By Carol Sherman
The already tarnished image of the Australian government is about to be dealt another blow if the Piparwar coal mine in the Indian state of Bihar gets final clearance and becomes fully operational. This project, the largest overseas aid venture yet sponsored by the Australian government, will cause massive environmental damage and social dislocation to some of the poorest people in India.
Media sources in India are slamming this supposedly "environmentally sound" contribution to coal mining. Claude Alvarez and Satinath Sarangi, renowned environmental journalists, commented recently that Piparwar would be responsible for killing the environment with the assistance of massive amounts of Australian technology. "The scale of the imported Australian technology is so huge, the intended pace of the project so awesome, that nature may only be able to gasp before going down under."
The Australian aid component of the project will be $206 million. AIDAB is contributing $61.5 million over a five-year period, through its Development Import Finance Facility. AUSTRADE will provide $145.1 million through its Export Finance and Insurance Corporation.
Australian firms will scoop up $150 million of the total being given for Piparwar. The money will come back to be spent in Australia on heavy mining equipment and services. So the Indian people loose out twice — the environment is destroyed and the economic benefits will be minimal.
In response to questions raised by Australian NGOs, the
then minister for trade and overseas development, Neal Blewett, commented on December 23 that, while the Australian government is concerned to ensure that environmental issues associated with the project are properly addressed, the implementation of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) is the responsibility of the government of India. He also notes that formal clearance of the EMP is not a prerequisite for mining at Piparwar because the project was sanctioned in 1985 — prior to the implementation of the Environment Protection Act.
Already mining is proceeding, reportedly with heavy Australian equipment, making a total mess of the area.
The watershed in the Piparwar region will be destroyed, resulting in forced resettlement of tribal and scheduled castes. Forest destruction will be widespread.
Alvarez and Sarangi claim the EMP — which should cover both environmental and social management aspects of the project, including provision for resettlement, compensation and employment of local villagers displaced by the project — is limited in scope. It says t on the watershed, the river or the people within the watershed.
The Barkagaon area, where the project is situated, is being nominated to become a sanctuary. The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage has made significant archaeological discoveries in this area.
Central Coalfields Limited (CCL), an Indian public sector company, and its contract partner, White Industries Ltd of Australia, are the executors of the project.
Piparwar is designed to be the supplier for two thermal power plants. Both are World Bank projects established to feed New Delhi's power needs. The main beneficiaries of the project will be Australian and Indian business concerns and New Delhi consumers.
The project has no positive effects for local people. Despite the fact that coal mining has been carried out in the Piparwar region for many years, 41% of the families in the area remain below the poverty line. The population of Bihar are unable to get coal for their own personal use. Demands that 20% of coal from local mines should be reserved for consumers in Bihar have been rejected out of hand.
The use of new Australian technology to exploit Piparwar and other areas within the region means that very few local people will obtain employment. Coal India cut its workforce by 2550 in 1989-90, and by 1800 in the previous year. CCL and CIL have taken policy decisions to further mechanise not only mining operations but also loading operations.
There have been massive protests in the area over this mechanisation drive. On January 22, 1991, contractors working for CCL opened fire on a demonstration. Two people were killed and six injured. Coal from Piparwar is now being loaded into trains at the same siding where this protest took place.
Alvarez and Sarangi argue, "CIL and CCL, mother and daughter, have such an appalling record of environmental rehabilitation and pollution control that no-one in his proper senses would give these companies an acre more to devastate unless they indicated an iota of willingness to repair the damage of decades. Yet, here they are, ready to commence anew the devastation of an entire watershed, this time with the support of environmentally conscious Australians."
Previous CCL projects, such as Dakra, Urimarhi, Kedla and Bermo coalfields have all resulted in extreme environmental degradation.
Five villages are to be made extinct by Piparwar, with dozens to be affected. The villagers are mainly subsistence farmers, many tribals, owning on average 2-6 acres of land.
Sarangi and Alvarez write, "They will lose their dwellings, rice fields, water and forests. Rehabilitation plans will turn them from self-reliant peasant farmers into wage laborers. While CCL, in are speedily raising bungalows for the Australians, it has not bothered to even find alternative housing sites to relocate the original citizens of the country."
CCL's record on compensation is atrocious. The adjacent Bachara open cut mine was opened 10 years ago. Five years later it closed. The affected population still await compensation for their agricultural lands.
[Abridged from a report on Pegasus.]