battled for 10,000 reserved seats. Bihar became the first state to reserve 50 per cent seats for women in 2006. In Jharkhand, that held panchayat elections for the first time in 2010 and reserved 50 per cent seats for women, women outshone men by bagging 58 per cent of the seats. A large chunk of the elected women belongs to scheduled tribes and castes (72 per cent) and to below poverty line (BPL) families (40 per cent); compared to them, the current Lok Sabha has 245 crorepati members. In 1995, when the first phase of panchayat elections was held across the country, two-fifths of women candidates belonged to BPL families and around three-fifths to landless or small and marginal farming families. In parliament, no elected member is below the poverty line, nor is there a marginal or small farmer among those who have declared their occupation as farmer. Most studies in 1995 showed that about 70 per cent of women panchayat members were below the age of 45. In 2008, around 85 per cent of women were under 50 years of age. The average age of members of the current Lok Sabha is 53.03 years. Reservation has definitely helped rural women. But the motivation for joining politics comes from increased public exposure through the self-help movement. By the time a girl turns 21, the eligible age to contest panchayat elections, she must have put in four to five years in community engagement through SHGs. SHG members form a substantial number of elected panchayat representatives. Secondly, being part of an SHG means more direct participation in village development, like implementation of midday meals for schools, health centres and the employment guarantee programme. This fetches women public credibility; men do not have access to such an institution. This is what seeds women’s political aspirations; reservation just provides the right opportunity. Does the rush for panchayats indicate political empowerment of women over a period of time? Does the consistent increase in their number indicate they have been effective in delivering development? Here come the stains on the silver lining. Only a few members of panchayat have graduated to the parliament and legislative assemblies. Twenty-five years is a long time for testing political empowerment under the panchayati system. Around 84 per cent of the elected women panchayat leaders do not re-contest after the first term. Numerous studies with limited samples have concluded women leaders do not perform better or worse than men; and the public feels the same. So why don’t women carry forward their political aspirations? This is where the reservation policy has been hijacked by social biases towards women and the faulty mechanism of the policy itself. In panchayats, reservation for women is by rotation. A panchayat that reserves a seat for women once will not get the same privilege in the next elections. This means a woman gets five years to build on but loses the advantage later on. Women leaders, particularly from lower castes and poor families, are more prone to be dislodged by no-confidence motions, often engineered by men. Secondly, lack of knowledge of roles and responsibilities hampers both men and women representatives. But men can re-contest. There is an attempt to increase the reservation to two tenures. The Women’s Reservation Bill for reserving seats for women in parliament, which was passed by the Rajya Sabha in 2010 but not by the Lok Sabha so far, is hanging fire. “It’s two different things. One is the response of the voters and the other the response of political parties,” says Sanjay Kumar of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, a Delhi-based research institute. This state of affairs may be about to change, he says, as a delayed result of the reservation for women in the panchayati raj. “What has happened is that more women have started contesting in those elections, and after two, three elections or 15 years these women have started realising that they have power. I think the turnout among women will be higher in the next Lok Sabha elections,” Kumar says. ■
State of India’s environment 2014
The power of five Developments that may define the 2014 elections
SAYANTONI PALCHOUDHURI / CSE
1
WELFARE PROGRAMMES AND ELECTORAL BENEFITS
The ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has spent close to `12,00,000 crore on the social sector in the last one decade of its tenure. Inevitably, the agenda of development is its electoral wand of magic. Are the welfare programmes going to fetch votes for the UPA? The case of Brazil is often cited to gauge how welfare measures influence elections. India has programmes and political posturing very similar to that of Brazil. An example is that country’s muchstudied ‘Zero Hunger’ programme, launched by Luis Inacio Lula da Silva when he became president of the country in 2003. The programme is similar to India’s food security law, mid-day meal scheme and the Integrated Child Development Scheme. Zero Hunger is an umbrella programme that includes many components like school food and extensive conditional cash transfer (CCT) schemes. There are many studies that have quantified the electoral benefits of the Zero Hunger programme in Brazil. Lula’s re-election in 2006 is credited to the success of the programme. In January this year, the American Journal of Political Science carried an analysis of cash transfer programmes in Brazil and their impact on the last three elections, during 2002-10, coinciding with the beginning of the Zero Hunger programme. The analysis shows that such programmes do result in more votes, but their electoral utility diminishes in the longer run. The study found that an increase of US $100 in yearly per capita coverage of the programme led A Down To Earth annual
