Assam’s tribal communities lose home to mining (India)
Assam’s tribal communities lose home to mining (India)
Richa Nigam, Media India Group
May 9, 2021
See link https://mediaindia.eu/environment/assams-coal-mining/ for photos.
One of India’s most important rainforests, Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary
in Assam, has become a battleground for the local tribes trying to save
their habitat from the coal mining that has led to environmental
degradation & displacement.
The foothills of Dehing Patkai on the eastern fringes of Assam are home to
the Khamti, Singpho, Sema Nagas, Tangsa, Tai-Phake, Syam, Aitom, Nocte, and
other communities who have been impacted by mining and deforestation that
displaced them from lands that traditionally belonged to them for
generations.
“Many of the people from here have migrated to Tirap district in the
bordering state of Arunachal Pradesh,” says Raju Deori, a legal advisor to
the Tirap Autonomous District Council. He estimates that at least 500
villages in the Dehing Patkai foothills are facing the threat of mining and
deforestation.
Some of these tribes are very small, with less than 5000 members, says
Deori who also campaigns for tribal rights. He says mining has widened the
income gap in communities between those dependent on the forests and those
lured by illegal mining and logging activities, which are mainly done by
outsiders as the local population has been dwindling.
If the Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve and more than a dozen patches of
reserve forests and proposed reserve forests are added, the total area of
the rainforest would be more than 900 sq km. The wildlife sanctuary alone,
however, is spread over 111.9 sq km with two narrow elephant corridors and
fragmented patches of forests surrounded by coal mines and tea gardens.
Before this globally endangered lowland evergreen forest and its
biodiversity was officially protected as a sanctuary in 2004, industrial
activity had been going on for over a century in these parts.
Deori says that the coal mining started in the land held by indigenous
tribes. “Forest department claims that they have leased their land to the
mines. That is false. The foothills of Dehing Patkai were never surveyed.
The land ownership always remained with the communities,” Deori claims.
Hekei Sema, a tribal elder from nearby Tikok village says that the village
had to shift three times as the mine expanded. “We were compensated a
couple of times. But there are only six families left in our village. Most
have migrated,” adds Sema. He said that the Saleki Proposed Reserve Forest
next to Tikok has been mined illegally for more than a decade.
Reluctance of Administration
Anwaruddin Chowdhury, an ornithologist from Assam whose conservation
efforts led to the creation of Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary is,
however, worried about the unprecedented increase of illegal coal mining in
the last few years. “During my time as a civil servant in the Tinsukia
district, mining was restricted to Coal India mines. However, in the last
five to six years, illegal mining has increased manifold,” he adds.
According to Chowdhury, the increase in mining activity is due to Assam’s
forest and wildlife department’s reluctance to define the forests. Tinsukia
district has the highest number of proposed reserve forests in all of
Assam. “Usually it takes about five years to settle the claims in a
proposed reserve forest. However, this process seems to drag on for years
which makes these forests vulnerable,” Chowdhury says.
Studies Reveal Hazardous Impact
Kishore Mech, a member of Sanjeevani Northeast Socio-economic Society, a
non-profit organisation working for the conservation of native trees such
as Hollong (Dipterocarpus retusus), considered sacred by the local Moran
community, says that miners even built a road inside the Dirok Reserve
Forest, a part of the sanctuary, to transport the coal. “The community
informed us about illegal mining in this area last year. We informed the
local DFO about these activities. The mining has stopped for now but no
culprits were arrested,” explains Mech.
In 2010, Kashmira Kakati, an Assam-based wildlife biologist discovered
seven new species of endangered wildcats in Dehing-Jeypore Forest, a
reserve forest adjoining the wildlife sanctuary.
With rampant illegal mining in these areas, Kakati approached the National
Green Tribunal in 2015 highlighting its devastating impacts. She cited
experts from the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology
(IASST) under the Ministry of Science and Technology who found that the
soil and water quality around Tipong, Tirap, and Tikok collieries outside
the sanctuary had heavily deteriorated. The deteriorated water pollutes
Buri Dehing, a tributary of the Brahmaputra river, that flows through the
sanctuary. The study linked the low pH, indicating acidity in the soil and
reduced nutrient status such as lack of phosphorus, nitrogen, and organic
carbon leading to heavy degradation.
The IASST researchers found cadmium and zinc levels in the water samples of
Tipong colliery which were above permissible levels set by the World Health
Organisation (WHO).
A soil texture analysis as part of a preliminary study published in 2013,
on soil and water quality of Makum coalfield, also showed high sand content
in the areas close to the mines, including the forest patches, caused due
to indiscriminate dumping which in turn thwarted the growth of plants.
Another study on the impact of Dehing Patkai coal mining on the health of
the people was done between 2008 and 2011 by the Manohari Devi Kanoi Girls
(MDKG) College in Dibrugarh. Data from two villages and their study found
that a large section of the population suffered from airborne and
waterborne diseases.
Indiscriminate Mining Leading to Human-Animal Conflict
Along with smaller communities, even the bigger communities such as
Moran-Motok have been impacted by indiscriminate coal mining and led to an
increase in human-animal conflict cases.
The east and the west block of the upper Dehing Reserve is connected by a
seven km stretch of land called the Golai Corridor and is used by about 300
elephants, according to a census done by Elephant Task Force in 2015.
Paanbari, a forest village close to the Digboi town on the southwestern end
of Dehing Patkai has been facing conflict with herds of elephants that are
trying to cross from one end of the sanctuary to another.
Trinayan Gogoi, the founder of a nature conservation NGO, Green Bud
Society, told says that elephants have been damaging farms during the
cropping seasons. “We have also recorded six deaths in the area last year.
These deaths are related to the tree felling and mining in the elephant
corridors,” Gogoi says. Paanbari is one of the dozen forest villages which
primarily consists of lands given to the flood-affected people.
He goes on to say that while movement against coal mining in Dehing Patkai
Wildlife Sanctuary has intensified over the last two years but there is
barely any effect on illegal mining. “In the last five years, the NECL
filed 80 cases in Ledo and Margherita Police Station stating that illegal
mining syndicates have been pilfering coal from its mines as well as areas
which are inside the forests,” he says.
However, neither the NECL officials nor Assam government, has so far
estimated the amount of coal being illicitly mined from the foothills of
Dehing Patkai. According to the locals, last year in November about 3,000
trucks were ferrying coal from the area in one week. “They did not even
stop during the lockdown for Covid-19. We are still waiting for the state
government to do something about it,” says activist Gogoi.