Union Carbide officials held guilty, but bailed 
Toxic gas leak in Bhopal in 1984 has claimed 20,000 lives so far    
BY KUMAR SAMBHAV SHRIVASTAVA

Maheshwar dam construction remains suspended
MoEF allows completion of sluice gates
BY KUMAR SAMBHAV SHRIVASTAV

The Madhya Pradesh government is lobbying hard with the Centre to allow it to restart work on the Maheshwar dam on the Narmada.

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Kalinga Nagar turns into battleground, again
One tribal dies in clash with police as villages cleared for Tata steel plant

BY ASHUTOSH MISHRA Kalinga Nagar, Jajpur

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Expect a warmer summer: Met department
Could it be due to to global warming?
BY ANKUR PALIWAL

The meteorologists have predicted a very warm summer this year even as northern and central India reeled under heat wave conditions in April; temperatures hovered four to six degrees above normal.

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Automobile companies get tighter emission norms deferred
Oil companies were ready to supply cleaner fuels to majority of the states by July 1

BY PRIYANKA CHANDOLA

Majority of the Indian cities that were supposed to adopt tighter vehicular emission standards from this year have not done so.

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Privatization of waste industry hits ragpickers in Delhi
BY RUHI KANDHARI

Double whammy for Madhya Pradesh
Drought last year leaves people with little power, water

BY APARNA PALLAVI Nagpur

Gujarat to take stock of Gir lions
Forest officials gear for lion census with GPS and GIS technology

By Samkit J Gandhinagar

A three-member panel of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in March indicted multinational mining corporation, Vedanta, for violating forest laws and tribal rights in Orissa's Kalahandi district where it proposes to mine bauxite. Mukesh Kumar, chief of Vedanta Alumina Ltd, spoke to SUMANA NARAYANAN on the reported violations

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Radiation leak in West Delhi
Cobalt 60 injured five, investigations under way
BY JYOTIKA SOOD, ANKUR PALIWAL

Five people were injured following radiation leak in a scrap dealer’s shop in West Delhi. Experts investigating the matter suspected the radioactive material was Cobalt 60, which is usually used in cancer treatment and industrial radiography.

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Arsenic poisoning water in Bihar
More hazardous trivalent arsenic found in samples
BY SAVVY SOUMYA MISRA

No mobile towers in residential areas
People from all over Maharashtra gather to protest mobile towers. Impact on health major concern
BY RAJIL MENON, Mumbai

December 13 @ 10.30 am in Dadar West, Mumbai: More than 50 people gathered for a public hearing at the Shri Samarth Vyayam Mandir. Organized by Mobile Tower Grievance Forum, the hearing was to bring together people affected by mobile towers in residential areas.

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Canal breach damages crop
First compensate, then repair canal: farmers
BY APARNA PALLAVI

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Police quieten noise makers
14 FIRs registered in Varanasi in one month
BY RAVLEEN KAUR

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No mining at Tadoba, says forest ministry
Setback for Adani, Maharashtra Coal
BY SUMANA NARAYANAN

936 sq km dense forests lost
But India’s forest cover has increased
BY SUMANA NARAYANAN

The latest edition of the State of Forest Report says that India’s forest and tree cover has increased since the last assessment in 2005.
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Goa: Losing Beaches, One tar ball at a time,
The issue isn’t even a blip on the Government radar yet.
BY MAYABHUSHAN NAGVENKAR

Panaji: One morning in mid-September in 2009, a thick line of greasy, round balls of tar washed ashore along the Colva beach in South Goa.

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NREGS to help dalit farmers
BY SAVVY SOUMYA MISRA

The rural development ministry has rolled back its order expanding the scope of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). A notification issued by the ministry in August brought asset creation on private land of small and marginal farmers within the ambit of NREGS.
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Goa wants to mine forest buffer zones
BY MAYABHUSHAN NAGVENKAR PANAJI

After ordering the closure of illegal mines operating around the wildlife reserves of Goa, the state government has now sought permission from the Union ministry of environment and forests to remove the 10 km buffer zone around three wildlife reserves Mhadei, Netravali and Bhagwan Mahaveer sanctuaries.
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More industries in Chattisgarh
Companies will have to acquire own land
BY APARNA PALLAVI,Nagpur

The Chhattisgarh government is planning to allow new industries in the state provided companies acquire land on their own through direct negotiation with farmers.
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Health screen for Orissa school children
Shortage of government doctors may hamper rural health programme
BY ASHUTOSH MISHRA,Bhubaneswar

Children studying in the primary schools of Orissa would be given health check-up twice a year under a new scheme to be launched soon by the state government.
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Mumbai has announced plans to erect noise barriers alongside highways and flyovers. The move comes six months after the Maharashtra government issued guidelines for reducing noise pollution from infrastructure projects.
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Public research for private benefit
South Africa's patent act is against WHO's public health policy
BY ARCHITA BHATTA
June 23, 2009

South Africa is all set to give effect to a set of new rules that aims to commercialize research funded with public money. The rules support the country's intellectual property rights (IPR) Act that came into effect in January 2009.
Read more...

June 7, 2010: Verdict pronounces eight UCIL officials guilty of criminal negligence and sentences them to two years’ imprisonment

In India environmental journalism means global reportage with village datelines. Environmental journalism is no more the old ‘off-stream’ but a ‘main-stream’ deliberation on contemporary existence. Particularly so when India has the unique distinction of being one of the fastest wealth creating nations having the largest number of poor in the world. Poverty in India is primarily environment-driven. Thus environment journalism, overtly or covertly, is about the most mainstream issue, poverty. Every story written from a village on environment has intense global linkages. And every global environmental story written has few meanings for an Indian village. 

Mohua as a metaphor
Exactly 10 years ago in 1998, Sumani Jogdi, a tribal woman of Orissa’s Koraput district, set the agenda, and intellectual challenges, for environmental journalists in India. Sumani has been spearheading a campaign against bauxite mining in her village. Her stake in the campaign: she has to vacate her home and would stop earning around Rs. 10,000 a year from collecting mahua flowers in the nearby forest. The Rs. 5,000 to 10,000 crore investments that the district is attracting for mining bauxite were beyond her comprehension. More than that she could never imagine how steel would mould her a prosperous life. “If you want to do development works for people like me, get me access to more forests. I will collect more mohua flowers and earn more. A steel industry will just displace me, take away my forests and will give back few days of daily wage jobs. That is not development for me,” she told this author in 1998.

In the last 10 years, her small campaign has evolved into a big and iconic struggle against mining in Orissa. In the meantime, India has opened up the mining sector and Orissa with vast mineral resources is solely depending on steel plants for economic boom. It is triggered by the rising global demand for steel. Global mineral price is rising and companies are in a rush to explore new sources. The cheapest source makes the maximum profit. Orissa is the right place for the global mineral industry to thrive. The state government’s insistent reason behind this policy is to raise her more than 50 percent people, like Sumani, above the poverty line. Orissa is the poorest state in the country but with impressive business investments.

Sumani’s economic model for rural development – based on local ecology and its sensible uses – is in sharp contrast to contemporary political thinking that believes that bringing in investments in private sector would ultimately bring in prosperity for the poor.

For environmental journalism, this conflict of interests, of perspectives and of modes of development is the greatest challenge. How does an environmental journalist strike a balance between the two streams of thought? Being an environment journalist means a certain degree of biases towards environment. You tend to see or assess situations through the eye of environment. Current industrialization process, as in Koraput and in case of Sumani, inevitably means great comprises on environment. So does it mean an environment journalist has to shed the principle of objectivity? Or how much biases an environment journalist is entitled to?

Environmental journalism is not new to Indian media. Since early 1970s, media has been taking interests in environment, even though in a very staccatos manner. But with economic liberalisation since 1991, the role of an environment journalist has drastically changed. Rather economic liberalisation has made his role more challenging.

Economic liberalisation has triggered economic boom and has caught the public imagination. Suddenly growth has become the buzzword. India finds it finally refreshing to do away with her ‘Hindu growth rate’ tag. As the public acceptance of the new economic model deepens, environment as a public good is losing relevance. This means environment and its related problem like poverty in rural areas is getting less and less favour within public sphere. This also makes the job of an environment journalist difficult – you have to fight hard against a popular perception to be able to bring back environment into mainstream.

The late Anil Agrawal, a noted environmentalist and founder of the environment magazine Down To Earth used to say: “Economic liberalisation has become a perfect excuse for government to cover up environmental problems. Because the powerful middle class is beneficiary of the boom and has been trying hard to push aside environmental concerns as stumbling blocks.” Even though, as various estimates suggest, the gross domestic produce has doubled in the last one decade, the load of pollution has more than tripled. But this has not made many impacts on public perceptions.

Take for example the Rapid Bus Transport (BRT) system in Delhi. The BRT makes provision for segregated roads for different types of vehicles and is being implemented in Delhi for fighting road congestion. The project is attracting criticism from mostly car owners. They say that the project leaves little space for cars and give more space to buses. Government and environmentalists are pushing the project saying buses transport more people and thus bring down per capita pollution emission. Cars though large in number transport much less people and also occupy more road space. Ultimately cars pollute more also. Delhi after years of campaign by environmentalists through the Supreme Court shifted its public transport system to compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel thus bringing down pollution level. But the rise in car number, a sign of booming economy, has undone the gain in clean air. So it is prudent for environmentalists to push for the public transport that run on clean fuel as well as to make the public transport attractive to general public for discouraging private car. “Even in editorial meeting our editors are against giving priority to buses over cars. So our reportage is mostly focused on the short term problems like accidents while the BRT is being constructed,” says a senior correspondent working for a national daily. It is observed that the media coverage of the BRT is dominantly biased against it. This resulted in media, particularly those covering Delhi’s environment, focusing less on the logic behind the project and writing more on problems related to its construction. There are already talks that the Delhi government may not take similar projects in future.

The results were disappointing: poverty reduced faster in pre-1991 period than in post-1991 period. Poverty has become chronic in traditionally poor areas like in Orissa. The gap between rich and poor has further widened. And more interestingly, despite grueling poverty rural population was spending more on food consumption.

How the media reported such an important event? To sum up media coverage, it just passed on as other government declared figures and almost all newspapers reporting the government claim of poverty reduction without any critical scrutiny. The biggest failure was from the environment journalists. The survey had more environmental meaning than economic.