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ELEC T ION S 2 0 14 to as much as a 15 percentage point increase in the vote share in 2002, but the figure fell to 6.5 percentage points in 2010. Lula’s party got more votes in areas that had relatively more coverage of the programme than in areas with none or negligible coverage. Such has been the programme’s electoral quotient that by the 2010 elections, all parties and presidential candidates pledged to expand it. The study says that this is why in the 2010 elections the voters did not vote on the basis of the programme as they were sure about its continuity. “CCTs have influenced the Brazilian elections since these policies first caught observers’ attention and in periods of poor and good economic performance alike. But more importantly, although CCTs have helped incumbents, there is no evidence as yet that they can radically reshape the political landscape,” says the analysis.
2
CIVIL SOCIETY IN POLITICS
The ascent of Arvind Kejriwal, a former non-profit head leading an anti-corruption campaign, to the position of Delhi’s chief minister has rattled conventional political parties. The civil society, often used by political parties to be politically correct, is now at the centre of electoral politics. Kejriwal’s Aam Admi Party is getting widespread support and participation from prominent members of the civil society. India has had many people’s movements that proudly assumed political identity; in fact, most of them declared this upfront to gain more credibility. Kejriwal’s decision may sound ‘historic’ to many, particularly the contemporary middle class, but India’s rural areas have had a long history of such experiments. Most of these experiments revolve around rights over local resources. More importantly, these experiments have never suffered from a disjoint between governance and politics. They demand political changes that ensure people’s rights over land, forest and water, among other things. They proactively facilitate electoral events like campaigning to push their agenda among politicians. Their electoral success is negligible, but they still remain unified unlike the Team Anna campaign. One of these experiments was the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). The MKSS, a people’s movement working on Right To Information, work and ethical electoral process, fielded candidates for local bodies in Rajasthan. Already enjoying popular support, the candidates were successful. However, MKSS has not furthered its electoral base. But the decision to stick to local government is the lesson to be learnt. MKSS’ campaign for transparency in governance brought it closer to communities. At the local government level, issues bring more electoral mileage than party affiliations, and there is more direct interaction between candidates and voters. India’s largest association of people’s movements, the National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM), entered electoral politics in 2004 after rigorous internal debate. The alliance was set up in 1992 to offer solidarity to various communities fighting violation of their rights. NAPM terms itself a non-party political movement. In 2004, it created the People’s Political Front, a separate but related wing that can contest elections. By doing this, NAPM retained its non-party image. The Front promises an alternative to the Delhi-centric political parties, a promise Team Anna had maintained. One of NAPM’s founders, the Samajwadi Jan Parishad, registered itself as a political party in 1995. Kejriwal’s close aide Yogendra Yadav is a member of this party. It has been contesting elections since then; it puts up candidates for panchayat, assembly and parliamentary elections. Its argument for joining party politics is that over the years it has mobilised communities on local issues, but these are appropriated by political parties during elections. Once the elections are over, the issues get a burial, demanding another round of mobilisation. The Jan Parishad did not perform well in assembly and parliamentary elections but has achieved some success in panchayat elections. Studies have concluded that the rise of coalition governments has been one of the major drivers for increasing public spending at the state level 200
3
REGIONAL PARTIES AND DEVELOPMENT POLITICS
Regional political parties are India’s new electoral box offices. Analysts speculate they will be the key to government formation after the next general elections, so the two competing national parties — the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — are cracking tough political equations to win over as many of them as possible. There are valid reasons for this. Since 1984, not a single national
State of India’s environment 2014
