A response to completely stopping mining in Odisha

Dear Dr Prakash,

I am not sure whether this mail will reach the focusOrissa group due to moderation, so I copy it to you.

Such idea of stopping mining in Odisha is completely double standard as like Saxena has said recently on Niyamgiri.

Firstly we do not have sound human resource to take the advantage. Secondly we are very much under developed in terms of infrastructure, education and health. Thirdly for the national and global interest of human civilisation.

As per the suggestion, if Russia, Canada, Australia, Iran, Iraq, Soudi Arbia, Qatar and other gulf countries also decide in the similar line to stop (exploring &) exporting fossil fuel, will we in India able to cope? A 10 dollar change in crude oil price is putting our common man in high inflation in present days, not only in Delhi but also far off KBK.

We import more coal from Austarlia, at least 60% of oil and gas are imported from Gulf countries. If Orissa stop mining, definitely India has to import more coal, iron, chromium, bauxite from other countries. Will the nation able to bear the cost for energy (for all of our houses, computers etc), steel (for housing, agriculture, tracotor, power tiller, & infrastructure), bauxite (for daily use & hardwares) etc? Fortunately, Orissa has 37% forest and recently Govt is asking to limit the mineral export from the state upto 40% to benefit the state largely in industrilisation, employment and economy, so that quality of living and poverty improves in Odisha.

If we will be asking the Government not to make road, supply drinking water, hospitals, etc and asking everyone to go back 500 years backward then probably it might be possible but this is also not sure as 500 years ago metal was still part of our society.

For our own living we consume extensively metal, fossil fuels, but we expect to stop it completely. Who will do it first? My grandfather, a retired civil servant, sold his car after retirement in 1976 and used bullok cart in Kalahandi. I did not find second one to follow him rather find more people buying motor bikes, cars day by day since my childhood.

Since my childhood I have been also seeing more NGOs filling rooms in the most expensive hotels at Bhawanipatna and renting AC cars in the name of poverty, envrionment etc, whereas povety has not yet subsidised. In this reagrd, my question is how many of these NGOs/activists will stop using fossil fuel/metal themselves first?

As a general trend, when there is public demand few people will keep coming to do business. In my native place no one sells toilet paper as there is no demand. So if we stop ourselves using aluminum (known as metal of the poor), no company in the world will come for bauxite. You might be knowing that aluminum utensils are extensively used in every house in rural Orissa/India. Could we able to convience them first to use the earthen pot and not metal pot? If India export buxite (Orissa has huge reserves) perhaps they will be first hurt in the price (I read somewhere that Niyamgiri mining could have further made aluminum cheaper in India benefiting poor people & house hold use). Similarly the haripin dongria kondh women wears comes from these mining activity though its not a bigger issue.

I am sure none of the people who are advocating this idea have a sound knowledge of governance and inter-related economy, otherwise they would not be so foolish to comment on such a deep routed problem so lightly.

In human history mining and metal have been esstential since ages: iron age, bronze age, cupper age etc. Today if we stop mining tomorrow we will depend more on polymer, much more environmental and health hazadous than metals.

I am sure all these noises are due to money/finance coming though various philanthropic channels from abroad such as Ted Turner. Otherwise very few understand the deep inside the human existance, civilisation and evolution.

Good science, technology, innovation and development could only balance the envrionment and human living. Rest what we see now in Odisha is only noise coming out due to few irresponsible philanthropic money without getting any long tem solution for human civilisation and environment.

As Gandhi has rightly shown to us by rejecting suits instead of KHADAD, let these people who are making so much noise first wear the KHADAD, we will be happy to follow them.

In this case we can easily count the golden days for environment as well as human civilisation. Unfortunately, most of them are "chameleon" and "fund hunters", people like me trust very little that they could do anything positive for the environment except stopping development.

If I had money for environment, I will bet more on research and green technology rather wasting these money in hotel bills, transportation, meeting, bribing news paper and writing articles in Odisha.

With best regards

Digambara