When one plots the survey findings into India map, it emerges very clearly that India’s poorest region are also the richest in natural resources availability. Most of the poor in these areas are dependent on natural resources for survival. To take it further, why didn’t economic growth impact these areas? The poorest areas are also attracting huge business investments driven by the economic growth.   To probe further, there are 125 people movements in poorest areas against land acquisitions. And to close the cycle, most of these areas are in tight grip of extreme leftist insurgency popularly known as Naxalites. In fact a great environmental story was just killed. With this government again escaped from a blunder which otherwise would have called its bluff on economic liberalisation and its benefits. Alert environmental journalism would have explained government on the environmental meaning of conflicts like Naxalism.

This brings Sumani Jogdi into discussion again. In November 2007 the author met her. Why is she poor consistently? The NSSO estimate was for her to explain. “You report on my poverty but never ask the reason for it,” she replied. “The closer the forest to me, the richer I am,” she explained. An analysis of India’s poor would show that out of the 301 million poor in India, 100 million depend on forest for survival and the rest depend on agriculture. But forest and agriculture are hardly targeted for economic well-beings. Rather these resources are being given away to the agents of new economy: the industries. “People like me would remain poor till the time government looks away from our source of livelihood i.e. forest and lands.” Recently the state chief minister termed groups opposed to mining in the district as ‘anti-development’. The series of protests against land acquisition are inspiring people in other districts to oppose industrialization. Many foreign investors in the state are threatening the government to withdraw.

Thus an environment journalist in a liberalized economy does global reporting but with village datelines. When one reports about the anti-bauxite mining protest in Orissa, there are visible reactions in London Metal Exchange. When one report about rising groundnut farmer suicide in Andhra Pradesh, Malaysia and other south east countries take note of it on its probable impacts on their palm oil export to India. Or when you report that poverty in India has reduced at slower rate during liberalisation, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank come out with reassuring notes on economic growth and poverty reduction linkages. So a village dateline with global perspective calls for better understanding of environmental issues.

Off late there is a surge in specialized magazines and media on development issues. Whether it is Down To Earth (the oldest of the development media) or the Civil Society or the digest type Grassroots magazine, there are visible reportage on issues concerning rural as well urban population vis a vis environment. Few national English dailies are showing symptoms of giving more weightage to development reporting. But the tone and tenure of reportage is rather passive and doesn’t point at deep understanding of environmental issues in India. It seems that media coverage to development issues stems from an editorial charity policy instead of their genuine relevance to overall economy, rather to global economy as explained above.

Unlike say in 1980s, now development journalists don’t have to struggle hard for information. There is fast flow of information on environmental issues, mostly due to the vibrant civil society groups and advocacy and campaign activists. The recent Right to Information Act has further made information accessible. But there is a lack of imagination to use the information to build public opinions on environmental issues. So the result is that environmental issues get media space but people hardly find them in the right context to make informed choices or responses.

Look at the media coverage of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The NREGA is India’s first employment guarantee act that ensures 100 days of unskilled jobs if a rural citizen demands for it. But the core of the Act is creation of village infrastructure like irrigation facilities and water harvesting structures using this guaranteed employment. In more than one way, the NREGA is an ecological regeneration programme. It has just used the guise of public wage provision to do so. The NREGA has come at the right time when India is facing foodgrain production crisis. The Act is aimed at augmenting agriculture in dryland areas of India, which accounts for 40 percent of foodgrain production in the country. The Act, thus, is to ensure food security at national level. At the global level, this Act has the potential to stabilize foodgrain price through raised foodgrain production in India.

The development media, to be fair to them, has been proactively reporting on the Act’s implementation. Everyday, as this author’s own analysis of six daily newspapers over a period of one month, NREGA has been in news. There is regular interface between the Union rural development minister and media persons on the Act’s status of implementation.

But analyse the contents of media coverage on NREGA, the real story emerges. Rather such an analysis brings out the inherent lack of understanding of environment journalists on key government programmes and indelible links to environment. Most of media coverage judges the programme’s implementation on basis of employment demanded and given. This is the typical government way of measuring the programme’s success. In fact for the last two years, government has been claiming 90 percent success rate in NREGA’s implementation using this parameter. The environment reporters have just bought this argument conveniently.

There is hardly any coverage on the prime objective of the Act: village assets creation. The Act has already created more than a million village assets (till December 2007), most of them water harvesting structures. Has any media report appeared on these structures and their impacts on local economy? An absolute no.

This is where the challenge of using information with imagination for effective environmental journalism comes into play. All data on NREGA implementation are in public domain. An environment reporter with basic understanding of the NREGA’s objectives would have checked out the village assets creation data instead of the employment creation. Being implemented in the poorest districts of the country, it would have been a natural question: has the Act made impact on local development? By not doing so, environment journalists have yet again given government an opportunity to bunk public good.

So to conclude a session of observations of India’s environment journalism, environment journalists have been lacking an understanding of the ‘environment’ in Indian context. While mere reportage does the basic job of information dissemination, journalists have not been able to put the right context to an event. Here environmental journalists have failed to make an impact. Being an already minority inside a huge media sector, such lapses have critical impacts on India’s environment.

1. How much it would cost to buy 2400 kilocalories in rural areas in India? Make a sensible estimate.

2. Make an estimate of per day spending on education, health and energy consumption in rural areas?

3. Do you think poverty has come down in India in last few decades? If yes, can you reason out why.

4. On which sector the rural Indians depend for survival the most? Make a priority list from: industry, migration (casual worker), farming, labour at farms, forestry, selling of fuelwood and NREGA.

Maheshwar dam construction remains suspended
MoEF allows completion of sluice gates

By KUMAR SAMBHAV SHRIVASTAV

The Madhya Pradesh government is lobbying hard with the Centre to allow it to restart work on the Maheshwar dam on the Narmada. But the state failed in its efforts to get the prime minister's office to pressurize the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (moef) to allow resumption of work. Sources in the moef said the prime minister's office (pmo) has left it to the ministry to decide the matter.

The moef had suspended work on the hydro-power project on April 23 saying very few project affected persons have been rehabilitated. The dam is almost 80 per cent complete but barely five per cent of the relief and rehabilitation work has been completed. The ministry while clearing the project in May 2001 had stipulated that rehabilitation work should be completed along with the project.

Madhya Pradesh's chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on May 5 urging him to allow work on the 400 MW project to resume as the state was facing severe power crisis. Chouhan assured the prime minister that rehabilitation work would be completed soon. The prime minister convened meetings between the officials of moef and Madhya Pradesh. Sources said the pmo has left it to the ministry to ensure relief and rehabilitation work and take a decision.

The moef has, however, modified its order to suspend work by allowing completion of work of seven sluice gates of the dam. This was after the Central Water Commission expressed concern that if the gates are left incomplete they cannot be kept open during monsoons which may lead to flooding upstream. Out of the total 27 sluice gates, construction of 15 gates was completed before work was stopped. Seven gates were left incomplete while work did not begin on five of them.

Activists fighting for the rights of displaced persons questioned the state for promoting the interests of the private company building the dam at the cost of its own people. Maheshwar dam is the first privately financed hydroelectric project in the country. The Shree Maheshwar Hydel Power Corporation, owned by S Kumar's textile company, is building it. “Instead of pressurizing the Centre to revoke the  suspension order, the state government and the project authority should focus on completing rehabilitating work as soon as possible. That's the only option left with them,” said Alok Agarwal of Narmada Bachao Andolan. 

By ASHUTOSH MISHRA Kalinga Nagar, Jajpur

Violence broke out in Orissa's emerging steel industry hub, Kalinga Nagar, on May 12 when district authorities started demolishing houses in Chandia village to make way for Tata's steel plant. Chandia is one of the five revenue villages in Jajpur district where land has been acquired for the Tata project. The district authorities pulled down the houses saying they were on acquired land for which compensation had been paid. A posse of 2,500 policemen, accompanying the demolition squad, resorted to lathi-charge, fired plastic bullets and released tear gas when the villagers protested. A 54-year-old villager, Laxman Jamuda, died in the incident and a dozen others sustained injuries.

This is the second such incident in recent weeks. Twenty tribals were injured when police raided Balighota village on March 30 to suppress protests (see 'Curfew on tribals', Down To Earth, May 1-15).

Rabindra Jarika, a Chandia resident and secretary of the villagers' front, Bisthapan Birodhi Jan Manch (bbjm), alleged police used real bullets and it was one of these that killed Jamuda. Jarika said police carried away Laxman's body and cremated it in a hurry so that no questions are raised about the cause of death. Family members of the deceased said plain clothes men coerced Jamuda's nephew Lalmohan to accompany the body to Puri in the wee hours of May 13. Lalmohan was not even allowed to see the body or perform the last rites, said Jarika.

“Lalmohan was kept in confinement for two days and tortured till he fell in line and agreed to the cremation in Puri. He returned to the village on May 15,” said Chandramohan Jamuda, Lalmohan's brother. Jajpur superintendent of police, D S Kuttey, dismissed the allegations. He said police only fired plastic bullets and that the district administration had handed over the body to Lalmohan after the post mortem. He also dismissed allegations of Lalmohan's confinement and torture.

Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded a cbi inquiry into the incident.

A doctor at the Dangadi hospital, where Jamuda's post mortem was conducted, said the old man died of multiple injuries and laceration. The hospital's medicine specialist, Dr Niranjan Swain, indicated there were no bullet injuries on the body. But grieving relatives of Jamuda are not convinced. “The government can always tamper with the report. We can't trust them on these matters,” said Chandramohan.

Jajpur collector Pramod Mohanty blamed bbjm for the recurring violence in Kalinga Nagar. He said 1,195 families would be displaced for the Tata project spread over 1,375 hectares (ha). He said over 800 families have moved out and their houses had to be demolished. “Demolition is a must if these families are to claim Rs 2,300 monthly allowance from the company as part of the rehabilitation and resettlement package till such time they build their new houses,” said Mohanty. He said some of the families had left behind their belongings when they vacated the houses and that the bbjm activists were not allowing them to retrieve their belongings. The activists are occupying the vacated houses illegally, said Mohanty.

But Laxmi Banara, a resident of Chandia, said her house was demolished though she had been living there for a long time. “When I protested, they beat me and demolished the house. Now we are forced to live with our neighbours,”

Laxmi said. Some villagers said they were coerced to abandon their homes.

Kalinga Nagar additional district magistrate Ranjit Keshari Mohanty said the authorities had ensured no family got less than Rs 1 lakh per acre as compensation, including an ex-gratia amount. He said almost all villagers have taken compensation money and have no claim over the land. “It is all government land and they must move out,” he said.

bbjm activists said their fathers and grandfathers were either misled or coerced to accept compensation and told they would be evicted whether they accepted the money or not. “We are not going to accept things because we know nothing was done in a fair manner,” said Dabur Kalundia, a bbjm member. The state government acquired 5,261 hectares (ha) in Kalinga Nagar between 1992 and 1996 for the industrial complex by paying Rs 37,000 per 0.4 ha. The villagers were later given an ex-gratia amount of Rs 63,000 per acre. The growing steel hub has 10 industrial units as of now.