party has formed a government on its own. The 1980s and 90s witnessed the electoral boom of regional political parties, which have been expanding both in number as well as in vote share. In fact, the number of national parties has come down. In the first Lok Sabha elections in 1952, of the 55 parties that contested, 18 were regional parties. The number went up to 36 in the 2004 elections. In the 1984 general elections, the regional parties got 11.2 per cent of the votes; in 2009, their share went up to 28.4 per cent. In the past 20 years, the share of regional parties in total votes has consistently increased. For the next elections in 2014, analysts estimate regional parties will contest in 150-180 seats where the two national parties may not be significant players. There is already a certainty in mainstream political dialogue that national parties have ceded space to regional parties. This, according to political pundits, is because the national parties have not been able to address regional ‘aspirations’. The big question, therefore, is: have the regional parties lived up to these ‘aspirations’? Much before the 1980s when these parties came to national prominence, they were dominant players in many states like Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. India’s long experiment with regional parties offers little evidence to suggest that regional parties performed differently than national parties. They may have fueled regional pride but in terms of regional development, their performance hardly differed from that of national parties. Rather, regional parties now adopt and implement policies of national parties more aggressively at the state level. The rise of regional parties was sharp in the late 1980s and 90s when the country saw acute polarisation of voters in terms of socio-economic groups. During this period voters from the disadvantaged sections took greater part in voting. Many regional parties used this to carve out their political identities. They promised development and social and economic equity in the face of economic liberalisation, at a time when regional disparity was stark and livelihood crisis was severe.
4
India has had many people’s movements that proudly assumed political identity; in fact, most of them declared this upfront to gain more credibility. Kejriwal’s decision may sound “historic” to many, particularly the contemporary generation belonging to the middle class, but India’s rural areas have had a long history of such experiments
COALITION GOVERNMENT AND SOCIAL SPENDING
Alliance is the accepted way of political life in India. Coalition governments appeared at the state level in 1967 and at the centre in 1977. After 45 years, coalition is a natural political choice, making access to power conditional to more than one party’s interests. India has long accepted the political compulsions behind economic decisions. How do such multiple interests and ideologies within a government influence its economic decisions? There seems to be a decisive impact on government’s expenditure — both current and capital — decisions. A series of studies on the subject find more positive than negative impacts from the perspective of the aam admi. In essence, most of these studies have concluded that the rise of coalition governments has been one of the major drivers for increasing public spending at the state level. The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy has studied whether the size and composition of public expenditure are related to government-specific political characteristics. The analysis covered fiscal decisions of 14 states in 27 years. The study is relevant since it covers a period, 1980-81 to 200607, of consolidation of coalition government. During this period, coalition governments ruled in 32 per cent of the total 366 fiscal years. The study found that a coalition form of government is good for public expenditure. An additional party in a government as a coalition partner leads to 2.5 per cent increase in public expenditure. Interestingly, the analysis says weak opposition leads to less public expenditure. Average per capita capital expenditure of states decreases by one per cent with the inclusion of an additional party in the opposition, the study says. Coalition government is suitable for encouraging more capital expenditure. In fact, the more the number of partners in a coalition government, the more is the percentage of capital expenditure. With every percentage increase in support to the government, the expenditure rises by 0.1 per cent. According to the study, “ideology” is the less defining aspect in a coalition era. Rather, it says a government that is staunch in ideology will incur less capital expenditure. “One of the possible reasons for its insignificance could be that in the era of coalition governments and competitive politics, the governments do not treat the electoral cycle years differently from the normal ones,” the study says. There have been a few other studies that looked at composition of a coalition and spending on specific sectors. A study by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth published in February 2013 found that spending on irrigation increases if a coalition partner is a regional party. In coalition A Down To Earth annual
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ELEC T ION S 2 0 14 In the 2014 elections, 12 crore first time voters will join the lists, as per the census of 2011
governments, education spending is usually high. “Because of clear increasing returns to education in a liberalised economy, demand for increased resources devoted to it makes sense from the voters’ point of view,” argues the study. In 2005, Mala Lalvani of the University of Mumbai published a similar analysis based on a study of 27 coalition governments in 14 states during 1980-99. Lalvani found that coalition governments favour capital expenditure on social services. The impact on revenue expenditures was also positive. This means that coalition governments raise the per capita state domestic product. This is contrary to current popular fears that coalition compulsions will slow economic reforms, and therefore stunt economic growth.
