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Disasters for Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat
19th Jan 1999 Sudhir Gandotra @netshooter.com
Original message from: Bittu Sahgal @giasbm01.vsnl.net.in A company called the Bharat Oman Refineries Ltd., being set up by Bharat Petroleum and Oman Oil is setting up a six million metric tonne per annum refinery at Bina in Madhya Pradesh (the "Tiger State"). From here piplelines are to be laid virtually across India to connect to the Gulf of Kutchh to the west. At Vadinar alone a capacity of nearly 150 million tonnes of liquid cargo is envisaged. A submarine pipeline through the Marine National Park at Pirotan (created through millions of years of evolution) is to be laid, throwing all concern for wildlife to the winds. All this to make way for the unholy ambitions of an industry which acknowledges that it can last no more than three decades. Quite apart from the problems of oil pollution the Tiger State will have to contend with the more mining for coal to feed new new thermal plants, new transmission lines that are to be laid through tiger habitats to carry electricity from such thermal plants and new roads that are to be cut so as to open virgin areas for commercial exploitation. All this as, around the world, countries are investing in alternatives to fossil-fuels. Perhaps most distressing of all is the fact that not one large conservation body in India has found the will or motivation to openly fight such threats that are cropping up like cancers across the body of natural India. Could it be that these organisations find it easier to target poor villagers and villainous poachers... than the powerful industrial warlords who weld political and financial clout and who probably hold the key to next year's budgets, consultancies and projects? Bittu p.s. I strongly opposed the over-industrialisation of Gujarat as embodied by the Sanghi Cement Co. mining and jetty proposals when I was on the MoEF's Expert Committee on Infrastructure. In this effort the WWF-India played a very positive role. But my comments were not merely ignored... I was actually accused by Ministry officials of blackmailing industrialists and coming in the way of India's development! Needless to add I was soon removed from the committee... as also from the Steering Committee of Project Tiger (where serious objections to the industrialisation of tiger habitats had also probably begun to hurt financial big-wigs and their political interests). -- Bittu Sahgal, Editor, Sanctuary Magazine, 602, Maker Chambers V, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021 Fax: 022-2874380 email:<[email protected] =================================
