From ameen@vsnl.net Tue Aug 15 12:11:43 2000
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 23:35:09 +0530
From: Ameen Ahmed 
To: Natural History of South Asia - General discussion and research
    
Subject: The DAM(N) curse on Karnataka

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Yet another dam, yet another pristine forest lost. The torture of Mother
Nature continues unabated in Uttara Kannada.

I am furnishing some statistics on the Forest cover lost in Karnataka from
1956 to 1983 (Source: The Karnataka Forest Annual Report 1983-84). It might
be distressing to note that most of this prestine forest cover lost is in
the sensitive Western Ghats District of Uttara Kannada (also Shimoga to
considerable extent) and most of it happens to be of evergreen type.

Sl.No:    Purpose                               Extent Lost (in Hectares)
1. Areas gone under submersion                               35,840
2. Areas released for rehabilitaion of expatriated ryots     25,820
3. Areas gone under power lines                               1,688
4. Areas given for cultivation                               67,217
5. Areas gone under mining                                   42,678
6. Areas given for townships                                  1,791
7. Areas given for non-agricultural purposes                  6,297
8. Area lost for Kalinadi project                            12,500
9. Area lost for Chakra Project                               2,600
10. Area lost for Varahi Project                             15,634
11. Area lost for Gangavathi Project                         10,039
12. Area lost for Colony and roads                              333
13. Area lost for Bedathi Project Ist phase                     290

      TOTAL                                                  2,22,727




From esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in Tue Aug 15 12:13:17 2000
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 13:33:57 +0500
From: Environment Support Group 
To: Natural History of South Asia - General discussion and research
    
Subject: Re: Ernst&Young and EIAs!

To Vivek's response:

>Ersnt & Young as EIA consultants!
>Surely that's a joke, right? Right?

We wish it were a joke, but certainly it is not.  Recently Ernst and Young
has advertised various positions in their YES "Environmental Management
Services" and this includes EIA's (Mr. Hussain's explanation for the
abbreviation is the most apt description of the quality of these
assessments almost always).  Most MNC firms, as part of their total package
deals, offer you advise and help in securing all clearances, including
envtl clearances.  All for a hefty price of course.... but there is big
money involved in power projects today, and environmental clearance is seen
by most investors as an irritant to get over one way or the other.

EIA is big business in India today.  There has been a long term effort, esp
by M. C. Mehta through PILs, and the latest legal attempt at this has been
in the Cogentrix litigation, to set standards for companies involved in the
EIA business.  But Courts leave this to the executive to decide, and the
MoEF's functioning itself leaves a lot to be desired.  What when a Ministry
that is considered one of the scientific wings of the Government has more
than a third of their top directors and secretaries being administrators,
(largely bureaucrats drawn from IAS, and this does not include the IFS
bureaucracy).  With the tens of EIAs produced in this country, the main
hope of reviewing their scientific validity remains by independent efforts.
And of course strenghthening of the EIA Notification and related
notifications.

To Ashish's response:

 >PUblic scrutiny would certainly help, including by insisting that the EIAs
>be available in languages that local people understand. Someone correct me
>if I am wrong, but I think EIAs are supposed to be available before a
>public hearing, no? 

The EIA Notification requires EIA's to be produced only for a schedule list
of projects of high impact.  Even here the escape provision is of allowing
"Rapid" EIA's, something that does not exist in its methodology, to be
basis of a conditional clearance.  As you are aware, this ensures that the
REIA is often something that's put together in a tearing hurry, and the
conditions that are imposed on its basis are usually not complied with. 

EIAs have not been guaranteed public access!  (keeping with this country's
motto of secrecy "in the wider public interest")  But the Notification does
not prevent its public disclosure either.  Stressing this point I was able
to secure from the Bangalore DC, access to all EIA documents of the
Bangalore Mangalore Petroleum Pipeline... based on his magisterial powers,
in an Envtl Public Hearing held June 1998.  So the precedent has been set.
What otherwise is normally given is an Executive Summary, which is usually
a brochure for the project and the company.  ANd no, not always, is it
available in the local language as it required. And the Dandeli case is
worse, where it is not available even.