PRIYANKA CHANDOLA

Majority of the Indian cities that were supposed to adopt tighter vehicular emission standards from this year have not done so. The Union cabinet, under pressure from the automobile industry, deferred introduction of cleaner fuels needed to enforce the standards; all cities in the country, barring 13, were to switch from Bharat Stage (BS) II to BS III emission standards from April 1.

Thirteen cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai were already following BS III norms and adopted BS IV norms starting April. The cabinet decision of April 23, deferred introduction of BS III fuels in other cities till October 1.

The oil companies were willing to supply cleaner fuels to majority of the states and Union territories by July 1 (see box). They had submitted a proposal to introduce BS III fuels in a phased manner by October 1. As per their schedule, majority of the states and Union territories would have got BS III fuels by July 1 and all remaining areas would have been covered by October 1. The only state to adopt BS III standard as scheduled was Goa.

But automobile companies wanted the tighter emission standards to be deferred altogether till October rather than introduce it in a phased manner as proposed by the oil companies. This was evident from a notification issued by the Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (morth) just two days before the April 1 deadline. The ministry notification proposed postponement of the date for enforcing BS III emission standards for all four-wheelers, two-wheelers and three wheelers. The notification gave a notice period of just three days for the public to file objections to the notification.   

The Delhi non-profit, Centre for Science and Environment (cse), objected to the delay saying it would be detrimental to technology improvement for achieving cleaner air quality. “This is of special concern as more than half of Indian cities are critically polluted with particulate matter. The level of nitrogen oxide is also rising in several cities. The benefits of tighter emission standards would be denied to the majority of Indians,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, associate director with cse. She added that the government should make the automobile sector follow the schedule proposed by oil  companies. “Otherwise the automobile manufacturers will continue to flood the market with a large inventory of BS II vehicles for another six months. As the  deadline will apply only to manufacturing and not sales of new vehicles, all BS II vehicles manufactured before the deadline, would continue to flood the market and delay enforcement of new standards,” Roychowdhury said.

BS III standards would reduce emissions by 38 per cent from BS II levels. The advanced BS IV emissions standards in 13 cities would halve particulate matter and nitrogen oxide emissions (see box, 'What the auto fuel policy said'). “It is unacceptable that nearly the entire country, barring the 13 cities, would continue to be flooded with BS-II technologies that are three times more polluting than BS IV compliant vehicles,” said Roychowdhury.

Oil companies proposed phase-wise introduction of BS III petrol and diesel

Note: * supplies of BS III petrol / diesel to location fed from Leh and Kargil in Jammu and Kashmir state, which are open only during May to September of the year, would commence from October 1, 2010 as replenishments to these areas can start only from mid May, 2010

Source: Submissions by oil industry, March 2010

What the auto fuel policy said
All new vehicles except two and three-wheelers will meet BS-IV norms in 11 major cities that include Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Surat, Kanpur and Agra from April 1, 2010. The rest of the country will meet BS-III emission norms. The new two and three-wheelers in the entire country will however have to meet BS-III norms not later than April 1, 2010.

In order to meet tighter emission standards, matching and compatible fuel quality is required. While the BS-IV fuel caps sulphur content in both petrol and diesel vehicles to 50 parts per million (ppm), BS-III fuel specifications prescribe a maximum limit of 350 ppm of sulphur in diesel and 150 ppm in petrol.
Living off waste made difficult

APARNA PALLAVI Nagpur

Last year's drought has led to a power crisis in Maharashtra. One third of the thermal  power stations in the state are working below capacity. The situation worsened when six of the seven units of  the Chandrapur Super Thermal Power Station Chandrapur district closed down one after the other due to water shortage in the Erai dam reservoir from where the plant sources water. 

Three of the power generation units were closed on April 15, reducing electricity generation to just 388 MW against an installed capacity of 2,340 MW. Two units that were shut due to technical problems, were restarted on April 16th. A prior announcement by Mahagenco indicates that the units will eventually close down due to water shortage.

Sources in Mahagenco said water level in the reservoir is receding rapidly and even the minimum stock to be kept in the reservoir is likely to dry out in a fortnight.

The closure of the power plant units follows close on the heels of a report of Maharashtra Engineering Research Institute (meri) which said the capacity of dam reservoir on Erai river is just 161.845 mmq (million cubic metre) which is 65 mmq less than the official figure of 226.5 mmq capacity. The difference between the actual capacity and projected capacity was never noticed since the dam's construction in 1980.

meri has suggested silting could be the reason for reduction in reservoir capacity but power department officials said silting can reduce capacity by five or 10 per cent while the actual difference is 25 per cent. They said the reason may be negligence during the time of construction.

The thermal stations at Parli in Jalgaon district and Koradi in Nagpur plants have also closed two and one units respectively. Two other thermal plants in Nashik and Paras in Akola district have also closed one unit each. Besides, four hydro power plants in the state in Tillari, Ghatghar, Vaitarna and Kodi are also closed due to water shortage. State energy minister Ajit Pawar said the state is making all efforts to tide over the crisis but thatcitizens will have to bear with some amount of load shedding in the summer.

A three-member panel of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in March indicted multinational mining corporation, Vedanta, for violating forest laws and tribal rights in Orissa's Kalahandi district where it proposes to mine bauxite. Mukesh Kumar, chief of Vedanta Alumina Ltd, spoke to SUMANA NARAYANAN on the reported violations

On the company violating ministry guidelines by starting work in anticipation of clearance to divert forestland for mining

It is the Orissa Mining Corporation (omc) that has applied for forestland diversion, not Vedanta. Where omc has asked for forest diversion, they have given the break-up of revenue land and forestland in the entire project area; in those areas no construction has been taken up. On the other side, we have the alumina refinery, its township, and interconnecting roads. What is reported is that alongside the road entering the refinery, we have built some pillars for the conveyors. But these are on land already allotted to Vedanta for its Lanjigarh refinery. The bauxite from the proposed mines in Niyamgiri has to come to Vedanta alumina refinery for which a conveyor belt has to be built. The construction is on the refinery land and not mining land, hence there is no violation.

Besides, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (moef) has been allowing construction in non-forest areas before receiving compliance report for stage 1 approval. On January 10, there was a report in The Pioneer newspaper that the ministry has written to the Orissa government to allow the Aditya Birla group to start a project in non-forest area without obtaining stage 1 approval. Several other such cases are there including the one allowing mining operation in a non-forest area. This means the guidelines are not mandatory.

But the conveyor belt is meant for mining. Why build it before obtaining mining clearance

The conveyor belt is on the land for the refinery. I need infrastructure for receiving the bauxite on the refinery land. So on our side, we are building the pillars. The road from the mine (a 2 km stretch) falls within the refinery area and the rest 12 km is within the mining lease area. No construction has taken place there. This road is also used to reach the township and the red mud pond (for dumping waste from the refinery).

On the report that Vedanta got tribals to sign an agreement that they will never protest against the company

She (Usha Ramanathan, one of the three members of the ministry panel) should have enclosed the whole agreement in her report. That would have been fair. She has crossed the brief given to her which was to study the 669.7 hectare mining lease area in Niyamgiri Hills. And in that area she was to see if there was any impact on tribals. But when she went there and found no tribals, she drew on her earlier work with Amnesty International. She was not asked to report on the refinery or the entire project. It is a biased report.

The part of the report citing the agreement was with reference to the red mud pond (the tribals had objected to the expansion of the pond saying it would cause pollution and had filed a case before the state human rights commission. Vedanta was accused of getting them to sign an agreement saying they won't protest anything the company does). In agreements it is normal to say that everything is settled, money has been accepted and no claim can be made on the land sold. That is all. We are not stopping them from protesting against pollution.

On whether Vedanta will respond officially to the ministry on these reports

This is between omc and the ministry. It does not concern us. We have no locus standi to comment on the report.

Government-run residential schools for scheduled tribes and scheduled castes in Orissa are under scanner following complaints of sexual exploitation of students.

The most recent incident came to light in March in the Badamada Seva Ashram school in Nabarangpur district where four girls of seventh and eighth grade were sexually abused, allegedly by the school staff. A lady teacher of the school alerted District Collector Rupa Mishra who conducted an inquiry. Her report confirmed the school girls were sexually abused; one of the girls was pregnant. The headmaster of the school, an assistant teacher and the husband of a cook in the school were arrested. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik ordered an inquiry by the police crime branch.

The school is one of the 1,500 schools managed by the department for development of scheduled Tribes (ST) and scheduled castes (SC). Sources in the department said there are similar complaints from two other schools in Nabarangpur. One of the complaints proved true and a cook was arrested (see box).

The district welfare officer of Nabarangpur, Mukund Nial, admitted there were problems in monitoring the schools and it was not possible to take regular feedback from the students in hostels. “Most schools have only one lady teacher. We need more women teachers who can interact with the girls as they prefer to confide in women teachers,” said Nial. He said the students in residential schools face other problems too like irregular power and water supply.

Principal secretary of the SC and ST development department, Ashok Tripathy, said the department plans to request woman sarpanches and panchayat members to visit girls' hostels once every fortnight to interact with the girls. He assured that all hostels will have boundary walls for better security and each hostel with more than 100 girls would have at least 10 toilets.
                 
Two cases in two months
February 2010: A cook of Raighar High School in Nabarangpur was arrested on charges of sexually abusing a student; an assistant teacher and a physical training teacher were suspended

March, 2010: Headmaster, an assistant teacher and the husband of a cook of Badamada Sevashram in Nabarangpur arrested for sexually abusing four students

March, 2010: A local newspaper reported that a girl of Bhimaguda Girls High School in Nabarangpur who was issued transfer certificate last year had been sexually abused by the headmaster. On inquiry, the allegation was found frivolous. The girl has now joined another high school in the district

March, 2010: A local newspaper reported three girl students of Dambasora Girls High School in Rayagda district had become preganant. Inquiry proved the allegation wrong but it was found that the alleged victims were going out of the hostel using the back gate. One of them was found having a mobile phone. The parents of the girls were informed and asked to take their daughters home

Radiation leak in West Delhi
Cobalt 60 injured five, investigations under way
By Jyotika Sood, Ankur Paliwal

Five people were injured following radiation leak in a scrap dealer’s shop in West Delhi. Experts investigating the matter suspected the radioactive material was Cobalt 60, which is usually used in cancer treatment and industrial radiography.