5
FIRST-TIME VOTERS
In the 2014 elections, the number of new voters will be higher than votes polled by any party in the general elections of 2009. In fact, the new voters as a block will be larger than the much sought after ‘minority’ vote banks. At the same time, they are India‘s truly first generation that has grown up with liberalised economy; growth is the only measure of national wellbeing they know and recognise. Are they going to be electorally influential? Going by the census report of 2011, there will be 12 crore voters who will vote for the first time during the elections of 2014. The actual figure may go up to 14 crore as the census data was collected in 2010-11. India has about 79 crore eligible voters. In general elections of 2009, the Congress polled a total of 11.9 crore votes while the BJP managed to get 7.8 crore. The importance of the new voters can be assessed from the fact that the politically important state of Uttar Pradesh (with 80 Lok Sabha seats) has the country’s highest number of first-time voters. As a block, they account for 17.6 per cent of the state’s total voters, a bit less than the Bahujan Samaj Party’s total votes (2.6 crore) polled in 2009 elections. It is no wonder that both the Congress and the BJP leaderships appease the youths of the state that is ruled by a young chief minister. Maharashtra, where regional parties with young leaderships are prominent, is the second state in terms of new voters. More than 13 per cent of its voters are first timers. It is not only the first-time voters emerging as a block, but also the urban and semi-urban middle class voters. They are a block of 15 crore eligible voters. Despite the usual practice of looking at voters in terms of caste grids, the elections in 2014 may witness these groups emerging as the new electoral castes. While talking about the urban voters, social media users have emerged as an influential subgroup of voters who may swing election results. According to the report of the Internet and Mobile Association of India published in October 2012, social media users like the members of Facebook can swing votes in the range of 3-4 per cent in 24 states. In India, there are nine crore voters who access social media. This survey found that political parties in India had already earmarked around two to five per cent of their election budgets for social media campaigns. ■
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Resources WATER ❖ Lakes and waterbodies www.cseindia.org/content/conserving-waterbodies ● Maha Kumbh
www.downtoearth.org.in/content/maha-kumbh ● Inter-ministerial Group report on Ganga
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/378087/report-of-the-interministerial-group-on-issues-relating-to-river-ganga/
PEOPLE AND GOVERNANCE ● The National Food Security Act, 2013
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/national-food-security-act2013 ● The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/lokpal-and-lokayuktas-bill2013 ● Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/right-fair-compensationand-transparency-land-acquisition-rehabilitation-and ● Draft National Land Reforms Policy (Homestead Bill)
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/378594/draft-national-land-reformspolicy-2013/
FORESTS AND WILDLIFE ● Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2013
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/wild-life-protectionamendment-bill-2013 ● Report of High-level Working Group on Western Ghats (Kasturirangan Report)
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/report-high-level-workinggroup-western-ghats ● Report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel 2011 (Madhav Gadgil
Report) www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/report-western-ghatsecology-expert-panel-2011 ● Guidelines for Roads in Protected Areas, National Board for Wildlife
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/guidelines-roads-protectedareas ● 11th Conference of Parties (CoP), Convention of Biological Diversity, 2012
www.cbd.int/cop11/doc/ A Down To Earth annual
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RES O U RC E S LAND AND AGRICULTURE ● Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/biotechnology-regulatoryauthority-india-bill-2013 ● Global Hunger Index (2012) by The International Food Policy Research
Institute www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/364482/global-hunger-index-2012/ ● Global Hunger Index 2013
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/global-hunger-index-2013challenge-hunger-building-resilience-achieve-food-and ● Report of Technical Expert Committee on Genetically Modified Organisms