Leo



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WE HAVE MOVED : OUR NEW ADDRESS

Environment Support Group (R)
S-3, Rajashree Apartments
18/57, 1st Main Road
S. R. K. Gardens
Jayanagar
Bannerghatta Road
Bangalore 560 041. INDIA
Telefax: 91-80-6341977
Fax: 91-80-6723926 (PP)
Email: esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From tigerfire@yahoo.com Tue Aug 15 12:14:15 2000
Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 20:05:47 -0700 (PDT)
From: nirmal ghosh 
To: Natural History of South Asia - General discussion and research
    
Subject: Re: Dandeli EIA of Ernst and Young



Yes, I think Ernst and Young should be nailed for
this. I second Vivek's suggestion on the note. We can
circulate it to several environmental journalists'
lists. For a company of standing to issue a fraudulent
EIA is a serious issue. 

 
And in the process, if other firms' EIAs can be found
to be flawed or fraudulent we should be able to make
enough noise to get this whole racket sorted out.
Bittu, you also have a lot of information. We should
put it together. 

- nirmal 



--- Vivek Tiwari  wrote:
> Leo,
> 
> If you can write-up a short note on this with the
> relevant details,
> and post it here, we should widely circulate it,
> including on
> international lists.
> 
> E&Y and other large consultancy companies are
> involved in EIAs across the
> globe. On a South American egroup that I am
> currently on, one reads exactly the same things
> as we are seeing in India. A large
> energy/mineral/timber/construction
> company hires a large multinational consultancy
> company to work thru the permit
> process including EIAs. While Latin American
> countries are not the best role-models
> for democracy in action, at least due to the
> proximity to the US, there is
> greater scrutiny from American and European based
> NGOs.
> 
> Hats off to you and Pandurang and the few of you in
> India for carrying the
> torch for us. 
> 
> I am way out of my depth here - but is there a way
> you can sue them
> in a US court for corporate malpractise. Of course,
> the expense
> involved will be exorbiant unless a NGO in the US
> takes it up.
> 
> Vivek
> vivek@ee.princeton.edu
>
-------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> >From esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in Mon Aug 14 08:15:38 2000
> Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 15:12:51 +0500
> To: Natural History of South Asia - General
> discussion and research
> 
> From: Environment Support Group
> 
> Subject: Dandeli EIA of Ernst and Young
> Cc: "Pandurang Hegde" ,
>         Balachandra Hegde 
> 
> FYI, enclosed message I received from Pandurang
> Hegde.  He has got a copy
> of the EIA and confirms my earlier statements, that
> Ernst and Young has
> plagiarised on the Tattihalla report.
> 
> We will be discussing what steps to take, but
> certainly these will include:
> a) Demand calling off the Public Hearing announced
> b) Disempannelment of Ernst and Young as EIA
> Consultants
> c) Demand an high level enquiry into the incident by
> writing letters to
> KSPCB and MoEF and holding those responsible for
> allowing such notoriety.
> 
> I will post a detailed note on this in a day or two.
> 
> 
> Leo
> 
> From: "Pandurang Hegde" 
> To: "Leo" 
> Subject: EIA  URGENT
> Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 14:59:02 +0530
> X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
> X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.71.1712.3
> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE
> V4.71.1712.3
> 
> Leo,
>   
> As I go through the EIA of Dandeli Micro Hydel
> Project it is very obvious
> that it is a true copy of the EIA done for the
> Tattihalla diverson project.
> In fact while copying they are so foolish not ot
> have changed some of the
> factual things that it is no more possible to hide
> the fraud called EIA.
>   
> Some of them are:
>   
> - The area comes under Kirwatti Range(in fact it
> comes under Dandeli Wild
> Life Sanctuary and Kulgi Range.
> -They have not mentioned the name of the actual
> site.
> -The study they have carried on and the testing
> stations in the upstream
> and the downstream is not located near the site.
>   
> In fact there are many inaccuracies in the report. 
> 
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> WE HAVE MOVED : OUR NEW ADDRESS
> 
> Environment Support Group (R)
> S-3, Rajashree Apartments
> 18/57, 1st Main Road
> S. R. K. Gardens
> Jayanagar
> Bannerghatta Road
> Bangalore 560 041. INDIA
> Telefax: 91-80-6341977
> Fax: 91-80-6723926 (PP)
> Email: esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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From esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in Tue Aug 15 12:14:28 2000
Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2000 11:23:17 +0500
From: Environment Support Group 
To: Natural History of South Asia - General discussion and research
    
Subject: Re: Dandeli EIA of Ernst and Young

Vivek,

Pandurang and I are working on the note and will post it on the list for
wide circulation all over.  As you have seen from the S. America
experience, this is standard business practice for most international
consulting firms such as Arthur Anderson, Price Waterhouse, etc.  Why even
our own Tata Consultancy Services has brought out a wide variety of wholly
condemnable EIAs.  In the Cogentrix REIA Tatas along with Transoft of
France fudged the air pollutiion models to project that pollution levels
would be lower than the reality.  There is a case against the Ministry of
Environment for allowing such rascality to pass through their technical
clearances and the hearing is tomorrow.  