The radioactive substance first leaked from the shop on April 4. But authorities got to know of the incident four days later, after someone tipped off the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board. It is not clear who did that. “The board got to know of the incident and informed us on April 8,” said Sharad Aggarwal, DCP-West Delhi. Subsequently, officials of the board and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) along with the police reached the site to locate the source of radiation. They have isolated the source and sealed the area.

Officials investigating the matter suspect that either a junk vendor sold the shop owner the scrap, or he bought it from a hospital or a factory. But that will come to light when the victims’ statements can be recorded. “It is BARC’s responsibility to ensure sourcing and disposing of radioactive waste. There are strict guidelines too. But it seems lapses have happened,” said Ravi Agarwal, director of the non-profit Toxics Link.

Currently, the condition of Deepak Jain, the shop owner, admitted to Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, continues to be serious. The hospital, in a press statement, said Jain’s bone marrow was significantly suppressed and he has been in the ICU since April 4. Four of his assistants—Ram Jeevan, Ram Kilab, Rajinder and Gorakh—were admitted to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital in the city on April 8. Two of them were unconscious and their bodies had turned black when they were brought to the hospital. The hospital has referred them to AIIMS for further treatment.

The permissible limit of cobalt 60 radiation is 20 millisievert for an occupational worker with protective gear, and 1 millisievert for general public. Beyond 8 millisievert can cause death, said an official of the National Disaster Management Authority. Exposure beyond the permissible limit can cause nausea, temporary and even permanent sterility, bone marrow damage, weakening of the immune system and hair loss.

Arsenic poisoning water in Bihar
More hazardous trivalent arsenic found in samples

By SAVVY SOUMYA MISRA

A recent study of Bihar's groundwater indicates that people living in 16 districts of the state are consuming water laced with arsenic. The poison has even entered the food chain, said the study conducted by the department of environment and water management of Anugrah Narayan (AN) College. The college in Patna is a part of the Magadh University.

The study which began in 2005 showed four districts have high levels of arsenic in groundwater—Bhagalpur, Bhojpur, Vaishali and Patna. In Bhagalpur, arsenic content in water was found to have increased by 23 per cent. Subsequent tests showed 16 districts in the state have high levels of arsenic in groundwater. The recent additions to this list are Kishanganj, Supaul and Darbhanga.
         
“Earlier arsenic was detected along the banks of the river Ganga. But  now we are finding arsenic contaminated aquifers in the terai region as well as the Kosi fan area,” said Ashok Ghosh, professor-in-charge of the department and lead investigator. The arsenic finds its way into the Gangetic plains through alluvial soil brought down by the river from the Himalayas. The soil containing arsenopyrite (iron-arsenic sulfide) gets deposited along with the soil on the banks. When the river shifts its course, tubewells are sunk to tap groundwater. Over-exploitation of groundwater changes the water's chemistry and releases free arsenic ions; the ions are water soluble.       
         
The study said 26 per cent handpumps that were tested had water containing arsenic beyond the limit of 10 parts per billion (ppb) prescribed by the World Health Organization.  Consuming this water can cause thickening and pigmentation of skin. Prolonged exposure leads to cancer of the skin, lungs, urinary bladder and kidney.
         
Bhagalpur, Bhojpur and Chapra are among the worst affected districts. The highest arsenic content was found in water samples collected from Bhojpur in 2006 and 2009—1861 ppb (see box). Ghosh said the findings indicate that Bihar has more districts affected by arsenic than West Bengal. “What is more worrying is that 87 per cent of the samples of groundwater had trivalent arsenic which is more hazardous than pentavalent arsenic (arsenic occurring in natural water is found in these two forms or a combination of both),” said Ghosh. He added the water samples were tested on the spot with field test kits and followed by tests using spectrophotometer and atomic absorption spectrophotometer in the laboratory.

The study included tests on crops irrigated with groundwater. The sugarcane juice collected from Pirpanti and Khalgaon blocks in Bhagalpur district contained 16 ppb arsenic. The samples from the jaggery making units in these blocks also contained the same amount of arsenic. The water used for irrigation in these areas contained 400 ppb arsenic.

High on arsenic
District                  arsenic level (in ppb)
Bhojpur                 1861
Bhagalpur               687
Patna                    783
Vaishali                  406
*WHO prescribes a limit of 10 ppb for arsenic in drinking water 

Pune corporators ban all plastic bags
Officials not sure if blanket ban is feasible

By RAJIL MENON Mumbai

On December 23, elected members of the Pune municipal corporation passed a unanimous resolution in the general house banning use of all types of plastic bags. The corporators said the resolution would arrest the degradation of the city's environment.

But the date for implementing the ban has not been announced. The municipal commissioner who has to execute the elected body's decision is out of station. “We are not clear how to implement the blanket ban. The commissioner will take the final decision,” said Suresh Jagtap, deputy municipal commissioner, heading solid waste management department.

He said there is a nuisance detection squad to implement the ban on import, sale and manufacture of plastic bags of less than 50 micron thickness. “But extending the ban on all plastic bags needs a foolproof strategy,” said Jagtap. The nuisance squad set up to implement the state-wide ban on thin plastic bags also has powers to slap fines varying from Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 on violators.

Plastic manufacturers have started approaching the civic body to stall the house decision. They said 40 factories manufacturing plastic carry bags and 160 stockists and others involved in the business would be directly hit by the ban if it is implemented.

Chairperson of the civic body's standing committee, Nilesh Nikam, said complete ban on plastic bags is necessary to save the city. “We are facing a crisis of solid waste management in Pune; our drains and rivers are getting choked. We are sure banning these bags will be healthy for the city,” Nikam said.

Non-profits have welcomed the ban but said there is no clarity on the legal provision enabling the blanket ban. The Maharashtra Non-Biodegradable Garbage (Control) Act, 2006 only bans use of thin plastic bags (less than 50 micron thickness). “It is not clear if the ban is only on use of plastic bags or its sale and manufacture also. The resolution is also silent on what would happen to ragpickers found carrying plastic bags,” said Laxmi Narayan, general secretary of the registered trade union of waste pickers in Pune, Kagaz Kach Patra Kashtkari Panchayat.

The proposal for banning the use of plastic bags in Pune was first mooted by the corporators Ashok Yenpure and Dilip Umbarkar in May last year. The standing committee approved the ban on May 26 last year. This decision was taken in wake of the controversy around the city’s waste dumping ground in Urali-Phursungi villages (see '14 kms from Pune, its footprint', Down To Earth, July 15, 2009). In order to be implemented, this decision of standing committee had to be approved by the civic general body and the state government.

Mayor of Mumbai, Shraddha Jadhav had proposed a similar ban on plastic carry bags but failed to get support from the executive.
(eom)

On common ground
The public hearing started on a soft note. Gradually though, the number of people increased and the meeting gathered steam. People came from Mumbai’s farthest suburbs—Dahisar in the west to Thakurli in the central zone. Some people came from other districts of the state. Initially, they had their doubts about how effective and genuine the forum would be. But, all doubts dissipated and soon the people were clear they wanted the government to regulate mobile towers and issue specific guidelines to set them up.
                
Local politicians—Eknath Gaikwad, a member of parliament (inc) from Mumbai South Central constituency; Vinod Tawde, member of the Legislative Council (BJP); Nitin Sardesai, member of Legislative Assembly (MNS) from Mahim constituency and others—also supported the meeting. They acknowledged that they had received a number of complaints against the illegal construction of mobile towers.
                
But people did not seem particularly interested to hear the politicians. “It is easy for you to say good things and lend your support verbally; it is we who are paying a heavy price because of these illegal mobile towers,” said an angry Rajesh Bhat, a priest by profession who lives in Thakurli West, 50 km from Mumbai. His wife, Vijaya, has had to undergo surgery for brain tumor in January last year.
                
Manoj Londhe, a central government employee, shared his experiences and anxieties. Londhe said he was lucky because construction had not begun yet; construction material though was lying in his building premises. “Sometimes I leave office work and rush home to ensure construction does not begin. My father makes trips to various ward offices of Mumbai corporation to get the mobile tower cancelled. But all in vain. We live in constant fear,” he said.
                
In late 2008, the mobile tower company approached the Clement Court housing society regarding installation of a mobile tower on top of the seven-storey building. The company offered Rs 350,000 as annual rent to the housing society. In April this year, during the society meeting, Londhe, who lives on the seventh floor, opposed the proposal. But other residents did not have a problem. Londhe was laughed at when he showed scientific evidence of how mobile towers affected health. So, two months later, by way of the majority, the society cleared the proposal of installing the mobile tower. Construction material was offloaded at the site on June 19. “But we were adamant about opposing the mobile tower tooth and nail. My father and I filed various complaints with the municipal corporation. We also filed rti applications to know how authorities allowed the tower. I also filed police complaints. Because of all this, the construction of tower has been stalled for now. But it has still not been cancelled,” said Londhe.
                
The situation at Clement Court is tense and no one talks to the Londhes.

Tumours and cancers
Bhat and Londhe’s experiences encouraged others at the hearing to share their stories. Most of them spoke about the adverse impact mobile towers were having on health. Although they agreed that there was no conclusive evidence that radiation caused the ailments, they said they could not rule out the option.  Vijaya Bhat, for example, claimed the residents of Riddhi Park in Thakurli (West) had been duped. Even before the residents moved into the building, the builder had installed a mobile tower. “Within four months of occupying the flat on the top floor, I started falling sick. I would feel fatigued all the time. I was suffering from brain tumour,” said Bhat, a 33-year-old homemaker. She was operated last year. It cost her Rs 10 lakh. The Bhats have now vacated the Thakurli flat and moved into a rented apartment in Goregaon in the western suburb. “My health is improving now, but even a day’s visit to Thakurli house makes me sick,” she added.
                
Her husband narrated the problems they faced even to lodge a complaint against such towers. “We have to run from pillar to post. We have to suffer and die,” said Rajesh. The Bhats are not the only ones suffering in the Riddhi Park complex. Their neighbour is suffering from spinal cord cancer. Another neighbor’s child died soon after birth. The Bhats believe all this is linked to exposure to radiation from mobile tower. All the residents, about 20 families, at the complex are now demanding demolition of the mobile tower.

One voice: don’t allow
Laxmikant B Deshpande, a telecom engineer in North Kasba in Solapur had some statistics to share. He had been studying the cause of deaths among people living within 300 feet radius of the mobile towers. Although in the initial stages now, he has found that in the past four years, nine deaths have occurred after the installation of two towers at North Kasba, near Tilak Chowk
(see table: Death trail). The towers are barely 150 feet away from Deshpande’s house. “The government must come out with a set of regulations for mobile towers. At present these sprout at the whims and fancies of mobile phone companies. Regular audits of such towers should be conducted and residential areas should be avoided for such installations,” he said. He also informed the group that in countries like Australia the property price goes down if there is a mobile tower in the locality.
                
