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An e-bulletin from Centre for Science and Environment, India, to our network of friends and professionals interested in environmental issues.
Scroll to the bottom of this page for information on how to subscribe and unsubscribe.
INSIDE:
* From Down To Earth magazine
- Editorial: Time a resource curse got lifted (By Sunita Narain)
- Cover story: Bhopal's dirty secret
* Web Exclusives
- Indepth: Bhopal - CSE's Pollution Monitoring Laboratory tests soil, water samples from Union Carbide factory
- Equity Watch: CoP15, Copenhagen
- Check the air pollution levels of your city
- Kanpur City Dialogue on Air quality and transportation challenge (December 17, 2009)
* News, features, opinion in Down To Earth
- Frontpage: More cities critically polluted
- Frontpage: Slow march to land reform
- News: Glacial melt? Need more study
- Interview: Tomo Kriznar filmmaker and political activist on lesser known aspects of the war in Darfur.
- Insight: Nature's own water purifiers
- Science & Technology: Nitrogen? Warming?
- Initiative: Switch on biomass
- Food: Unwrap the secret of health
- Factsheet: Mumbye
* Gobar Times: Climate Climax
* Announcements
- Managing Urban Air Quality (December 21 - 24, 2009)
- Global Warming in a Still Unequal World - e primer on climate change (Registration begins Jan, 2, 2010)
- Empowering Institutions: Managing information in the Digital Age (Jan 12-15, 2010)
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Time a resource curse got lifted
(Editorial by Sunita Narain)
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Take a map of India. Now mark the districts with forest wealth, where the rich and dense tree cover is found. Then overlay on it the sources of streams and rivers that feed us, our water wealth. Upon this, further locate mineral deposits - iron ore, coal, bauxite, all things nice that make economies rich. Don’t stop here. Mark on all this wealth another indicator: districts where the poorest people of our country live. These are also tribal districts. So you will find a complete match. The richest lands are where the poorest people live. Now complete this cartography of the country with the colour red. These are the very districts Naxalites roam, where the government admits it is battling its own people, who use the gun to terrorize and kill. Here is a lesson of bad development we clearly need to learn from.
Let’s configure this map with events of the last few weeks. Madhu Koda was chief minister of Jharkhand, a mineral-and-forest-rich but poor-people state, for about a year. Today, enforcement agencies are unearthing a mother of all scams - Rs 4,000 crore, and counting, of illegal assets he and his associates looted from the state. This is roughly a fifth of the state’s annual budget. More importantly, this enormous wealth came from the same minerals that never made his people rich.
It does not end here. This past month, when the BJP government in Karnataka was brought to its knees by defiant legislators who wanted the head of the chief minister, we did not connect this episode with the cartography of India. The Reddy brothers - Gali Janardhana Reddy, the tourism minister of Karnataka and his brother, Gali Karunakara Reddy, the revenue minister of the B S Yeddyurappa government, are mining barons. Their wealth and power comes from rapacious mining in the similar rich-poor districts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
The Reddy brothers’ fiefdom, Bellary district, produces some 20 per cent of the country’s iron ore. The ore is mined with little or no consideration to environmental safeguards. Water in the region runs red because of mine discharge, the land has been mauled, forests have vanished and people’s livelihood devastated. Bellary has the largest number of registered private aircraft, but ranks third from the bottom in the human development index of Karnataka, with 50 per cent literacy level - a shame for an otherwise progressive state. The Reddy brothers (like Madhu Koda) are products of the extraordinary wealth of regions we still call poor. Why, then, are we surprised when Naxalites profit from the anger of local people, witnesses to the loot of their land?
The problem is we have never taken seriously the issue of sharing wealth with the people, whose land it is. This is not part of the development mandate. Take forests. Some 60 per cent of the country’s dense and most bio-diverse and economically rich forests are found in these tribal districts. This is where the magnificent tigers are found. Ask again: If there is extraordinary wealth, why are the people who live here so poor?
The fact is we have never built a development model for natural resources, which is sustainable and also can benefit local economies and people. The first phase of development was when the state extracted and exploited the forests. Large areas were handed over to the paper and pulp industry, much like what’s happening with minerals today; swathes of dense forests were cut, land was denuded to build the economic wealth of the country. But nothing was shared with local people. This was the forest wealth that built fortunes of governments and private companies. But not its people.
