📰 A tragedy that was long in the making
Illegal rat-hole mining in Meghalaya persists despite ruinous effects on the environment
•The efforts to reach the 15 miners trapped in an illegal coal mine in the East Jaintia hills of Meghalaya since December 13 continue, but they began belatedly and have faced many problems.
Doomed from the beginning
•First, the Meghalaya government has no idea what happens inside these rat-hole mines, which are barely 2 ft wide, since mining is a private activity. Despite the National Green Tribunal ban of April 2014, mining continues in the State. Second, it was unfortunate that the district administration assumed the miners to be dead on the very day of the tragedy. This assumption was evident in the letter written to the National Disaster Response Force. It was only after a Delhi-based lawyer, Aditya N. Prasad, represented by senior Supreme Court advocate Anand Grover and his team of human rights lawyers presented their suggestions to the court that the Meghalaya government got different actors to the accident site. Mr. Prasad has never visited Meghalaya. When asked why he is the petitioner on behalf of the miners, he simply said: “They are fellow Indians and my brethren.” That someone based in Delhi should have the empathy lacking in the people and the government shows that humanity is a dying virtue.
•Mr. Prasad has done everything possible to put things together to assist the rescue mission. But despite his initiative, things were delayed. The distance of the mine, for one, was a major hindrance. Then there are other issues that need to be highlighted. The trapped miners were being racially profiled in the minds of the people and the state. Of the 15 miners, only three were locals from the nearby village of Lumthari. The rest were Muslims from Garo Hills, Meghalaya, and Bodoland, Assam. Their socio-economic profile also worked against them. They were the poorest of the poor who took a huge risk to enter a mine and dig for coal without any safety gear.
•When a mine is flooded, the immediate response, apart from pumping out the water, is to stop further flow of water into it. This requires a hydrologist to scientifically map out the area from where water entered the mine. Sudhir Kumar, a hydrologist from the National Institute of Hydrology, Roorkee, arrived only two weeks after the disaster. So did the divers from the Indian Navy and the 100 HP water pumps from Kirloskar Brothers. The remotely operated underwater vehicle (ROV) from Planys in Chennai came three weeks later. So did the geologists from Hyderabad. All these delays happened because there was no one person or agency to coordinate the rescue mission. This shows the kind of disaster preparedness we have in our country. One shudders to think what the response would be if there was a massive earthquake in the Northeast, which is listed as Zone 5 on the seismic scale.
•There are many questions that arise with respect to rat-hole mining of coal. One, why does the state allow this archaic mining system, which has complete disregard for human life and safety? And two, why is Meghalaya exempted from national mining laws? Rat-hole mining, which started with gusto in the 1980s, has poisoned three rivers in the Jaintia hills: the Myntdu, Lunar and Lukha. Scientists from the North-Eastern Hill University have found that these rivers have very high acidic levels. Reports from other agencies suggest that pH of the water and sulphate and iron concentrations indicate significant deterioration of the rivers. Acid mine drainage from abandoned mines was a major cause for water pollution in the areas investigated, the reports added.
•The coal mine owners have been hiring the best legal brains to argue for them in the highest court of the land. They say that rat-hole mining should continue because no other form of mining is viable (which means that their profit margins would reduce if other forms of mining were to take place). They argue that the NGT ban should be lifted. They claim that coal mining provides livelihoods for many, but at what cost?
The fault-lines
•The tribes of Meghalaya are divided on the issue of rat-hole mining. The fault-lines are clear. Those who care for the environment and for a future for their children and grandchildren have been clamouring for an end to the practice of rat-hole mining and reckless limestone mining. On the other hand, the mining elite have mobilised forces to demonise environmental activists. A community of just over a million is now fragmented. To add to these woes, cement companies also release their effluents into the rivers. So we now have a deadly cocktail of pollutants being released into the environment. The scale of the problem is clear in this one fact: there are 3,923 coal mines in one district with a geographical area of 2126 sq. km.
•The other troubling factor is that coal mine owners are insisting that since Meghalaya is a State under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, national mining laws should be exempted here. The Sixth Schedule was enacted to protect the community rights of tribals from any form of exploitation of their land and resources. How can it now be used as an instrument to protect an activity that is a private enterprise, that is inhuman, and that violates Article 21 of the Constitution? Why is the Sixth Schedule unable to protect the forests and rivers that are common property resources? Acid mine drainage has rendered even agricultural land non-productive. Mine owners do not care about environmental degradation.