Ramchandra G Pradhan, 83, and a senior journalist, attended the public hearing with books and reading material on the ill effects of radiation from mobile towers. He lives in Bhavani Society, Kharegaon, Kalwa (W) in Thane district, and there is a mobile tower on the top of the building. He had developed skin rashes in the past year. Pradhan claimed these rashes developed after the mobile tower was installed. “People should be aware of the hazards of mobile towers. I have suffered. We need to be aware of side-effects of radiation and then raise questions,” he said. “My doctor has confirmed the rashes are linked to the radiation from the mobile tower,” Pradhan added.
                
People also complained that problem from mobile towers was not limited to radiation alone. Noise pollution was also a major issue. “Companies install 20 KVA/ 30 KVA generators sets along with the mobile tower. And these generator not only belch out air pollutants, but also cause noise pollution,” said Bembalkar. Vinod Jain of Dadar (East), said: “One, the mobile tower was installed on our building without our permission.  Two, its cooling unit and the generator set are adjacent to our flat. My wife suffers from heart problems and was recently operated. She cannot even rest in peace at home. The noise has robbed our family of sound sleep.”

People take on the cudgels
Fed up with inaction, people have now started fighting their own battles their way. Suresh Patil, 62, retired officer from an insurance company, lives in Goregaon (East). “Two months ago a mobile tower was installed on top of our building. But before it could become operational, the residents decided to act. We wrote letters to the municipal ward officer, the deputy commissioner of the municipality and the municipal commissioner. We also filed complaint with the fire brigade. Because of such stiff resistance from our end, the mobile tower has not started functioning yet,” Patil said.
                
Baban G Jadhav also demanded the mobile tower on their building be taken off. Jadhav, a clerk with the Cenral Bank, lives in Vikhroli, the central suburb of Mumbai. “When we constructed a small room in our building compound for society meetings and other office purposes, the corporation demolished it in no time calling it illegal.  But a mobile tower has been installed on our building and in spite of repeated written complaints, it is not being demolished. However, we are determined to fight it tooth and nail. I have heard rumours that another mobile tower would be installed on our building. I will fight against it with all my power and might,” said an angry Jadhav.
                
Jadhav’s neighbour Jaggannath Kodiba Sable said he has had sleeping problems since the mobile tower was installed. “It affects my work and my daily chores. I am fed up of my physical condition. I cannot even imagine what others, who suffer from diseases like cancer, are undergoing in life,” he said.
Vijay Khote, a 62-year-old retired banker, lives in the top floor flat it Grant Road (W), Mumbai. “All four members of my family used to feel strange weakness in the evenings. Initially we dismissed it as fatigue. But now we feel it is because of the mobile tower that was installed on top of our roof two months back,” Khote told the audience at the public hearing. “We must act before it is too late. I have already taken up the latter with the municipality,” he said urging others to do the same.
    
Others like Sakharam Bhila Patil, a 71-year-old retired schoolteacher from Dhule, have been physically attacked for protesting mobile towers. Patil who has filed several complaints against mobile towers in his neighbourhood, has been attacked twice. But that has not shaken Patil’s resolve. He organizes lectures on the ill-effects of mobile towers. “I was offered Rs 6 lakh cash as bribe to shut my mouth, but I drove them away,” said Patil.

Success story
Amid the gloom at the hearing, Suresh Ghadge seemed a happy man. He lives in Dadar and was successful in driving away the mobile tower company. “We contacted some local politicians and through their help, we got the tower cancelled. The plan of mobile tower company was to first get the tower installed and get it regularized later by paying a small fine to the corporation,” said Ghadge. Londhe said that was a common practice followed in most places. “Mobile towers are constructed illegally and the company later approaches the municipality for regularization by paying a fine of Rs 5,000 only. No one had ever conducted a survey of illegal mobile towers in cities. If the same is done, most would turn out to be illegal,” claimed Londhe.
                
At the hearing, the members decided to nominate one leader from each region of the state, who would coordinate with other leaders on the flow of information and collate case studies and documents. The forum has also decided to select a 10 doctors’ team to understand the linkages between radiation from mobile towers and the impact on human health.

Table: Death trail

On December 25, water breached the left bank canal of Pench dam and destroyed standing wheat crops in five villages of Nagpur district of Maharashtra. The gushing water from the canal also washed away paddy that had been harvested and stored. Agitated farmers threatened to prevent repair work unless they are paid compensation at the rate of Rs 50,000 per 0.4 hectare (ha). They feared that if breach is repaired, getting compensation would be a tall order.

It turned out that excess water released by the water works department caused the breach.The department released 15,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) water though it was supposed to release only 9,000 cusecs, alleged Suresh Bhoyar, the zilla parishad president. The water was released several hours ahead of schedule. Officials confirmed 125 farmers incurred crop losses.

This is the 15th breach in the canal in the past two years. The walls are in very bad shape and villagers alleged there was corruption in repair and maintenance works.

Suresh Bhoyar said the flooding in the farms spread over 2,000 ha also washed away the top soil and paddy bunds, rendering the land unfit for cultivation for several years. Other farmers said despite frequent incidents of canal breaching in the last two years  at Ramtek, Mouda, Parshivani and Saoner villages, the administration has been negligent in carrying out proper repair work.

Police quieten noise makers
14 FIRs registered in Varanasi in one month
By Ravleen Kaur

Late night revelries and playing loud music is landing people in trouble
in the holy city of Varanasi. Since November 25, the city police have
registered 14 first information reports (FIRs) against people disturbing
their neighbours with noisy activities between 10 pm and 6 am, said
Vijay Bhushan, the city superintendent of police.

“Some people have been arrested while others are absconding. They have
been booked under the section relating to continued nuisance despite
warning (Section 291 Indian Penal Code), said Bhushan. He said police
was forced to take action against the nuisance makers as the complaints
started piling up. He said the action has had some effect as people have
become vigilant now and have started observing the rules.

As per the Supreme Court guidelines, no one can use any kind of loud
speaker, firecrackers or play DJ music/band after 10 at night, said
Chetan Upadhyaya, secretary of the non-profit, Satya Foundation. He said
it was high time police started registering cases against the noise
makers. There were police interventions earlier also on the foundation's
complaints but police started cracking down following violence when a
wedding party from Bihar was told to pack off the disc jockey, said
Upadhyaya.

Banquet hall owners feel their job has been made easier by the police.
Saumitra Agrawal who owns a banquet hall in Shigra area of Varanasi said
he now makes guests to give a written undertaking that they would not
play music or band after 10 pm. Earlier, some of the guests would be too
drunk and get into brawls if they were not allowed to play loud music.
Guests have become more careful after police visits and seizure of a
disc jockey's console, said Agrawal.

People living close to wedding venues are also relieved. “I am able to
sleep better now, said Milan Tandon, a resident of Mehmoorganj locality
that has seven lawns leased for wedding functions. But there are still
instances when police do not take action if the wedding is that of
highly connected people, Tandon complained.

No mining at Tadoba, says forest ministry
Setback for Adani, Maharashtra Coal
By Sumana Narayanan

The Union environment ministry has rejected proposals by Adani Power Ltd and Maharashtra Coal Company for mining coal near Tadoba-Andhari tiger reserve in Chandrapur district. At a meeting on November 24, the ministry’s expert committee rescinded the terms of reference (tor) given to the companies saying the projects would be detrimental to tiger conservation.

The Maharashtra principal chief conservator of forests told the committee that Adani’s conservation plan for the proposed mining is flawed as it does not consider the movement of tigers in the area. The national tiger conservation authority cited that in 1999 a coalmine project was rejected for being close to the tiger corridor. The committee also considered letters from activists protesting the project before deciding to withdraw the tor. “With the withdrawal of tors, there is no question of environmental clearance for the projects,” said a committee member.

936 sq km dense forests lost
But India’s forest cover has increased
BY SUMANA NARAYANAN
                                  
The latest edition of the State of Forest Report says that India’s forest and tree cover has increased since the last assessment in 2005.  At present forest and tree cover stands at 23.84 per cent of the country’s total geographical area. The net gain is 0.18 million hectares of forest and tree cover.

A closer scrutiny of the data, however, reveals that the gain in forest cover has been mainly in the open forests that have only 10 to 40 per cent canopy density and that the increase in very dense forests is marginal. (Canopy density is a measure of how much sunlight penetrates the canopy.) Worse, moderately dense forests spread over 936 sq km have been lost.

The report said that for the first time the area above the tree line – trees cannot grow beyond 4000m – has been calculated. When this area is removed in five Himalayan states, the forest cover increased and the total forest and tree cover for the country rose to 25.25 per cent of geographical area.

The report used the normalized differentiated vegetation index (ndvi) to estimate the forest cover. This method uses remote sensing to capture the light reflected by vegetation. Since different vegetation cover gives different levels of reflection, the farmlands, water bodies and forests can be identified based on their signature reflection. The ministry though said that natural forests and plantations cannot be differentiated through this process and so plantations are included in their forest cover estimation. “Anyhow plantations don’t make up more than five per cent of our forests,” insisted the minister for environment, Jairam Ramesh.

But differentiating forests from plantations is possible, said said KrishnaRaj of WWF India’s remote sensing team. “ndvi can be used to identify forests separately from plantations. The accuracy is about 70 to 80 per cent,” he said. What can be done is choose sample plantations of different maturity levels, note their exact gps location through field work; then using remote sensing, measure the ndvi of the same spot. “We can then extrapolate that other areas with this signature are likely to be plantations of roughly the same age,” said KrishnaRaj.

March 18, 2008: Three tribal people killed in front of their wives by police inside a Salwa Judum camp in Matwada block of Bijapur district. Police issued a press release blaming the naxalites.

January 8, 2009: 19 tribal people killed by special police officers in Singaram village, Konta Block, Dantewada district appointed by the state.   

September 17 and October 1: CRPF and COBRA battalions killed 17 tribal people in Gompara, Gachanpalli and Singanmargu village in  Dantewada district.

Orissa government has asked mining companies to tighten security around their mines and reduce explosive stocks to avert possible Maoist attacks. The state government is also trying to raise a force on the lines of the Central Industrial Security Force (cisf) to guard the mines and other important state establishments.

“The government is in the process of constituting an industrial security force but the mining companies must make their own security arrangements,” said Raghunath Mohanty, the steel and mines minister. But the force can be formed only after necessary legislation is passed in the assembly.