Then came the phase of conservation. The nation decided forests had to be protected; tigers and other wild animals had to be safeguarded. But instead of building an economic model which shared the benefits of conservation with people, the State once again marginalized them. Forests, went the belief, had to be protected from the people who lived on these lands. Today the callous implementation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, which does not allow (rightly in many cases) diversion of forestland for non-forest purposes, has become the single biggest reason for anger and violence in the region.
See, while forests are cleared for mines, or power or industrial projects, what is delayed and discounted is the little forestland local people need to build a school, a water tank or an access road. Worse, the wealth of the forests is never used to build their economies. Conservation of the tiger happens on their lands, on their backs, with little benefit to them. Are we still surprised at their anger?
This needs to change, and there are avenues. Some years ago, the Supreme Court passed an important order regarding the sharing of the mineral wealth with people. Today, there are new imperatives, national and global, such as protecting forests for water, or climate, security. Can these enable renewed futures? Can we change the rich land-poor people cartography of India? Let’s discuss this the next time.
Comment < cse@equitywatch.org >
Read this online: << mode="1">>
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Related content in India Environment Portal
Resource rich tribal poor: displacing people, destroying identity in India’s indigenous heartland
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/node/285738/
Let our rightful forests flourish
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/node/277217/
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Cover Story - Subterranean leak: A secret disaster in Bhopal
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Continuing nightmare in Bhopal: CSE laboratory tests soil, water samples from Union Carbide; finds high contamination of pesticides and other toxins
Press release (December 1, 2009) >> http://cseindia.org/AboutUs/press_releases/press-20091201.htm
Full CSE lab report on contamination of soil and water inside and outside Union Carbide Limited, Bhopal
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/webexclusives/pdf/Bhopal_lab_report.pdf
Read the full cover story: http://www.downtoearth.org.in/cover_nl.asp?mode=2
Read the story also in Hindi >> http://www.downtoearth.org.in/webexclusives/pdf/hindi_downtoearth.pdf
Interactive map of spread of toxins across the city >> http://www.downtoearth.org.in/webexclusives/bhopal_25years.htm
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India Environment Portal: Indepth on related reports, stories and more
>> >>http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/indepth/term/2542<<
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Equity Watch: On CoP-15
http://www.cseindia.org/equitywatch.asp
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Copenhagen - The Danish Proposal Surfaces (December 8, 20:00 hrs)
Briefing note on energy intensity measure announced by the Indian government
http://www.cseindia.org/AboutUs/press_releases/briefing_note.pdf
Press Note (Dec 05, 2009): Stage set for a bad deal at Copenhagen
http://www.cseindia.org/AboutUs/press_releases/press-20091205_not.htm
Press release (Dec 04, 2009): Domestic target ok, but will it be used by rich nations to change the terms of the global climate agreement
http://www.cseindia.org/AboutUs/press_releases/press-20091204.htm
Check out on India Environment Portal every day for latest News, reports, studies and more
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/taxonomy/term/1937
More on COP -15 >> http://indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/indepth/term/1937
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More news, features, opinion in Down To Earth fortnightly
(http://www.downtoearth.org.in/)
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Frontpage: More cities critically polluted
<< mode="3">>
Webexclusive: New ambient air quality standards are out. More cities and towns are now critically polluted. Is your city one of
them? Find out <<>>
Kanpur city dialogue on air quality and transportation challenge: an agenda for action (December 17, 2009)
http://cseindia.org/campaign/apc/Kanpur_City.htm
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Frontpage: Slow march to land reform
<< mode="4">>
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News: Glacial melt? Need more study
<< mode="5">>
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Interview: Tomo Kriznar filmmaker and political activist on lesser known aspects of the war in Darfur
<< mode="6">>
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Insight: Nature's own water purifiers
<< mode="7">>
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Science & Technology: Nitrogen? Warming?
<< mode="8">>
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Initiative: Switch on biomass
<< mode="9">>
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Food: Unwrap the secret of health
<< mode="10">>
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Factsheet: Mumbye
<< mode="11">>
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Gobar Times
http://www.gobartimes.org
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So what's up in Copenhagen?
