From nvagho@VSNL.NET Sun Feb  6 12:37:35 2005
Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2005 12:04:12 +0530
From: Neeraj Vagholikar 
To: nathistory-india@Princeton.EDU
Subject: Cement industry renews assault on Meghalaya's limestone caves


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Dear All,
In the 1990s the Rhino Foundation for Nature in Northeast India and WPSI
had studied the impacts of a proposed ACC cement plant coming up near the
Balphakram National Park in Meghalaya's Garo Hills and had campaigned for
scrapping the plant and the accompanying mining which was to impact
critical wildlife habitats including elephant corridors. 
 
Besides being a threat to the contiguous conservation unit of  Balphakram
NP, Siju sanctuary and Rewak RF, the mining operations were planned
directly above the famous Siju Caves. ZSI has extensively surveyed
this cave and this is the only known home to Macrobrachum cavernicola,
a cavernicolous shrimp. Three species of bats are also found in the
caves: the Long Winged Bat, Dobson's Long Tongued Fruit Bat and the
Kashmir Cave Bat.
 
As part of the campaign mentioned above, 15 eminent scientists sent an
appeal to the MoEF in September 1996. The campaign seems to be have been
successful  as the proposed plant and accompanying mining has not come up
atleast until now.
 
Under the new industrial policy of Meghalaya, the cement industry seems
to have renewed its assault on the caves in another part of the state.
Currently two cement plants have been setup directly above India's
longest limestone cave, near the Norpuh RF in the Jaintia Hills. Please
see article (pasted below) by well-known journalist and activist from
Meghalaya, Patricia Mukhim, which appears in today's Telegraph (Northeast
Pages) on this issue. A similar piece appeared in yesterday's Maharashtra
Herald, which indicated that considerable damage has already been done to
the cave and further damage needs to be urgently halted.
regards,
Neeraj
 
 
The Telegraph, February 1, 2005
Industry vs environment
SHILLONG NOTES / PATRICIA MUKHIM

Meghalaya is among the few states in this country, which has some of the
most extraordinary caves. These caves, which are essentially of
limestone, have been meticulously mapped by Brian Daly Kharpran, a local
speleologist with assistance from interested cavers from across the
world. Several expeditions have been organised by the Meghalaya
Adventures Association (MAA), which was formed in August 1990.

Kharpran was conferred the prestigious Tenzing Norgay award for adventure
sports by the President for single-mindedly pursuing his hobby and
putting Meghalaya in the caving map of the world.

While much hue and cry is raised about wild life that threatens to become
extinct and there are numerous projects for saving the Royal Bengal Tiger
or the one-horned rhino, caves are as yet an unknown territory perhaps
because there is dearth of information about them. In fact, Assam even
had its rain forest festival where a world audience of concerned
environmentalists made their presence felt and were ready to pool their
efforts toward conserving this threatened natural space.

The forthcoming Kaziranga festival, for instance, is essentially about
protecting wild life and not encroaching into areas clearly designated as
wild life sanctuaries. It is time we turned our attention to caves.

Caves, contrary to popular understanding, are not lifeless entities. They
are constantly changing shape because of the action of rainwater.
Exquisite stalactites and stalagmites form inside these caves and they
deserve to be protected as much as wild life and rain forests. Usually
environmentalists network with one another and strengthen each
other’s conservation efforts. In fact, there is a strong network of
groups that try to protect the rights of forest dwellers and who
communicate to each other over e-mail on a daily basis.

It is unfortunate that they are unaware of the story of caves in
Meghalaya which are now under threat from cement companies which have
come to this state to enjoy the seven-year tax holiday. Both companies
have their board offices outside Meghalaya, one in Bengal, the other in
Delhi.

Tax and other incentives are provided by the Centre to speed up the
process of industrialisation in the northeastern states. Unfortunately,
the Centre has failed to anticipate the damage that would occur to the
environment of this region, much of which is a biosphere reserve and
supports 63 per cent of this country’s forests.