The advisory follows in the wake of the Maoist attack on National Aluminium Company Limited’s (nalco) Panchpatmali bauxite mines in Koraput district on April 12 when 20 tonnes of explosives stocked in the magazine room on the hilltop mines were looted (see ‘Naxals target NALCO mines’, Down To Earth, May 15, 2009). nalco has already upgraded the security at the Panchpatmali mines and has reduced its explosives stock at the mining site. It is now exploring the possibility of blast-free mining.

The dense smog that engulfed Delhi and its suburbs on November 7 triggered respiratory problems among city residents, particularly children. The smog contained high levels of particulate matter (PM), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and carbon monoxide (CO). Of these, fine particulate matter is the most harmful as it penetrates deep into the lungs and triggers respiratory diseases.
“Many patients arrived at the premier medical institute of the country. the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (aiims) with complaints of acute irritation in the eyes and throat and dry cough on the following days. Worsening symptoms were observed in patients having asthma and chronic bronchitis,” said Dr Randeep Guleria, professor in the department of medicine at aiims. The patients had to be administered high doses of medication over the next few days, he added. A paediatrician in a city hospital said many children were affected and the incident triggered asthma attacks in patients.

Air pollution data from the Central Pollution Control Board (cpcb) showed the level of monitored air pollutants began to increase much before the smog incident (see graphs). cpcb director S D Makhijani said ongoing construction activities for the commonwealth games and increasing vehicles are to be blamed. The pollutants do not disperse when there is lowering of mixing height (the height at which significant mixing of pollutants occurs in the atmosphere). When this is accompanied by low wind speed and low temperature, smog develops, he explained.

The cpcb data indicates that air pollution levels that dropped after measures like compressed natural gas in public transport vehicles were introduced are rising again.  Former member secretary of cpcb, B Sengupta, conceded that air pollution levels in the city are increasing. The levels of fine particulate matter—respirable suspended particulate matter (rspm) and PM2.5—are increasing and exceeding the ambient air quality standards. Levels of toxic pollutants like benzene and other volatile organic compounds are also increasing, he said. “It is high time the government took appropriate steps to mitigate air pollution in the city, especially before the Commonwealth Games,” said Sengupta.

Scientists said the exponential growth in private vehicles and diesel vehicles needs to be curbed to prevent further pollution. What’s more alarming is that while the number of private vehicles is growing, public transport ridership is falling. A 2008 survey of Rail India Technical and Economic Services (rites) showed ridership share of public transport buses in Delhi has decreased from 60 per cent to 41 per cent.

Recently, the union environment ministry notified the revised national ambient air quality standards that is more stringent and has brought more pollutants under the regulation net. It is important to set a time frame for implementing the revised standards and make them legally binding, said experts.

Pollution build up to November 7
Air quality data for the Income Tax Office (ITO) intersection shows that concentration of particulate matter less than 2.5 microns (PM2.5) was way above the recently notified PM2.5 standards of 60 µg/m3. The latest data, available for October 27, shows PM2.5 level at 260.8 µg/m3. 

The Local Solution
Now tribal battalions will be recruited to fight Naxalism in Maharashtra

By Aparna Pallavi

Nagpur: The Maharashtra government has recently taken a decision to form battalions of local tribal youth to combat Naxalism in eastern Vidarbha. The decision was announced by the state home minister Jayant Patil in Gadchiroli and Nagpur.

The decision, Patil said, comes in the wake of a Rs 1,300 crore development plan for the two Naxal-infested tribal districts of Gadchiroli and Gondia in Vidarbha. The Naxals are likely to resort to violent means to hinder the development work. The possibility makes it imperative that the anti-naxal police force in the area be strengthened.

A special task force, ‘Alpha Hawks’ is also being set up on the lines of the ‘Greyhounds’, task force in Andhra Pradesh. To provide training to this task force, an Anti-Naxal Commando Training School costing Rs 53 crore has also been sanctioned at Surabudri near Nagpur.

Patil said that considering rising Naxal attacks on police stations in the two districts, battalions of local youth better acquainted with the terrain, language and culture could curb the menace more effectively.
 
The decision has evoked mixed reactions from observers and social activists working in the tribal areas of eastern Vidarbha.

Paromita Goswami heads the labour union Shramik Elgar working for labour rights and entitlements in the Chandrapur and gadchiroli. Goswami says that the decision is positive, since joining the police force is already a popular career option among tribal youth. She believes that the new move will provide employment opportunities for a large number of tribal youth and may prevent some of them from joining the Naxals.

Would such a move follow te trail of Salwa Judum, the debated anti-Naxal movement in Chhattisgarh? Goswami doesn’t think so. “The Salwa Judum endeavour merely lets the state pump arms into a Naxal-affected region, without taking much responsibility about how the arms are used or the fate of those using them. Recruitment in the police force would make the government responsible for these youth, their actions and their families,” she exmplains

However, not all subscribe to a positive viewpoint on this decision. Mohan Hirabai Hiralal, an activist, runs the forest rights and environment organization Vrikshamitra in Chandrapur and Gadchiroli. Mohan doesn’t favour the decision because he believes the development plans are a ploy of the government and private agencies to simply attack the tribal natural resources further. “It is easy to see that these forces will be used to crush public protests, under the guise of curbing Naxalism,” He adds.

Hiralal explains that the root of the Naxal menace lies in the question of the ownership of tribal resources. “Using the local youth to crush this phenomenon will only destabilize the tribal community further, although the implementation details may differ from the Salwa Judum endeavour in Chhattisgarh,” he points out.

Panaji: One morning in mid-September in 2009, a thick line of greasy, round balls of tar washed ashore along the Colva beach in South Goa. It cut a two-metre swath across one of the most popular beaches in Goa. Conspicuously, the authorities wouldn’t sit up and take notice.

With the tourism season few weeks away, neither the state administration nor the tourism authority appeared worried. Tar balls on Goa beaches have rarely been cause of concern, much less alarm, to the bureaucrats in Goa.

District collector of south Goa G P Naik brushed it aside as a non-serious matter. He added that beach cleaners had been instructed to
clear the sticky tar balls off the sand, hence things would be normal soon.

Tourism director Swapnil Naik echoed the sentiment. “It is nothing more than a seasonal phenomenon,” shrugs Naik, in-charge of promoting tourism to the Goa beaches.

Scientists at the Goa-based National Institute of Oceanography
(NIO), however, do not share the nonchalance of the public servants. They believe that this recurring tar-balls phenomenon is a grave danger for Goa beaches and tourism.

The phenomenon of oily balls dotting the beaches first came to the fore in
early 70s. By the 90s tar balls became an annual phenomenon.

According to the NIO biochemist Dr Classy D’silva, the tar balls come from minor oil spills from the ships. The ships wash their tanks with jets of heated sea water and then flush the oily slush into the sea.

A combination of wind and waves churns this minor oil-slick into smaller floating puddles in the sea. Over a period of time the lighter components in the oil evaporate due to exposure, while the denser components gel with the water to form an emulsion, adds Dr D’Silva.

Due to weathering, these small pools of emulsion then shape themselves into oily tar-like balls. They become slightly hard and crusty on the outside and gooey on the inside.

If the concentration of tar balls is high, the top layer of sand containing the tar balls is needed to be replaced with clean sand. Dr Classy D’Silva, a biochemist with the NIO elaborates, “The tainted sand needs to be removed so that the petroleum does not pose threat to the sand-dwelling littoral organisms such as bivalves and worms.”

Annie George, one of the alumni of the Mumbai-based Institute of Science, has been researching the tar ball phenomenon in Goa with NIO.  

George believes that the tar balls pollution does not bode well for tourism in Goa, estimated to attract more than 10 per cent of the total tourist
traffic in India. The life of tar balls in sea is up to 58 days, on the beaches it is yet unknown. Estimates show that over two years, nearly 40 tonnes of tar balls could have deposited on the beaches of Goa alone, says George.

Frequent occurrence of tar balls and oil pollution may endanger tourism and hamper a major source of employment for the Goan population.

Goa extracts and exports nearly 33 million tones of iron, manganese and bauxite from over 100 operational mining leases in the area.
 
Chief Minister Digambar Kamat proposed a fee of Rs 30 per tonne in the 09-10 budget on mining rejects with poor quotient of iron ore dumped in nearby water-bodies, fields or horticultural plantations.

The anti-mining activists and the opposition have often accused Kamat of being a close confidante of the state’s powerful mining lobby.

The cess, called ‘land replenishment-cum-green environment charges’, is expected to net Rs 375 crore per annum from the mining industry. The industry extracts nearly 33 million tonnes of low-grade iron, manganese and bauxite from open cast mines in Goa.

Recently, the Department of Mining has requested the Goa government to reconsider using the term ‘green cess’ for this charge, since the mining industry can’t be charged for rejects under any green charge levied.

However, the mining industry is ‘very unhappy’ about the green cess.

”Some mining firms manage to sell the reject ore in subsequent years if the market demand increases. The department did not foresee these technical issues while proposing the cess,” a senior mining department official said.

S Sridhar, executive director of the Goa Mineral Ore Exporters Association and a representative of the state mining industry said, “Reject grade ore in the mining industry for one season could be in high demand the following year. So how is
the state government going to differentiate between rejects and
saleable ore?”

On August 13, the Centre had increased the royalty on ore from Rs 11.50 per tonne to about Rs 100 to Rs 150 per tonne. This decision will leave the Goa Government flush with cash, since there will be an expected increase of 103% in its kitty, according to media reports. But the mine operators are still trying to cope with it, Sridhar added.

The Rs 30 mining reject charge per tonne is harsh. The Goan ore is low grade and as it is not priced high in the international market. With a steep increase in central government’s royalties, this additional charge will put the industry under more strain,” stated Cesar Menezes, the president of Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry in his the post-budget memorandum to the chief minister.

The mines department has asked the law department to examine the proposal which was to be implemented this financial year.

NREGS to help dalit farmers
SAVVY SOUMYA MISRA

Goa wants to mine forest buffer zones
Mayabhushan Nagvenkar Panaji

After ordering the closure of illegal mines operating around the wildlife reserves of Goa, the state government has now sought permission from the Union ministry of environment and forests to remove the 10 km buffer zone around three wildlife reserves Mhadei, Netravali and Bhagwan Mahaveer sanctuaries.