With regards to suing E & Y in the US, I will have to check on the
parentage of Ernst and Young, I think they are British.  US Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act is the main channel for tackling such actions.... and the
experience is mixed, I am told.  However, all options must be considered. 

Leo
At 08:59 PM 8/14/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Leo,
>
>If you can write-up a short note on this with the relevant details,
>and post it here, we should widely circulate it, including on
>international lists.
>
>E&Y and other large consultancy companies are involved in EIAs across the
>globe. On a South American egroup that I am currently on, one reads
exactly the same things
>as we are seeing in India. A large energy/mineral/timber/construction
>company hires a large multinational consultancy company to work thru the
permit
>process including EIAs. While Latin American countries are not the best
role-models
>for democracy in action, at least due to the proximity to the US, there is
>greater scrutiny from American and European based NGOs.
>
>Hats off to you and Pandurang and the few of you in India for carrying the
>torch for us. 
>
>I am way out of my depth here - but is there a way you can sue them
>in a US court for corporate malpractise. Of course, the expense
>involved will be exorbiant unless a NGO in the US takes it up.
>
>Vivek
>vivek@ee.princeton.edu
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>>From esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in Mon Aug 14 08:15:38 2000
>Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 15:12:51 +0500
>To: Natural History of South Asia - General discussion and research

>From: Environment Support Group 
>Subject: Dandeli EIA of Ernst and Young
>Cc: "Pandurang Hegde" ,
>        Balachandra Hegde 
>
>FYI, enclosed message I received from Pandurang Hegde.  He has got a copy
>of the EIA and confirms my earlier statements, that Ernst and Young has
>plagiarised on the Tattihalla report.
>
>We will be discussing what steps to take, but certainly these will include:
>a) Demand calling off the Public Hearing announced
>b) Disempannelment of Ernst and Young as EIA Consultants
>c) Demand an high level enquiry into the incident by writing letters to
>KSPCB and MoEF and holding those responsible for allowing such notoriety.
>
>I will post a detailed note on this in a day or two. 
>
>Leo
>
>From: "Pandurang Hegde" 
>To: "Leo" 
>Subject: EIA  URGENT
>Date: Mon, 14 Aug 2000 14:59:02 +0530
>X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
>X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.71.1712.3
>X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.71.1712.3
>
>Leo,
>  
>As I go through the EIA of Dandeli Micro Hydel Project it is very obvious
>that it is a true copy of the EIA done for the Tattihalla diverson project.
>In fact while copying they are so foolish not ot have changed some of the
>factual things that it is no more possible to hide the fraud called EIA.
>  
>Some of them are:
>  
>- The area comes under Kirwatti Range(in fact it comes under Dandeli Wild
>Life Sanctuary and Kulgi Range.
>-They have not mentioned the name of the actual site.
>-The study they have carried on and the testing stations in the upstream
>and the downstream is not located near the site.
>  
>In fact there are many inaccuracies in the report. 
>
>
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>WE HAVE MOVED : OUR NEW ADDRESS
>
>Environment Support Group (R)
>S-3, Rajashree Apartments
>18/57, 1st Main Road
>S. R. K. Gardens
>Jayanagar
>Bannerghatta Road
>Bangalore 560 041. INDIA
>Telefax: 91-80-6341977
>Fax: 91-80-6723926 (PP)
>Email: esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in 
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
WE HAVE MOVED : OUR NEW ADDRESS

Environment Support Group (R)
S-3, Rajashree Apartments
18/57, 1st Main Road
S. R. K. Gardens
Jayanagar
Bannerghatta Road
Bangalore 560 041. INDIA
Telefax: 91-80-6341977
Fax: 91-80-6723926 (PP)
Email: esg@bgl.vsnl.net.in 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~