Abandoning responsibility
•The cement giant, Lafarge, mines limestone from Meghalaya’s East Khasi Hills district and transports it to Chhatak in Bangladesh via conveyor belts. The Supreme Court placed a heavy penalty on Lafarge and asked it to strictly implement environmental laws apart from generating livelihoods for people residing within 50 km of the mining areas. In the case of coal mine owners, there are no such strictures. They have left thousands of abandoned mines as human graves. The State does not insist that they reclaim and afforest those mines. In 40 years of mining and profiteering, the mine owners have till date not constructed a single hospital or even a school. There is complete disregard for corporate social responsibility because the mines are privately owned by the tribals. How long can the Central government and the highest court of the land allow this to carry on in one part of the country when strict laws are applied elsewhere?
📰 Supreme Court refuses to stay amendments to SC/ST Act
The Act nullified the controversial March 20 apex court judgment diluting the stringent provisions of the Dalit protection law.
•The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to stay the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act of 2018, which nullified the controversial March 20 apex court judgment diluting the stringent provisions of the Dalit protection law.
•The government had brought in the amendments, saying the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes people continue to face the same social stigma, poverty and humiliation that they have been subjected to for centuries.
The March 20 judgment allowed anticipatory bail to those booked for committing atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes people. The original 1989 Act barred anticipatory bail.
•The verdict saw a huge backlash across the country. Several died in protests and crores worth of property were destroyed. The government filed a review petition in the Supreme Court and subsequently amended the 1989 Act back to its original form.
•A Bench, led by Justice A.K. Sikri, declined the plea to stay the operation of the amendments and transferred the plea to be tagged along with the review.
Petitions challenge amendments
•In August, several petitions were filed challenging the amendments. The lead petitioner, advocate Prithvi Raj Chauhan, even called the amendments a “blunder” and a violation of the fundamental right to equality and personal liberty. The Supreme Court, however, refused to stay the implementation of the amendments.
•The government had responded that there had been no decrease in the atrocities committed on SC/ST people despite the laws meant to protect their civil rights. It said the sad state of affairs was despite the existence of 195 special courts across 14 States to exclusively try Prevention of Atrocities (PoA) cases.
•As per National Crime Records Bureau statistics, there is no decrease in the crimes against SC/ST people. The number of cases registered under the PoA in 2014 was 47,124, 44839 in 2015 and 47,338 in 2016.
•In 2014, 28.8% of the cases were convicted. The acquittal was 71.2% and pendency of cases 85.3%. The next year saw 25.8% convictions, 74.2% acquittal and 87.3% pendency. In 2016, the convictions was 24.9%, acquittal 75.1% and pendency 89.3%.
•“The Act of 1989 is the least which the country owes to this section of society who have been denied several civil rights since generations and have been subjected to indignities, humiliations and harassment,” the government had argued.
📰 Glimmer of hope for State in Bandipur
SC asks Ministries to arrive at a consensus within 6 weeks
•The differences of opinion between the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways over the proposal to construct elevated roads through sections of the Bandipur Tiger Reserve have given a sliver of hope to the State government to tackle the night traffic ban on National Highway 766.
•The contention between the two Central Ministries on the issue, in which Kerala and Karnataka have stakes, had led the Supreme Court to ask the Centre to arrive at a consensus within six weeks. The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has not concurred with the project for an elevated 5-km road over Bandipur while the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is willing to construct five elevated sections, of which four will be in Bandipur and one in Wayanad.
•Now, the five-member panel appointed by the Supreme Court would have to intervene in an effort to secure a joint statement of the two Ministries before the apex court, T.M. Rasheed, convener, Nilgiri-Wayanad National Railway Action Committee, which has filed an appeal in the Supreme Court in this regard, told The Hindu on Thursday.
•He said the nine-year-old ban on traffic through Bandipur between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. is getting more complicated with the increase in vehicles plying via the highway connecting Kozhikode to Mysuru during daytime. The State government has already agreed to share equally the tentative cost of construction of the elevated sections which has been pegged at ₹458 crore. Besides, MoRTH has agreed to share the remaining 50% of the expenditure.
Biofencing
•Canopy bridges and biofencing would be adopted without disturbing the ecosystem. Further, the Forest Department would provide land in exchange for the land reconverted into forest for the length of 5 km under the elevated sections, he said.
•About 35 km of the 272-km highway passes through Bandipur and the Wayanad wildlife sanctuary in Kerala.
📰 ISRO tastes first success of 2019
Launches military satellite Microsat-R on PSLV C-44 with just 2 strap-on motors
•Under a starry night and a waning gibbous moon, ISRO’s PSLV C-44 broke the silence over a brimming Pulicat lake as it lifted off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, to successfully place into orbit a military satellite, Microsat-R.