A report compiled by a committee of officials headed by Rajiv Yaduvanshi, secretary to the chief minister, in 2007 had recommended that the buffer zone around the sanctuaries be reduced to zero kilometre. The report cited the presence of human settlements, in some cases within the sanctuary limits, to justify elimination of the buffer zones. But activists said the move is aimed at regularizing mining activities around the forests that existing laws do not permit. Open cast mines surround the three sanctuaries from which manganese and low-grade iron ore are extracted (see 'Mines to be closed', Down To Earth, September 1-15).

The committee comprising officials like the chief conservator of forests, district collectors, director or tourism and director of mines, though, noted the presence of two tigers in the Mahaveer sanctuary on the Goa-Karnataka border. The report has been awaiting the centre's approval for two years.

We have filed our objections to the report with the state government. The sole purpose of the report is to encourage mining, said Claude Alvares who runs an environment monitoring action group, Goa Foundation. Rajendra Kerkar, a wildlife conservationist, said the recommendation to eliminate the buffer zone is at variance with the public announcements by the government that it would curb illegal and rampant mining. 'This is hypocrisy. Eliminating the buffer zone is a threat to wildlife,' Kerkar said.

The recommendations in the report are in line with the draft mineral policy of the state tabled in the Goa legislative assembly this monsoon session. It advocates mining in the close vicinity of wildlife sanctuaries. The draft policy and the report recommending removal of buffer zones belie chief minister Digamber Kamat's assurances that no mining would be allowed in the ecologically sensitive Western Ghats.

Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh, on a visit to Goa in August end to assess the impact of the proposed Coastal Regulation Zone rules, ridiculed the state government's proposal. 'The central government will not be sympathetic to any move by the state government to reduce buffer zones in the state,' Ramesh said in Kamat's presence. The minister said a uniform 10 km buffer zone may not be feasible but a zero buffer zone would not get the centre's nod as long as he was the environment minister.

Poll trick or treat
Regularization tag for 385,000 slum homes against high court order

The Maharashtra government announced a bonanza for slum dwellers of Mumbai that could help it garner more votes in the forthcoming assembly polls. On July 29, the state cabinet cleared a proposal for regularizing all slum dwellings that were erected by January 1, 2000. Activists said the announcement is a poll trick as the decision, whether the cut-off date for regularization ought to be 1995 or 2000, has to be taken by the Supreme Court.

If the apex court goes along with the state's decision, owners of 385,000 shanties, built between 1995 and 2000, would be entitled to free housing, water and sanitation facilities. This number is in addition to the 796,000 shanties that existed prior to 1995 and are eligible for regularization.

In 2005, the Mumbai High Court had ruled that there could be no extension of cut-off date beyond 1995. The order was given on a petition filed by a citizens group. Last year, the state challenged the order in the Supreme Court where the case is still pending.

Officials said the government could not implement the decision without approval from the apex court but chief minister Ashok Chavan said the government was simply acting on the promise made in the Congress-NCP election manifesto of 2004.

Activists said the government is not serious about keeping promises. A committee set up in 2004-2005 under high court orders to formulate a housing policy for all slum dwellers is yet to submit its report's said Simpreet Singh of Ghar Bachao Ghar Banao movement. He said there should be no cut-off date and all slum dwellers should be given homes to live in.

Girish Raut, a lawyer activist associated with Mumbai-based Indian Environment Movement also said there should be no cut-off date. He said it is the failure of the government in creating housing for poor that has led to growth of slums.

The Chhattisgarh government is planning to allow new industries in the state provided companies acquire land on their own through direct negotiation with farmers.

Executive director of the Chhattisgarh state industrial development corporation Avinash Bhatnagar said over a dozen investors including GMR group are awaiting land allotments for the past several months hence the decision to earmark four new industrial estates in Raipur, Raigarh, Bilaspur and Rajnandgaon districts.
He said GMR is trying to acquire land in Tilda area of Raipur but that other investors are yet to make any effort. The industrial area in Tilda, is spread over 2,630 hectares (ha) of which 809 ha is owned by the government. Bhatnagar said the land selected is inferior quality land not suited to agriculture. He said the land will be developed at a cost of Rs 177 crore and the existing roads developed under the prime minister's rural road development scheme, would be widened once industrialization begins.

He said polluting industries like sponge iron units will not be allowed and steel and iron plants will be allowed only if they have their own captive power plants. He said industrialization in Raigarh and Bilapur would be taken up in the second and third phases. The government has run into trouble over environmental clearance in Raigarh as 400 ha of the proposed industrial area spread over 2,200 ha is forestland. Public hearing on clearing the forestland for industrial estate was postponed due to protests, Bhatnagar said.

Children studying in the primary schools of Orissa would be given health check-up twice a year under a new scheme to be launched soon by the state government.
Nearly four million children studying in 58,000 schools are likely to benefit. “Till now, child healthcare programmes were taken up in a piecemeal fashion. This is the first time we would be taking a holistic approach to healthcare and the focus would be on early diagnosis and treatment of diseases among children, said health minister Prasanna Acharya. He said funds for the scheme would be made available under the National Rural Health Mission.

Apart from early detection and treatment of diseases, the scheme also aims to improve immunization coverage among children, decreasing malnutrition and raising awareness levels for health and hygiene. Each student will get a health card giving details of the health status of the child. During check-up children will be screened for common skin diseases, dental problems, visual impairment and even learning disabilities like autism and dyslexia. Each school will be given a fixed sum of money to tackle health related problems.

The government plans to rope in allopathic doctors working in the primary health centres to conduct the health check-ups. But they are already overburdened; 960 vacancies for doctors in the government hospitals and healthcare centres are yet to be filled up. The shortage persists in spite of hike in salaries and enhanced allowance for doctors who opt to work in the tribal dominated belt of Kalahandi, Bolangir and Koraput.

Doctors who practice Indian systems of medicines like ayurveda and social health workers will also be involved in the scheme the government hopes to launch sometime this year. Children diagnosed with ailments will be referred to government hospitals, said Acharya. The government is trying to recruit retired government doctors on contract basis to meet the shortage, he added.
Non-profits are sceptical. Durga Prasad Dash, secretary of Bhubaneshwar-based non-profit, Pallishree, said it would be more practical to train health volunteers to carry out preliminary health check-up. Children should then be referred to doctors if necessary, said Dash. Subrat Bisoi of Orissa Voluntary Health Association said the new scheme was unlikely to achieve much unless specialist doctors like those for eye and ENT visit schools. Monitoring and supervision of the scheme will be equally important, Bisoi said.

Work in Aurangabad's Zilla Parishad (district council) office used to grind to a halt almost every day due to long power cuts lasting up to six-hours. Not any more. A hybrid solar and wind energy unit ensures at least one fan, light and a computer work during power cuts in a few departments.

The 10 KW capacity power unit, installed at a cost of Rs 26.5 lakh, was inaugurated on June 11 by the district divisional commissioner Bhaskar Munde. Chief executive officer of the Zilla Parishad, Vijay Waghmare, initiated the project.
Pune-based firm, UD Energy Systems was hired to install the system after the central government cleared it last year. “The unit works simultaneously on wind and solar energy, said Vikas Rode, project officer (energy) in the Zilla Parishad. The wind energy component consists of two blades of 3.2 KW capacity each and the solar energy component has 48 batteries and an inverter. The batteries have to be changed every seven years.

On an average, the hybrid unit generates 25 units of power, said Rode. It is enough to keep work going in three of the 12 sections in the district council office. The other nine sections in office will also be given connection from the back-up system in phases.

Mumbai has announced plans to erect noise barriers alongside highways and flyovers. The move comes six months after the Maharashtra government issued guidelines for reducing noise pollution from infrastructure projects.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA), which implements such projects, has also launched a study to measure sound levels from vehicular traffic across the city. The noise mapping study will help the authority ascertain noise levels and its causes and decide on the type of sound barriers needed in each area. “Erecting noise barriers is a scientific process and Mumbai is the first Indian city to adopt such a measure,” said Shailendra Borse, executive engineer of mmrda. The authority is discussing possible acoustic designs with various international consultants to understand whether the barriers should be erected on the edge of the footpath or on the edge of the road. “If barriers will be built on the edge of the road, this will create a tunnel along the footpath and lead to safety issues,” said Borse. Activists opposing noise pollution have welcomed the move. “This shows noise pollution is finally getting the right attention,” said Sumaira Abdulali of Awaaz Foundation. Abdulali in 2007 filed a public interest petition in Bombay High Court against increasing noise pollution in the city. Abdulali, however, said mere installation of noise barriers would not solve Mumbai’s noise problems. “A few years ago, the state government had erected a noise barrier on the JJ flyover near Crawford market. Its design was faulty. The barrier is nothing but some strips placed together with wide spaces in between them. Noise escapes through the gaps and noise level has increased under the flyover,” said Abdulali. Effective noise barriers typically reduce noise levels by half.
         
MMRDA has selected a few stretches for installing the barriers—five flyovers on Eastern Express Highway, Sahar Elevated Road, Eastern Freeway, Bandra-Kurla Link Road. Borse said the barriers will increase the project costs only by four to five per cent, he said. 

Silence guidelines On December 3, 2008, the Urban Development Department of Maharashtra issued guidelines for reducing noise pollution created by elevated roads, rail network and flyovers. The guidelines provide for roadside noise barriers if the roads or rail tracks pass through congested localities where the distance between the building and the traffic is less than 30 metres. It also specifies that such barriers should be able to reduce noise levels to acceptable levels of 60 decibel (dB) on roads in residential areas, 65 dB on roads in mixed land use areas and 70 dB on arterial and trunk roads. The height of barriers should not be more than three metres, the circular said.

On July 15, the Supreme Court reserved its order on an appeal against the Delhi High Court judgement setting up a three-member experts panel to assess damage, if any, to the Yamuna flood plains. The committee, to be headed by environmentalist R K Pachauri, was to report if the commonwealth games village in the riverbed has damaged the floodplain.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) that is constructing the games village had challenged the high court order in the Supreme Court saying if the committee is set up then it would order pulling down the Games Village and such an event would have adverse impact on the games and the image of the country.

Non-profits seeking protection of the floodplain opposed dda in the apex court. “We appealed to the court that the expert committee should be allowed to function so that the recommendations given by it can be adopted after the games are over,” said Manoj Misra of non-profit Yamuna Jiye Abhiyan who along with other civil society groups had petitioned the high court.

There was a heated argument in the court between Attorney General of India and the Solicitor General arrayed on one side and petitioner’s counsel Sanjay Parikh on the other. Parikh said dda had flouted all rules and regulations in building the games village.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi has threatened to move court if Andhra Pradesh goes ahead with its plan to build a dam on the Palar river. He stated this in the assembly on July 14.

