As MNCs go on 'mineral hunt', Orissa's tribals could lose lands, jobs

A frenzy of commercial activity in Orissa threatens to displace thousands of tribals who have already borne the brunt of so-called 'development' activities. In a little over a year, the Orissa government has processed around 35 major proposals to build steel plants or set up mines in the state worth over US$ 25 billion


The tribals of Orissa are apprehensive. They are sitting on some of the earth's richest deposits of iron ore, bauxite and copper and, in recent times, there has been a sudden frenzy of commercial activity on their ancient lands. Orissa is witnessing large-scale foreign direct investment in mining projects. Tribal communities fear they will join the long list of India's 'project displaced persons' and become part of the painful history of sacrifice in the name of economic development.

"They have every reason to be fearful because their experience with mining companies has not been a happy one so far, and we are now seeing investments on an unprecedented scale by transnational corporations," says Walter Fernandes, a leading expert on India's marginalised indigenous peoples.

"So far they have suffered because of large dams that have (been built) on their traditional lands. But lately, as a result of economic liberalisation, the mineral-rich lands they have lived peacefully on for centuries are being eyed by transnational as well as Indian mining companies," Fernandes adds.

In June, South Korean steel giant Pohang Steel Company (POSCO) signed a memorandum of understanding with the provincial government in Orissa to build a massive 12 million tonne steel plant at an unprecedented investment of US$ 13 billion.

POSCO's chairman Ku Taek Lee said at the signing ceremony in Orissa's capital, Bhubaneshwar: "Through this project, we hope to contribute significantly to India's rapid economic development and further accelerate the progress being made by India towards achieving the status of an economic superpower."

No one can take issue with such statements especially when they come on the heels of outsized investments in Orissa, India's most backward state, where hunger deaths and bonded labour are commonplace and the human development index abysmal.

But every political party, from the Left Front that supports India's United Progressive Alliance government, to the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that supports Orissa's right-wing business-friendly Biju Janata Dal government led by Chief Minister Navin Patnaik, has problems with the iron ore export concessions awarded to POSCO as part of the deal.

Marxist leader and parliamentarian Sitaram Yechuri says: "We know that the Brazilian government insisted that POSCO purchase iron ore at international market prices and did not approve of handing over captive mines to POSCO. It has also rejected other terms and hence the company preferred Orissa."

POSCO is, however, only the latest conglomerate to enter Orissa. In a little over a year, the Orissa government has processed around 35 major proposals to build steel plants or set up mines in the state worth over US$ 25 billion. These include multinational corporations (MNCs) and giant businesses like Australia's BHP-Billiton, the world's largest mining company, and India's Vedanta Group, owned by 'metal maharaja' Anil Agarwal.

The Japanese conglomerate Mitsui, which already has mining concessions in Orissa through an Indian subsidiary, has plans for further investments worth US$ 3 billion in the state.

Fernandes is convinced that mining for iron ore and manufacturing king steel are only a smokescreen. He believes that what the MNCs are really after are Orissa's vast copper deposits. "They are only cracking open the market now and testing the legal implications of constitutionally-guaranteed protection for tribal lands, which cannot be easily alienated to non-state players -- there is after all new legislation for tribals on the anvil and the draft is now under discussion," Fernandes says (link to tribal rights bill).

He adds that existing legal protections cannot stand up in court because Indian laws recognise individual ownership but not community ownership. Most of the mining land in Orissa is, in fact, the common land of tribals and therefore has little protective value.

Fernandes, who is currently director of the Northeastern Social Research Centre in Guwahati, Assam, said recently that although indigenous populations or tribals comprise just over 8% of India's population of a billion-plus people, a shocking 40% of all project-displaced persons are estimated to be tribals. According to the 2001 census, there are now more than 90 million tribal people in India, with large concentrations in eastern and central Indian states like Orissa.

An immediate worry for activists like Fernandes is that at a time when millions of tribals are awaiting rehabilitation after being displaced by earlier development projects, vast numbers of new displaced people are being created in Orissa.

According to a paper on tribal people drawn up in 2005 by the National Advisory Council (NAC), the number of tribals displaced by development projects over the last 50 years exceeds 9 million, with only 60% of this figure having benefited from any sort of rehabilitation. "It is a known fact that displacement has led to far-reaching negative social and economic consequences, not to mention the simmering disturbance and extremism in most of the tribal pockets. Economic planning cannot ignore these consequences in the light of displacement," the NAC paper said.

This warning note, sounded by an influential body like the NAC, has not been entirely lost on the investors and transnational corporations eager to lay their hands on Orissa's wealth. Fearful of the powerful political forces that have been set in motion by the 'mineral rush' to Orissa, the US-based non-profit group International Watch announced, on August 2, a US$ 5 million Tribal Rehabilitation Fund to ensure "proper and human rehabilitation and resettlement of tribals who would be displaced as a result of the POSCO project".

International Watch stressed that the amount would be the fund's first instalment and that more money would be added as rehabilitation and resettlement efforts -- for the 4,000 tribal families estimated to be affected -- move forward.

The organisation, which plans to establish an office in Bhubaneshwar by the end of August, warned that the political opposition now building up could "derail the project" that promises to "lift thousands of poor citizens out of a life of abject poverty".

Strangely, International Watch describes itself as "a watchdog to detect and monitor groups that finance, aid, and abet terrorists around the world," and also one that "works with international conglomerates committed to improving the quality of human life and eliminating poverty".

"That is exactly the language we have heard so often before," says Fernandes, "but the fact is that millions of tribals are destitute after having been driven away from their lands, and cannot even ask for menial jobs at the projects because of increasing levels of mechanisation and capital-intensive technology…Many of those who put up resistance have been locked away on charges that have to do with law and order, and in many instances they have been held under anti-terrorism provisions."

Source: www.ipsnews.net, August 10, 2005