Resource Conflicts Forest Rights of Tribals And POSCO
Resource Conflicts Forest Rights of Tribal's And POSCO Steel Plant
Forest Rights Act 2006 ( Tribal Rights Act , Tribal Act, Tribal Land Act )
Forest landscapes cover 23% of the country. Source : Citizens’ report 2013 on Community Forest Rights under Forest Rights Act
Around 250 Million population live in and around India's forest lands (in which 100 mn are indigenous people) These tribal communities have always been in an integral close‐knit relationship with the forests (mutually beneficial) Source : Citizens’ report 2013 on Community Forest Rights under Forest Rights Act
BUT
They had no legal right to their homes, lands or livelihoods. & Their rights were rarely recognized due to the absence of real ownership of land
Result !
Both forests and people were suffering.
Forest Rights Act ( CONTROVERSY ) SUPPORTERS OPPONENTS It will redress the “historical injustice committed against forest dwellers This law will lead to massive forest destruction
Forest Rights Act 2006 (Rights under the act) • Right to hold and live in the forest land (individual or Community) • Community rights such as nistar, by whatever name called, including those used in erstwhile Princely States, Zamindari or such intermediary regimes • Right of ownership (access , collect, use, and dispose of minor forest produce) • Other community rights (right on products of water bodies, grazing • Rights in or over disputes lands under any nomenclature in any State where claims are disputed
• Rights of settlement and conversion of all forest villages, old habitation, unsurveyed villages and other villages in forests, whether recorded, notified or not into revenue villages. • Rights to protect, regenerate or conserve or manage any community forest resource which they have been traditionally protecting and conserving for sustainable use. • Right of access to biodiversity and community right to intellectual property and traditional knowledge related to biodiversity and cultural diversity; • Excluding the traditional right of hunting or trapping or extracting a part of the body of any species of wild animal
Definition of Politics : ‐ Activities aimed at improving someone's status or increasing power within an organization. “Geopolitics” is the supposition that all international relationships are based on the interaction between geography and power.
Iron and Steel The POSCO India Story
(Pohang Iron and Steel Company)
POSCO (Steel Making Company) • POSCO is a multinational steel‐making company headquartered in Pohang, South Korea. • It had an output of 42 million tons of crude steel in 2015, making it the world's fourth‐largest steelmaker by this measure. • POSCO‐India’s project was estimated to be a 12 billion dollar project. • POSCO‐India’s project was to build a 12 million tons per year steel plant in Orissa, with a captive port and iron ore mines. • It was widely celebrated as the single largest infusion of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) since the Indian economy liberalized in 1991.
POSCO ‐: A Steel Making Company : ‐ • June 2005 : Mo. U signed between Orissa government and POSCO‐India. • December 18, 2006: Forest Rights Act passed by India Parliament. Act is applicable in both project plant/port and mining areas. • November 29, 2007: Police and hired gundas attack dharna (rally) at one entry point with bombs (more than 50 people injured , dharna tent demolished). The protesters are driven back into one gram panchayat (Dhinkia). • January 1, 2008: Forest Rights Act notified into force. • August 2008 : No final clearance granted. The case is only between Orissa government, Central government and POSCO; no opponents to the project are represented. • December 29, 2009: In violation of its own circular and the Forest Rights Act, Ministry grants final clearance for diversion of forest land.
• January 5, 2010: POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti writes to Ministry against illegal action. • June 2010: Negotiations between PPSS leadership and government of Orissa to allow government survey of land (without police presence) in exchange for chief minister Naveen Patnaik to visit 9 villages for meetings with residents. Survey process incomplete. Chief Minister Patnaik’s visit never materializes. • July 1‐ 12, 2010: POSCO / Government of Orissa announces new compensation package. PPSS holds public rally and burns copies of new compensation package. • 2010 : 5 years after Mo. U was signed and POSCO yet to acquire a single acre of land
POSCO Steel Plant ODISHA SUPPORTERS OPPONENTS ( NUAGAON VILLAGE ) ( DHINKIA VILLAGE ) Allowed to chop down their betel vines and fruit bearing cashew trees in the greed for compensatory amount Blocked entry points of the village (squatting on the roads) which eventually delayed the land acquisition for 2 years
The impacts of the POSCO project on the residents of Jagatsinghpur, Keonjhar and Sundergerh, where the steel plant, the port, and the mines were supposed to be set up. 1 2 3 • Subversion of State’s authority and sovereignty for POSCO’s benefits. • Project affected villages face widespread impoverishment and loss of livelihoods • Environmental Clearances based on flawed processes and incomplete data
Subversion of State’s authority and sovereignty for POSCO’s benefits. • The Forest Rights Act (FRA) has been openly and deliberately flouted in the 3096 acres of forest land required for the POSCO steel plant. • The administration not only refused to recognize the rights of thousands of families in the project area under the Act, it also deliberately withheld information to the people of villages opposing the POSCO project. • POSCO project has faced brutal repression. • The government has offered misleading and false projections for tax revenues realized from the POSCO project (w. r. t. corporate tax)
Project affected villages face widespread impoverishment and loss of livelihoods • There have been a thriving agricultural economy in the region and this economy would have been completely destroyed by the project, displacing an estimated 22, 000 people. • The Resettlement and Rehabilitation package on offer in the steel plant area was not reasonable compensation for the losses that will be suffered by the people. • The employment potential of the project has been grossly exaggerated by POSCO and Orissa government, based on an inaccurate study by NCAER. • POSCO claimed the offer “ 8. 7 lakh jobs for 30 years” but NCAER study shows only 7000 direct jobs and a maximum of 17, 000 direct and indirect jobs in the next 5‐ 10 years. (This represents a maximum of 1. 7% reduction in current unemployment levels as against the exaggerated claims by POSCO who have used the figure of 8. 7 lakh jobs to suggest that the project will almost entirely wipe out unemployment in Orissa)
Environmental Clearances based on flawed processes and incomplete data • The environmental threats completely overlooked by the EIA are the possible adverse impact on the viability of the thriving Paradeep port, an impending water crisis in the Mahanadi delta and Khandadhar mining areas. • The Coastal Regulation Zone Notification of 1991, which protects fish breeding grounds, has been violated since the area designated for POSCO’s captive port is classified as an “ecologically sensitive area. ”
Conclusion • As time passes, renewable resource scarcities are becoming more common. • There is increasing evidence that these scarcities are a causal factor in political conflict, especially in developing countries. • Conflict due to renewable resource scarcity could be cyclical, implying recurring phases of conflict • Indicators of successful management of natural resources that have contributed to peace include establishment of standards and agreements and efforts at cooperation, co‐ management, and conservation.
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