(GMOs) www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/final-report-technicalexpert-committee-tec-set-supreme-court-public-interest
INDUSTRY AND MINING ● MoEF amendment to EIA notification on minor minerals
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/guidelines-considerationproposals-grant-environmental-clearance-environmental ● Coal Mines (Conservation and Development) Amendment Bill, 2012
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/coal-mines-conservationand-development-amendment-bill-2012 ● Bhopal Remediation Action Plan (CSE)
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/action-planenvironmental-remediation-and-around-ucil-bhopal ● Minamata Convention
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/diplomatic-conferenceplenipotentiaries-minamata-convention-mercury-7-11-october ● CAG report on Karnataka mining
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/audit-reportrevenuecontrols-and-system-sustainable-mining-karnataka-year-2011-12 ● Report (Interim) of the CEC in writ petition (Civil) No 562 of 2009 filed by
Samaj Parivartana Samudaya and others regarding illegal mining and other related activities in forest areas of Karnataka www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/report-interim-cec-writpetition-civil-no-562-2009-filed-samaj-parivartana ● CEC Report on R&R plans, resumption of mining operations in ‘Category A’
mining leases and associated issues www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/central-empoweredcommittee-report-dated-29th-august-2012-regarding-implementation ● Report (Final) of the CEC regarding the mining leases surveyed in Bellary,
Chitradurga and Tumkur and related issues www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/report-final-cec-regardingmining-leases-surveyed-joint-team-districts-bellary
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● Report of Shah Commission of inquiry for illegal mining of iron ore and
manganese www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/report-justice-mb-shahcommission-inquiry-illegal-mining-iron-ore-and-manganese ● Survey of environmental and socio-economic impacts of interim ban on mining
in Goa www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/survey-environmentalsocio-economic-impacts-interim-ban-mining-goa
AIR POLLUTION ● Diagnostic Assessment of Select Environmental Challenges in India, World
Bank www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/india-diagnosticassessment-select-environmental-challenges ● Global Burden of Disease Study 2010
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/global-burden-diseasestudy-2010 ● The global burden of disease: generating evidence, guiding policy — South Asia
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/global-burden-diseasegenerating-evidence-guiding-policy-south-asia ● National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 (ministry of heavy industries and
public enterprises) www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/national-electric-mobilitymission-plan-2020 ● The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report: Outdoor air
pollution and particulate matter as class 1 carcinogens www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/air-pollution-and-cancer ● The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) report: Diesel engine
exhaust carcinogenic www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/pr/2012/pdfs/pr213_E.pdf
CLIMATE CHANGE ● IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/climate-change-2013physical-science-basis-summary-policymakers ● Montreal Protocol: Drawing down N2O to protect climate and the ozone layer
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/drawing-down-n2oprotect-climate-and-ozone-layer ● Montreal Protocol: Wheels in motion: towards an international phase-down of
HFCs www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/wheels-motion-towardsinternational-phase-down-hfcs ● The global climate 2001-10: a decade of climate extremes, Report by World
Meteorological Organization www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/global-climate-2001-2010decade-climate-extremes A Down To Earth annual
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RES O U RC E S ● Report by United Nations International Strategy for disaster reduction - 2013
www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/reports-documents/global-assessment-reportdisaster-risk-reduction-2013 ● Conference of Indian Climate Researchers Network (ICRN), Chennai
www.icrn.in
ELECTIONS 2014 ● National census of India, 2011
www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/population_enumeration.aspx
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