Twenty-six years ago,
people displaced by the Supa dam were resettled in Karnataka’s Uttara
Kannada district. The better irrigation facilities promised to them
after they were relocated in the district’s Ramnagar panchayat haven’t
materialized. They still face an uncertain future.
The people are not allowed to use water from the dam to irrigate their
land and no alternative facilities have been provided (see box: False
promises).
In desperation, they have given their land to a paper mill for
monoculture plantations of invasive and exotic species.
Environmentalists say the plantations will affect groundwater resources
and the local flora and fauna.
The West Coast Paper Mill (WCPM) in nearby Dandeli town has entered
into a 20-year contract with the villagers.
The deal fits into the company’s Rs 1,260-crore modernization plan. But
will it benefit the villagers? Most of them have their doubts. The
company is exploiting the hapless farmers, they feel. Nilu Solekar,
member Ramnagar panchayat, elaborates on the straitened circumstances
of his fellow agriculturists: “Farmers used to sell their land to
people from Goa and Maharashtra. But once people from these states
realized our land wasn’t very productive, they stopped buying or
bargained for cheap rates. ”So many of the farmers had no option but to
lease out the land to WCPM. “If we had good irrigation facilities, we
could have struck a better deal,” says Sharad Gurjar, former president
of Supa panchayat.
Making hay
The company’s representatives claim that the farmers have entered the
deal voluntary and they haven’t been exploited at all. However, the
terms of the deal belie their claim.
The farmers are bound to sell their produce after the plantation
matures—in five years. But not at market prices. “The deal signed last
year bound us to sell eucalyptus for Rs 800 for a tonne. The plant’s
market price has shot up to more than Rs 3,000 per tonne now. The deal
also deprives us of market prices for other crops,” says Solekar.
Gurjar laments that “by the time the plants mature, the price will
increase many times more”.
Problems of plantations
Environmentalists fear that the plantations will compound the
long-standing water problem of Ramnagar.WCPM has distributed
water-guzzling and fast-growing plants such as eucalyptus, casuarina
and acacia.
“There have been reports of groundwater depletion in many places in the
panchayat,” says Balachandra Hegde, coordinator of Sahyadari Wildlife
and Forest Conservation Trust, a local NGO. Villagers allege that the
company is dumping effluents into the Kali river. They say the
plantations have also brought in infectious diseases. Experts link a
new teak disease in the area to an insect thriving on acacia trees.
WCPM representatives are unfazed. They say the plantations will
actually reduce pressure on natural forests.
The paper mill’s expansion plans are funded by the International
Finance Corporation (IFC), an arm of the World Bank. Activists question
the funding. IFC assign projects to A,B,C categories based on
environmental and social sensitivity. Category A projects are expected
to have significant impacts while those in category B are considered to
have limited impacts. Category C projects are likely to cause minimal
impacts. IFC has assigned WCPM’s plans to category B.
“This is irrational since WCPM hasn’t carried out a comprehensive
environmental impact analysis, charges Leo Saldanha, co-ordinator of
Environment Support Group, a Bangalore-based NGO. In China, ifc has
placed the pulp and paper sector in category A, he adds. Sameer Singh,
IFC’s environment expert however, says the categorization is not
sector-specific but based on “certain” criteria in the IFC guidelines.
False promises
Supa dam was built on the Kali river for supplying water to
forest-based industries. In October 1972, prime minister Indira Gandhi
promised a compensation package for the 1,113 affected families from 44
villages. Though the families wanted the fertile Gobral village near
Dandeli, the state refused since the area was under dense teak
plantation. A state government-appointed committee look into the
resettlement found Ramnagar unsuitable for cultivable. The government
then promised irrigation facilities and the families had to move to
Ramnagar in 1981. The promise hasn’t materialized. In 1998, the
Karnataka High Court disposed off villagers’ plea for irrigation
facilities after government assured it would bear 60 per cent cost of
the development projects in the area under the Swasti Gram programme.
The projects are still to take off.
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20071231&filename=news&sec_id=4&sid=11#
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©2004 Society for Environmental Communications.
