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BACKLASH
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Angry
Justified
Increasing |
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Singrauli
mines in Madhya Pradesh alone displaced 200,000 locals |
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"My dear people, I am talking not only my
land but your too.
We have to stand up for it. We don’t go short of nothing at all. We don’t buy.
No, we get free what God gives us. We cannot give away our land. We don’t want jobs.
We don’t want money. We don’t want companies to take our land."— Aboriginal elder of Australia speaking out against Aluminum
companies |
 ncroach: to trespass upon the property,
domain, or rights of another, esp. gradually or stealthily.
Encroacher. An illegal, unpleasant person who encroaches.
But what if a property or domain belonging by right to a group of
people is taken through force by an authority or government. Is that tresspassing?
What if land is taken over gradually and stealthily by a mining company? Is
that encroaching?
The answer depends on which side of the mining divide you are standing on. For one
side, it’s about maximising profits. For the other, it’s a lifelong fight for
survival. And the other voice is getting stronger and stronger. Time will tell who is the
real encroacher.
 Tribal power triumphs
"For us, mining is not
development"
New Delhi held the 19th World Mining Congress this November.
Protestors came from all over India to protest unjust mining. Some voices:
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Leasing out tribal land for bauxite mining projects in
Andhra Pradesh would have led to the displacement of 25 villages and the uprooting of
10,000 trees, apart from other forms of environmental degradation.
The villagers protested and after a two-and-a-half-year
battle, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the tribals.
The court also stated that whenever tribal land was leased out to non-tribals, 20 per
cent of net profits had to be used for maintenance of water sources, schools, hospitals,
etc. Ecological costs would be extra.
Not in my back yard
When Rio Tinto acquired land for uranium mining in
Australia's Northern Territory, local aborigines opposed the construction of the mine.
After years of protests, the chairman of Rio Tinto declared that mining wouldn't be done
without the consent of the aborigines, who promptly refused saying they wouldn't allow the
mine no matter how much they were compensated.
You can’t sell our rights
In 1995 the Nicarguan government gave a Korean company the
right to log on 62,000 hectares of land beloning to the Sumu Indians. The Indians began a
long struggle. The court finally ruled that rather than selling logging rights to
outsiders, the government should have recognised the Sumu Indians’ ownership rights
all over the territory.
Shut them all down
Marble mining inside Sariska Wild Life Sanctuary was leading
to serious environmental threats. The local people led a series of strong protests. The
Supreme Court ordered the closing down of 215 mines.
Get off our coasts
Kenya signed an agreement with a Canadian company to
strip-mine coastal forests for titanium. That would have resulted in 6000 people being
displaced, 40 metres depth of earth and vegetation being dug up, not to
mention damage to rivers, and coral reefs. Local groups formed a coalition to stop the
project and ran a global
campaign. The final result? The government agreed to suspend the project.
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| 150 million acres of Orissa fields &
villages are now being mined |
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