In the absence of a land use policy, forests and even agricultural land
have been allocated to set up Export Promotion Industrial Parks (EPIP) in
Meghalaya and Assam. Recently, the governor of Assam, Lt Gen. (retd) Ajai
Singh, made a graphic presentation of the possibilities of investment in
the Northeast to the Indian Merchants Chamber in Mumbai.

He whetted their appetite by listing the various tax exemptions and the
plethora of subsidies available to commercial houses willing to set up
shop in the region. The governor offered the hospitality of Raj Bhavan to
members of the Indian Merchants Chamber if they deigned to come and scout
for investment opportunities in the region. This fantastic presentation
reeked of a sell-out of the Northeast and its vast wealth of natural
resources. In Meghalaya, two cement factories have recently come up
around the limestone caves in Lumshnong and in the vicinity of the Narpuh
reserved forests of Jaintia Hills. Both plants involve investments above
Rs 100 crore.

While the Cement Manufacturing Company Ltd (CMCL) has set up a Rs
230-crore project with an daily production of 3,000 metric tonnes of
cement, Meghalaya Cements Ltd (CML) has a Rs 145-crore plant with a daily
production capacity of 1,000 metric tonnes.

According to norms laid out by the ministry of environment and forests
vide their environmental impact assessment (EIA) notification dated 1994,
cement plants above Rs 100 crore investment should not be set up at a
place which is (a) Less than 5 km (aerial distance) from reserved forests
or wild life sanctuaries (b) less than 5 km aerial distance from place of
Tourist or Cultural or Historical importance (c) less than 5 km aerial
distance from the international or state borders. The notification
further says that cement plants are highly polluting industries and fall
under the RED category of polluting industries. Apart from site clearance
which is to be granted by the ministry of environment and forests, Delhi
and forest clearance, which is to be given by the state forest
department, the companies intending to set up cement plants have to
prepare a detailed environmental management plan (EMP) which is to be
submitted to the state and Union government for clearance.

One mandatory clause which has never been followed in Meghalaya is that
of environmental public hearings which the district administration and
the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) should jointly conduct.

Conditional clearance can be given by the SPCB only after the public
hearing. The final environmental clearance is to be given by ministry of
environment and forests, Delhi. After this, the mining lease is given by
the department of mining and geology of the state. The two above-named
companies have set up their cement plants on top of India’s longest
cave and very close to the Narpuh reserve forest. Both plants have
allegedly come up without the necessary environmental and other
clearances from relevant departments.

To speed up the clearance they have allegedly shown an investment lesser
than Rs 100 crore and also indicated lesser production. In which case the
plants would not be viable. Mawmluh Cherra Cements Limited (MCCL) in
Cherrapunjee today stands in a deforested area with not even a spike of
grass growing around a 10-km radius from the plant.

Meghalaya has a Land Transfer Act (LTA) which does not allow non-tribals
to purchase land in the state. But the act has a clause, which states
that land can be alienated in favour of a non-tribal if it is in the
interest of the tribals. Several companies have circumvented the act by
claiming that they would provide jobs to unemployed tribals. But after
the plant starts functioning all companies imported cheap manpower from
Bihar, UP and even nearby Bangladesh.

Managerial posts are invariably held by non-locals since the companies
are based outside Meghalaya. After sustained media campaigns against the
manner in which the two cement plants have been set up, Meghalaya chief
minister, D.D. Lapang and forest minister Mukul Sangma have reacted.

Both have publicly stated that they would institute an inquiry to find
out how and under whose discretion the companies managed to get clearance
from the single window cell of the state government and other agencies,
for setting up their cement plants.

What Meghalaya and the entire region needs is not a stand-alone
industrial policy but a comprehensive economic policy which will factor
in all the costs such as environmental destruction, pollution, energy
consumption.

Neeraj Vagholikar
Kalpavriksh,
Apartment No. 5, Shree Dutta Krupa,
908 Deccan Gymkhana,
Pune - 411004
Phone (Office): 020 - 25654239/25675450
Telefax: 020 - 25654239
Phone (Home): 020 - 24262629
email: nvagho@vsnl.net