2020.7: Aditya Ranjan Pathak and Jahnu Bharadwaj: The Dehing Patkai Rainforest and Coal Mining in Northeastern India
A social media campaign for saving the Dehing Patkai rainforest in northeast India from illegal coal mining, started by some students and activists from Assam, has now garnered immense media attraction, regionally and the nationally. Since the beginning of May, 2020, activists have posted images of themselves holding banners and slogans in support of the campaign .
This movement has attracted people from varied walks of life, ranging from ordinary citizens, academicians and activists to actors and politicians. Awareness has spread via webinars and social media sessions with experts and researchers.
The campaign I_Am_Dehing_Patkai also has inspired environmental researchers like Dr. Narayan Sharma, who says, “The protest has been very spontaneous, and media, especially social media, is playing a crucial role.” Narayan Sharma is particularly happy in seeing youth taking interest in environmental protection.[1] However, we have seen time and again that such citizens’ campaigns on environmental issues rarely move the government to action. The occasional supportive voices from officers within the government are also swiftly silenced. Nonetheless, a democratization of knowledge and awareness can be noticed regarding the Dehing Patkai issue due to a social media campaign which has led to such a campaign becoming considerably widespread given the countrywide lockdown.
Dehing Patkai is an amalgamation of its surroundings - Dehing is derived from river ‘Dehing’ which flows around there ,’ while Patkai refers to the mountain range that separates northeast India from Myanmar. So far this year, thirty-four mining, infrastructure, and commercial projects have been approved by Government of India in areas near wildlife sanctuaries and forest reserves.[2] These include an open cast coal mining project approved by the National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) inside the Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve in Assam.[3] This reserve covers an area of 937 square kilometers, coinciding with the Saleki Proposed Reserve Forest and the Dehing-Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary as part of the large Dehing Patkai rainforest.
The Dehing Patkai forests are part of the Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspot and are home to butterflies, rare orchids, lizards, snakes, birds and other forms of endangered flora and fauna. It is also the habitat of white-winged ducks, hornbills, seven species of primates, seven species of wild cats, and Asian elephants. These forests are also called, “The Assam Valley Wet Evergreen Forest” or “Hollong-Nahor forests” and are among the northernmost rain forests in the world, spanning a narrow belt in Assam, upper Burma and southern China, the rainforest furthest from the equator. Since the 1800s, these forests have been cleared for settlement, tea plantations, coal mining, and oil extraction. The discontinuous patches that remain have been degraded by mining, logging, and poaching.
In 2015, the Hindustani Oil Exploration Company proposed to drill three oil wells near the sanctuary. At the same time, Assam Petrochemicals Limited planned to expand its methanol and formaldehyde plant in the area. In 2013, the Forest Advisory Committee recommended opening two coal mines in Tikok and Lekhapani, just under ten kilometers from the sanctuary.[4]
The current protest is centered on the fifty-seven hectares of forest in the Dehing Patkai Wildlife Sanctuary that already has been opened for mining, of which and only 41.3 hectares have been formally approved.[5] However, quasi- legal and illegal coal mining has damaged the entire landscape.[6] This points to loopholes in environmental laws.[7] Coal mining has severely increased the risks of local extinction of various species.[8] This could also escalate elephant-human conflicts in the area. Furthermore, continuous plundering of this stretch of rainforest is likely to lead to the release of pathogens which might lead to outbreaks of zoonotic diseases. Experts also worry that increased mining will further pollute the water and air of the region. At the same time, threats to indigenous communities inhabiting will be exacerbated by additional mining.
The approval of open cast mining in the proposed Saleki Forest Reserve raises legal questions. Coal India Limited (CIL) has continued to mine in the area, even though its thirty-year lease expired in 2003.[9] Moreover, approval of new projects violates both the 1891 Assam Forest Regulation Act and the 1980 Forest Conservation Act. Only in May of this year did the Assam Forest Department fine CIL Rs. 43.25 crore for its illegal mining activities for the past sixteen years. However, how does this fine represent justice for the ecological damage caused? If Coal India Limited pays up, where will this money go? Will it go towards repairing the damage, some of which is irreversible?
Dr. Kashmira Kakati, in her petition to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) seeking legal protection for the Dehing Patkai Elephant Reserve and key elephant corridors therein, alleged that widespread illegal mining in and around the reserve was causing substantial environmental harm and had blocked elephants’ migration paths.[10]
This latest furor has brought the continued mindless destruction of the forest resources of the northeast region to the fore. The key issue is the neoliberal economic model that the Indian government has adopted. This only has maximized the profits of a handful of capitalists, while the concerns of the majority have been sidelined. Resource extraction at the cost of ecology, environment and indigenous people is not what we expect from India's democratically elected government. The government must adopt environmentally sensitive policies and listen to the concerns of indigenous communities.
Aditya Ranjan Pathak holds a masters degree in history from Ambedkar University, Delhi, and can be contacted at: arpathak.17@stu.aud.ac.in. Jahnu Bharadwaj is a doctoral researcher at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, and can be reached at: jahnu.bharadwaj@iitgn.ac.in.
[1] Telephone interview with Dr. Narayan Sharma , May 9, 2020.
[2] Jayashree Nandi, “The Environment Ministry on project clearance spree, activists wary,” Hindustan Times, May 1, 2020.
[3] Rahul Karmakar, “NBWL nod for coal mining in Assam elephant reserve,” The Hindu, April 24, 2020; Shilpa Roy, “Dehing Patkai coal mining: how many pandemics do we need to take care for nature?” Northeast Now, May 25, 2020.
[4] Anupam Chakravartty, “Development projects threaten Dehing Patkai Sanctuary, Down to Earth, July 4, 2015.
[5] Purva Variyar, “How Coal India limited is devastating upper Assam’s rainforests,” Sanctuary Nature Foundation, May 20, 2020.
[6] Rishika Pardikar, “How National Board for wildlife gives illegitimacy to illegal mining in Assam,” Down to Earth, May 26, 2020.
[7] Amit Kumar, “Environment ministry’s draft EIA notification pushes investment at any cost,” The Wire, March 25, 2020.
[8] Dr. Ratan Bhattacharjee and Prapancha Borouah, “Dehing Patkai: don’t transform our elephant into coal.”
[9] “Coal India slapped Rs.43.25 cr. fine for illegal mining in Assam forest,” Economic Times, May 7, 2020.
[10] In the matter of Dr. Kashmira Kakati versus Union of India and Ors., M.A No. 1027 of 2015 in O.A No.19 of 2014, before National Green Tribunal. Affidavit, In the miscellaneous application for staying the operations of respondent No.8 in the Makum coalfields on grounds of violations of the Forest (Conservation)Act, 1980 and the conditions of the environmental clearance, 59-67A.