As the stage is set for the much talked about climate change conference, Panditji offers some useful tips in what to look out for in the mega do.
Read on >> http://www.gobartimes.org/20091215/gt_covfeature.asp
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Launch of e - primer - Global Warming in a Still Unequal World
Registration begins Jan 2, 2010
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An e-primer on the phenomenon, science and politics of climate change, from a developing country perspective. It’s the eye-opener on climate change you always wanted, suspected was out there, but couldn’t access.
We know that the threat of climate change is real and urgent and we also know that combating this threat requires drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions – particularly in the industrialized world. But as greenhouse gases are linked to economic growth, climate change requires the world to share growth between nations and people.
This beginners' guide to climate change will be of special interest to students, teachers, NGOs, CBOs, INGO and government representatives, and environment consultants, among others.
Course modules:
- Climate change: Understanding the challenges
- Primer on the science & politics
- The scenario today
- What scientists say
- Impacts in India & South Asia
- Negotiating the politics
- At stake: Earth’s future
Contact
Sharmila Sinha (sharmila@cseindia.org / aagc@cseindia.org)
Tel: 91-11-29955125 (Ext: 270)
Fax: 91-11-29955879
For details>> http://ecourses.cseindia.org/
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Short training programmes
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Managing Urban Air Quality: An orientation programme for regulators, city planners, NGOs, academicians and consultants
(December 21 - 24, 2009)
For details <
This four-day programme will explore a package of planning; regulatory, economic, and technical instruments and also key awareness raising tools necessary for cities in India to make the transition to clean cities.
This programme will be a combination of
* Lectures by the key experts in the field. Each session will have select expert faculty
* Interactive sessions will be organised with the practitioners and the experienced policy makers on specific strategies
* Leveraging of Delhi’s experience through well designed case studies
* Specially designed field visits will demonstrate the implementation challenges of the CNG programme, the inspection of maintenance programme for in-use vehicles, among others.
Key modules of this orientation programme
Module: 1 Agenda for Change
Module 2: Spotlight on air pollution sources
Module 3: Agenda for action: Strategies to better urban air quality
Course fee: Rs. 8,800/- per participant
Contact:
Ms Jayeeta Sen (jayeeta@cseindia.org)
Ms Swati Khanna (swati@cseindia.org)
Phone: +91-11-29955124, Ext: 221,220,Fax: +91-11-29955879
For details>> http://www.cseindia.org/aagc/cleanair_imperatives.asp
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Empowering Institutions: Short course on "Managing information in the Digital Age" (Jan 12-15, 2010)
A training programme on library, information management, documentation and web-based outreach
For details >>http://www.cseindia.org/aagc/managinginformation.asp<<
Knowledge is the key to social change. However, information not organised properly defeats the purpose of any communication or knowledge-based initiative. Managing information, in the internet era with explosive information availability demands special skills and calls for investments in strengthening the information infrastructure and skills of an organisation. There is a need for understanding tools and technologies for information identification, organization, analysis, presentation, dissemination and monitoring.
Here is an opportunity for you to participate in a specially-designed short training programme on 'Managing information resources in the digital age: a training programme on library, information management, documentation and web-based outreach”.
Workshops will be conducted by CSE's professional staff of documentalists, webmasters and members of various outreach units. The training is being organised by CSE's Environment Resources Unit, among South Asia's premier research and documentation centres. The unit has helped propel CSE's high-profile research, advocacy and issemination activities for more than two decades. It has kept pace with the latest documentation and information
management tools available to professionally manage books, journal articles, news clippings, unpublished papers, photos, films, CDs and the contact addresses.
This unique course will teach participants on how to manage all aspects and types of information, at an institutional level and develop an online resource centre using open source tools and technologies. The programme is broad in scope, and covers a gamut of information types, management strategies, tools, and dissemination strategies.
Course fee: NGOs: Rs. 4,400/- per participant (USD 125/-)
Corporate and Others : Rs. 8,800/- per participant (USD 225/-)
Contact:
Kiran Pandey (kiran@cseindia.org, kir_nov@yahoo.co.in / kirandwi@gmail.com)
Phone: + 91 (011) 29955124/5 (Ext. 287); Fax: 29955879 M: +919968767698
For details >> http://www.cseindia.org/aagc/managinginformation.asp
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