Orissadiary, Jan 5, 2011
To
Sri Jairam Ramesh, Honorable Minister of Envrionment and Forest
CC
Dr Manmohan Singh, Honorable Prime Minister of India
Smt. Sonia Gandhi, Honorable UPA Chariperson
Sri Naveen Patnaik, Chief Minister of Odisha
Sri Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary, Indian National Congress Party
Secretaty, Ministry of Envrionment and Forest
Dear Honourable Sri Jairam Ramesh,
Vedanta could have been a great hope for Kalahandi’s industrialization process as the company was planning a world class refinery (one of the largest in Asia) and manufacturing unit in Lanjigarh. There is no other industry in whole Kalahandi constituency. Though there are local intellectuals who still advocate industrialization of Kalahandi through Vedanta, due to small number of affected people (a fraction compared to the people who would have been benefited from industrialization) the project was put in uncertainty by Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF).
The decision by MoEF is largely seen as political in the local and state level, as the involved group directly comes from political parties: opposing group in the local level comes from congress party and supporting group in the local level comes from BJD.
Recently it is also being alleged by various neutral intellectual groups that MoEF has acted harshly on Vedanta in Kalahandi compared to other projects such as Navi Mumbai airport, Pollavoram, POSCO, etc.
Though MoEF’s decision has made activists, environmentalists, NGOs and few political groups unexpectedly happy, it has made nation builders, Kalahandi lovers and economists worried. In this political battle who really took the back seat was the development of Kalahandi, one of the most backward pockets in the nation.
Lanjigarh was one of the locations in the district that made Kalahandi name infamous across the globe for starvation death and child selling. People were dying eating mago kernel in Lanjigarh region in late 1990s which is still available in archives of many national news papers. So far central Govt. approved major projects in Kalahandi are: Upper Indravati Project (approved during Marajee Desai Govt.), Lanjigarh road – Junagarh railway line (approved during Chandrasekhar Govt.), National Highways (NH201 & NH217 approved during Vajpayee Govt.), etc, all of them were sanctioned during Non-congress Government in the center. Tracking this record and statistics of last 63 years in post independence period, when congress party has ruled the nation not a single major establishment was ever approved in Kalahandi constituency yet, thus, people who wants to make this region as par with other parts of the nation are totally confused on what does the central Govt. presently store for Kalahandi? Is it under development and spreading of naxallism that Kalahandi has witnessed in past decades? Perhaps, MoEF is not concerend about this as it does not come under its ministry, but it is a concern for Kalahandi and its people in general.
Why do people in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad (your home city), etc would enjoy industrialisation, thus development, and poeple in Kalahandi bear the cost for environment and would be forced to migrate in long run like me?
Why can't be a regulation that envrionment and industries are balanced in all constituencies of India without making no industry zone like Kalahandi always at the receiving end?
MoEF has not yet come with a concrete plan from Niyamgiri and has NOT done any positive contribution towards Kalahandi even for the development of forest and environment. Beside that substantial portion (above 30%) of the land area of Kalahandi comes under forest area and Odisha has the highest percentage of forest area among various states and union territories in India except North eastern block of states and Chhattisgarh. Odisha is next to Madhya Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh in terms of total area of forest land and has the maximum forest land by both percentage as well as area wise among all the states in eastern part of the country, such as Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal.
As you are aware forest may help to give a better environment to live and facilitate as a living source for large part of tribal population. But, in place like Kalahandi more forest and environment are destroyed by ignorant people than by industries due to lack of useful knowledge and management skill towards environment and natural resources and allied sectors.
Institutions as par with Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM) Bhopal may be helpful in this regards to prepare outstanding and talented young person for careers leading to management responsibility in forestry and the forest-related system and meet the need of Indian forestry and forest-related industry and commerce in respect of upto-date information on forestry management through research and consultancy.
Establishment of IIFM in Bhopal was based on forest area in undivided Madhya Pradesh that includes present Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh and this institution is doing remarkably well in the national level. Union ministry of environment and forest must establish four such new institutions in those states having large forest area such as one in Kalahandi in Odisha for eastern part, and others in Andhra Pradesh for Southern part, in Uttarakhand for Northern part and in Arunachal Pradesh for North Eastern part of the country.
Since MoEF has acted harshly against development of Kalahandi, an IIFM should be established in Kalahandi in first priorty basis as soon as possible.
Thanking you and best regards
Digambara Patra
--
Dr. Digambara Patra
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemistry
American University of Beirut
P.O. Box: 11-0236, Riad El Solh
Beirut 1107-2020, Lebanon
Email: digpatra@gmail.com
http://staff.aub.edu.lb/~dp03/
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