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“India’s richest lands are home to its poorest people”

BHUBANESWAR: Expressing concern over the way India’s mineral sector was growing, New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment on Friday said mining was causing displacement, pollution, forest degradation and social unrest.

The CSE released its 356-page sixth State of India’s Environment report, ‘Rich Lands Poor People, is sustainable mining possible?’

“India’s richest lands — with minerals, forests, wildlife, water sources — are home to its poorest people. Mining in India has, contrary to government’s claims, done little for the development of the mineral-bearing regions of the country,” the report, released by Orissa Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare here, said .

Addressing a press conference prior to the book release, CSE Director Sunita Narain said industrialisation based mineral resources in its current form might prove to be disastrous.

Majority of the wealthiest districts in terms of natural resources were the poorest and the most underdeveloped districts, the CSE said in its extensively researched reports on the issues of mining in different States and the impact on environment.

According to the report, of the 50 top mineral producing districts, 34 fell under the 150 most backwards districts.

The report said that “the wealth of mining does not go back to the mining areas. Mining takes minerals, degrades land, water and forests, and does not provide local employment.”

“If India’s forests, mineral-bearing areas, regions of tribal habitation and watersheds are all mapped together, they will overlay one another on almost the same areas,” Ms. Narain said.

The forest cover for the top 50 mineral bearing districts was one-third higher than natural average, districts accounted for 18 per cent of forest while mining had already destroyed large tracts of forest, the report said.

“Between 1950 and 1991, mining displaced about 2.6 million people — not even 25 per cent of these displaced have been rehabilitated. For every 1 per cent that mining contributes to India’s GDP, it displaces 3-4 times more people than all the development projects put together,” the report found.

It added mining of major minerals generated about 1.84 billion tonne of waste in 2006 — most of which has not been disposed off properly.

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