•The mission with the modified PSLV with just two strap-on motors, dubbed the PSLV-DL (dual strap-ons), marked another first for ISRO as it provided an alternative to its normal six strap-on motors. This will enable it to carry slightly higher payloads than its Core-Alone version.
•Towards the end of the first stage, the rocket’s plumes were white with its tail end burning bright red even as a large flock of birds passed on the horizon. A second later, as the rocket soared further into the night sky, the second stage ignition burned a bright orange propelling the rocket ahead.
In low orbit
•Microsat-R, placed into orbit 13 and a half minutes after lift-off, is a defence application satellite. It is the first time an Indian satellite was being placed by ISRO in a low orbit at an altitude of 274 km ISRO also used this launch as an opportunity to demonstrate the usability of the fourth stage of the rocket after the satellites are ejected into orbit.
•Till Thursday night, the fourth stage used to just become yet another piece of space debris. However, ISRO has found a way to make use of this stage with a student satellite, Kalamsat, made by Space Kidz India, weighing just 1.26kg, attached to it.
•“The first mission of 2019 is a grand success,” ISRO Chairman K. Sivan said from Mission Control. “Another innovation is the making the fourth stage, as an experimental platform to do technology demonstrations and carry out science experiments by students,” he said.
For experiments
•This would enable any agency that wants to conducts experiments in space to use the fourth stage till it disintegrates naturally. The fourth stage of the rocket may be orbiting in space for six months to a year. ISRO is aiming to use this time-frame to enable agencies to run short time experiments. Mr. Sivan asked students in India to develop such satellites and ISRO would take care of the launch.
•He also said ISRO was developing a Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV), smaller than the PSLV. The first SSLV launch will take place this year, he said.
They are part of a group of 50 which have received £20 million funding from the United Kingdom
•Eighteen research institutions in India are among a group of 50 institutions — called the South Asian Nitrogen Hub (SANH) — in the United Kingdom and South Asia that have secured £20 million (about ₹200 crore) from the U.K. government to assess and study the quantum and impact of “nitrogen pollution” in South Asia.
•While nitrogen is the dominant gas in the atmosphere, it is inert and doesn’t react. However, when it is released as part of compounds from agriculture, sewage and biological waste, nitrogen is considered “reactive”, and it may be polluting and even exert a potent greenhouse gas (heat trapping) effect.
•“So far, we have focussed on carbon dioxide and its impact on global warming. Nitrous oxide (N2O) is 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide but isn’t as prevalent in the atmosphere. However, this is poised to grow,” said N. Raghuram, Chairman, International Nitrogen Initiative (INI) and Professor of Biotechnology at Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi. “In the future, reactive nitrogen pollution will be a matter of significant global discussion and, unlike carbon, India and South Asia cannot wake up at the last minute, realising that it has no updated, scientific assessment of its inventory.”
•Other than air pollution, nitrogen is also linked to the loss of biodiversity, the pollution of rivers and seas, ozone depletion, health, economy, and livelihoods. Nitrogen pollution is caused, for example, by emissions from chemical fertilisers, livestock manure and burning fossil fuels. Gases such as ammonia (NH3) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) contribute to poor air quality and can aggravate respiratory and heart conditions, leading to millions of premature deaths across the world. Nitrate from chemical fertilisers, manure and industry pollutes the rivers and seas, posing a health risk for humans, fish, coral and plant life.
•The Indian partner institutions are the Aligarh Muslim University, Centre for Marine Living Resources & Ecology, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research National Institute of Oceanography, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Indian Agricultural Research Institute and National Rice Research Institute, Integrated Coastal and Marine Area Management Project Directorate- National Institute of Ocean Technology Campus, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Indian Ocean Rim Association Ecological Solutions, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management, National Physical Laboratory, Society for Conservation of Nature, Sustainable India Trust, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) University.
•Last year, Dr. Raghuram led a consortium of researchers who assessed trends in nitrogen emissions in India, where NOx emissions grew at 52% from 1991 to 2001 and 69% from 2001 to 2011. Though agriculture remained the largest contributor to nitrogen emissions, non-agricultural emissions of nitrogen oxides and nitrous oxide were growing rapidly, with sewage and fossil-fuel burning — for power, transport and industry — leading the trend. The SANH will study the impacts of the different forms of pollution to form a “coherent picture” of the nitrogen cycle. In particular, it will look at nitrogen in agriculture in eight countries — India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives.
•Tapan Adhya, Hub Co-Director for Science, who is from the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, said: “High doses of fertiliser input of nitrogen to agriculture combined with low nitrogen-use efficiency means that research on nitrogen pollution must be a priority for South Asia. This is emphasised by the scale of nitrogen subsidies across South Asia at around $10 billion per year. Better nitrogen management will have huge economic and environmental benefits.”