Palar river originates in Nandidurg hills in the Kolar district of Karnataka and flows through Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu before merging with the Bay of Bengal. The river waters the northern districts of Tamil Nadu and sharing its water has become a dispute between the two states.

The Tamil Nadu government has accused Andhra state of starting work on the Rs 250 crore project that is yet to be cleared by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests. An expert committee of the Central Water Commission is also yet to decide whether the dam is feasible.

The Andhra Pradesh government started digging a 50 kn water canal, a part of the project, in June end without waiting for clearances. The dam is to be built in Ganeshapuram, near Kuppam in Chittoor district. Karunanidhi termed the move deceitful.  

Earlier in February 2006, the Tamil Nadu government had filed a civil suit in the Supreme Court. The court in January 2008 had directed the centre to settle the dispute amicably. Two months later, the Central Water Commission chairman convened a meeting of officials from both states and asked Andhra Pradesh not to implement the project till the matter was settled. On June 24, the two states were asked to furnish the hydrological details of the river

One more vaccine added to the list
Good news for Indian pharma companies. WHO recommends rotavirus vaccine,
BY ROHINI RANGARAJAN
June 24, 2009

On June 5, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended that rotavirus vaccination be included in all national immunization programmes. Rotavirus is the main cause of diarrhoea in infants and kills nearly 600,000 persons worldwide
every year.

Photograph by Lizzie Wright

But there is a hitch. The vaccine is expensive and could have fatal side effects. Two vaccines are available against this virus—Rotarix, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd. and RotaTeq, by Merck & Co. In 2007, the
Food and Drug Administration of US had notified that RotaTeq increases the chances of a rare medical condition called intussusception in which a part of the bowel collapses into another, blocking it.

Rotarix was not found to be associated with intussusception. Based on this, the WHO recommended the vaccine be included in the immunization programmes of
developing countries.

But these vaccines are not so effective on Indians since they are made from a virus strain that is different from the strain found in India. In India, both Rotarix and RotaTeq are available yet most children here are not vaccinated against the virus because the vaccine is expensive, said Anil Sabharwal, a paediatrician in New Delhi. Each dose can cost Rs 1,000 to 1,200 and at least two doses are to be given before a child becomes six months old.

The cost is the main reason for the vaccine not being part of the immunization programme in the country, said Vishwa Mohan Katoch, director-general, Indian Council for Medical Research. Proven efficacy is a problem with this vaccine and no location specific studies have been done on it yet. The vaccine is
expensive and it would be better to spend that money on better sanitation so that the number of cases of diarrhoea decrease, said Katoch. Mira Shiva, a member of the non-profit Peoples Health Movement added:When the budget for vaccination is so little, why should so much money go into promoting a vaccine of which we are not sure. She pointed out the manufacturers have started
promoting the vaccine through advertisements to create a market for them.

While the foreign brands might not be part of the immunization programme, vaccines being developed in India and undergoing trials might be used, officials said. This means that the WHO recommendation is good news for pharmaceutical
companies. The requirement is estimated to be over 100 million vaccines.

Companies like Bharat Biotech have been working on a rotavirus vaccine for the past eight years. They are testing 116E, a vaccine made using the strain isolated in New Delhi in 1985. A spokesperson of the company said phase II of the trials were completed successfully last year, and phase III is going to begin soon. By next year the vaccine should be available. It will cost less than half of the vaccines available now, he said.

The disease affects children in most countries. Every child is infected by rotaviruses at least once before the age of three. In poor countries, access to health care facilities is limited. Hence the children there account for most of the rotavirus infection deaths. India has over 25 percent of the total rotavirus infection cases in the world.

South Africa is all set to give effect to a set of new rules that aims to commercialize research funded with public money. The rules support the country's intellectual property rights (IPR) Act that came into effect in January 2009. The rules were published in April and the public were asked to send their comments on them by May 29.

The Act and its rules are modelled on the Bayh-Dole Act in the US that allows transfer of government funded inventions to businesses and universities for commercialization.

Under the rules, university researchers in South Africa would no longer have the right to decide whether their research should benefit public or be patented to benefit business houses. If a university does not seek patent on its research, a national intellectual property management office (NIPMO) would have the
power to acquire the rights over it. The nipmo would comprise experts in ipr, lawyers and business experts. The universities are also supposed to assess and report on each research that has potential for commercialization.

The proposed regulations have been widely criticized as they would deprive the public of benefits from research funded by them. The draft rules of the Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act, 2008, focus on use of patents and other forms of IP protection to commercialize research, said a posting by the African Commons Project, a Johannesburg-based non-profit.

Law professors attached to the Loyola University of Chicago, in a letter to South African Government on May 29, said the Act would increase focus on industry-oriented research. This would affect choice of research subjects as well as cut off public access to technologies. Two of them cited the US experience after the Bayh-Dole Act was passed in 1980. Many academic institutions now seem to be unduly focused on patenting basic scientific discoveries though "such activities seldom generate significant financial returns", said Mathew Herder and Cynthia Ho. The Act would also hamper knowledge sharing among academicians, they added.

The South African IPR Act and its proposed rules also contradict many provisions of the recently adopted World Health Organization global action plan. It recommends open access to research on public health and examining the feasibility of pooling patents. This is to spur innovation and improve access to health products and medical devices, said Eve Gray, honorary research
associate at the University of Capetown Centre for Educational Technology.

The action plan favours support of basic science and calls for identifying IP that affect public health research, said Gray. In contrast, the proposed regulations aim to lock down South African research, she said.

Similar laws modelled on Bayh-Dole Act have been passed in Japan, Taiwan and China and are under consideration in India (see` a Scientists’ interest v the public’s, Down To Earth, February 16- 28, 2009) and Philippines too, said Dinesh Abrol, scientist with the National Institute of Science and Technology and
Development Studies. These acts will not help research on neglected diseases which are very important for these countries, said Abrol.

The research conditions in most of these countries are in a pathetic state. The governments need to address those problems instead of passing Bayh Dole type acts, said Rajeshwari Raina who works with Centre for Policy Research, a research organization in Delhi.

Industry infiltrates food safety authority
Over 20% experts in the government body represent food industry; eminent scientists ignored
BY RAVLEEN KAUR

The recently constituted Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, an autonomous body to regulate the processed food industry in the country, has appointed corporate representatives to advise it on food safety standards. The authority has filled the posts in its scientific panels with representatives of multinational companies like Nestle, Pepsico and Coca Cola. Consumer protection activists said this would seriously compromise safety of packaged food in India as the companies that are to be regulated have been made regulators.

Supreme Court advocate Rajeev Dhawan said the appointments are illegal as only independent experts can be on the panels. The Food and Safety Standards Act 2006 under which the food authority (FSSAI) has been set up does not provide for inclusion of members from the food industry; the section dealing with scientific panels allows only for independent scientific experts. Section 13 (2) of the Act does allow the scientific panels to invite industry and consumer representatives for deliberations “but that does not imply that they can be on the panel for the entire term because this would institutionalise conflict of interest,” said Dhawan.

P I Suvrathan, chairman of FSSAI, could not be contacted. Organization spokesperson, Alok Bisaria, refused to comment but said that the selection process was transparent and will be made public on their website.

The scientific panels deal with specific issues including genetically modified food, pesticides, labelling, nutraceuticals and biological hazards. Out of the total 109 experts in these panels, 23 are from food companies.

Faulty selection process is the reason for the problem, said Bejon Misra of consumer organization voice who represents consumer interests in the fssai. He said that the vacancies were filled up through an advertisement. “Many eminent scientists were left out of the panels as they considered it below their dignity to respond to an advertisement,” said Misra. “The selection was done on the basis of scientific papers published in journals and international seminars attended; it turned out that the most qualified people were from the industry,” said Misra. He said he has requested the authority chairman to invite eminent scientists who can form a separate panel; the industry representatives can be asked to give undertakings that they will not represent their company’s interest.

“But then asking the company representatives to remain objective would be like asking for the impossible. They get their salary from the multinational companies and would remain loyal to their paymasters,” pointed out R Desican of Chennai based Consumer Association of India.

Food policy analyst Davinder Sharma said the persons appointed may be qualified but they still represent the industry. Even the fssai is filled with people who are pro-GM food, he said. “If this is the way they want to proceed, then we are happy with the earlier system,” said Sharma.

Electric bikes are fast taking over the streets of China, the world’s bicycle kingdom. After a modest beginning in the mid-1990s, the plug-in two-wheeler now competes with buses and bicycles in the country; its sales have equalled that of petrol-run two-wheelers since 2006. “Majority of e-bike users in China have shifted from bicycles and public transport system,” said Bert Fabian, transport programme manager of Clean Air Initiative for Asian Cities, Manila. With the largest number of two wheelers in world, Asia has a huge potential for e-bikes, he said. While for consumers it is a cheap mode of transport, governments of several countries are promoting the vehicle because of its zero tailpipe emissions. A recent study on e-bikes in China led by the Asian Development Bank, however, said the environmental impacts of e-bikes are unclear.

The study is important for India, as the trend of e-bikes is fast catching on in the country: with 400,000 e-bikes already plying Indian roads, its sales are growing at 10-15 per cent a year.

E-bike depends on grid electricity to recharge its batteries. Pollutants from power plants, mostly coal-fired, thus factor in the emissions from e-bikes during its lifecycle, the study notes. Researchers who conducted the study compared the lifecycle emissions from e-bikes with that of the bus. “Compared with a loaded bus with 50 passengers, a medium-sized e-bike emits about 15 per cent less CO2 per passenger per km; it also emits fewer hydrocarbons and CO. However, it emits higher levels of SO2 and particulate matter,” said the researchers. Rather than competing with buses, e-bikes can complement the bus service by providing high-quality, low-emission personal transport for short trips and as public transport feeder service, the researchers said in the study report. “Longer-distance travel can still be served by high-capacity public transport services,” the report notes.

Another major environmental worry is the pollution from lead-acid batteries because e-bikes use more batteries per km than any other vehicle. “A medium-sized e-bike introduces 420 milligrams per km of lead into the environment through mining, smelting and recycling. Many of these emissions are the result of small-scale, informal lead-producing operations, which are difficult to regulate or monitor,” notes the report. Advanced lead mining, battery production and recycling practices must be adopted on a large scale to mitigate the problem. E-bike manufacturers must assure that lead-acid batteries are recovered and recycled in well-monitored, large-scale recycling facilities with advanced pollution-control technology, the researchers suggested in the report. They further suggested using advanced battery technologies such as lithium ion battery or nickel-metal hydride battery. Though they are expensive, policy makers could develop incentives or regulations to close this price gap. Only then e-bikes would be among the most environmentally-sustainable motorized mode in China, they said.