The expanding operations of mining company Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) are posing an immediate threat to the survival of 1,000 indigenous people facing eviction from the village of Kusum Tola located in the North Karanpura region in the Indian State of Jharkhand. Heavy blasting in adjacent villages is already producing clouds of harmful dust and cracks in house foundations in Kusum Tola. The eviction is a gross violation of the villagers' human right to food. Meanwhile, the impact of the mining operations on regional watersheds will deprive them of access to water and is therefore a violation of their right to water. The mining operations negatively affect people's ability to maintain their livelihoods, with consequences including hunger and malnutrition.
This case requires your URGENT ACTION in writing to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Manmohan Singh, to support the villagers in their resistance against CCL's mining plans, which are supported by the Indian Government.
Call to Action:
Please sign and mail, fax and/or email the attached, pre-addressed letter to the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Manmohan Singh, to support the villagers in their resistance against CCL's mining plans. Please send copies of your letter to Mrs. Pratibha Patil, President of India; Mr.Jairam Ramesh, Minister for Environment and Forests and Mr. Arjun Munda, Chief Minister of Jharkhand. Please do so by July 28, 2011.
Background
The expansion of open cast coal mining in the North Karanpura Valley directly impacts on about 200 village communities that rely on the region's fertile basin and forest produce to maintain their subsistent lifestyles. The indigenous people of the region, the Adivasis, grow crops including rice, wheat, wild seeds, mustard and lentils, while supplementing their incomes with minor forest produce and seasonal labor work in the off-season. More than 1,000 sq km of their land has been allocated to over twenty mines under the new plans. Kusum Tola is one of the numerous villages to be threatened by the expansion of mining operations
CCL has mined coal in the region for over thirty years in projects including Dakara, Ray, Chura, Bachara, Manki, Piparwar and Ashoka. The Purnadih mine, which affects Kusum Tola and adjacent villages, officially opened on August 21, 2009. Eviction of the hamlets of Dembua and Baseriya has already been carried out and Kusum Tola faces threat of eviction.
Kusum Tola is currently feeling the effects of explosions in the vicinity. In addition the mining activities are causing the pollution of rivers and the destruction of precious water sources, including the Upper Damodar catchment watershed.
While the mining operations jeopardize the role of Karanpura Valley as one of the richest rice and vegetable producing areas in India, the region is also environmentally and culturally significant. Once famous for its wildlife, the valley still contains important elephant corridors. The indigenous people possess a rich cultural heritage and maintain artistic traditions that link back to prehistoric rock art designs found in the area.
The local administration generally supports the company against the people. It has become common for those who protest against land acquisitions and human rights violations to be criminalized by the police in a clear violation of their civil and political rights.
Women are particularly affected by the consequences of the mining operations; economically, socially and psychologically. Their roles change dramatically when families lose land and paid jobs are given as compensation. Women are typically less likely than men to receive compensation for the loss of their land, in terms of money or jobs.
The continuation of the mining is a clear violation of the provisions of national laws and international treaties including the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
FIAN has already intervened in this case with Open Letter s0916IND dated 7th July 2009, and Urgent Action 0915UIND dated 9th November 2009.
FIAN Mandate
India is a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Therefore India and the state of Jharkhand are duty-bound under international law to respect the human right to food and the human right to water. The plans to expand mining activities at Kusum Tola and the broader Karanpura region pose a severe threat to the Adivasi communities' livelihoods. If these plans are implemented, India and the state of Jharkhand will violate their obligations to respect and protect basic human rights, including the human rights to food and water, of the affected people.
Original Letter:
His Excellency Mr. Manmohan Singh
Prime Minister of India
Room No.148 B
South Block, Raisina Hill,
New Delhi, India-110 011.
Email: pmosb@pmo.nic.in
Honorable Mr. Prime Minister,
I write to express my concern about violations of the human rights to food and water being committed against the citizens of the village of Kusum Tola in the Northern Karanpura Valley in the Chatra district of Jharkhand. The massive expansion of open cast coal mining in the Upper Damodar watershed will devastate Kusum Tola and other indigenous villages inhabited by the Adivasi people. In destroying lakes and other water sources in the region the mining activity will also impact significantly on the people's right to access to water.
Mining activity is due to start in Kusum Tola any day as part of the Purnadih mine operations of Central Coalfields Limited (CCL). It is one of about 200 villages affected by 23 present and planned coal blocks. The neighboring hamlets of Dembua and Baseriya have already been destroyed. The villagers of Kusum Tola are currently affected by blasting, with the cracking of house walls and foundations, and rising dust. Destruction of their village would be a violation of their right to food and water, as they will lose access to the resources that sustain their major source of livelihood - agriculture.
Evictions to accommodate mining will not only lead to irreversible environmental devastation and social upheaval - they will destroy a precious cultural heritage. The area has been recommended to UNESCO as a threatened World Heritage Site on the basis of unique palaeo-archaeological evidence of Early Man, known as the Damodar Valley Civilization, prehistoric megalithic sites, and one dozen rock art sites over 8,000 years old. The loss of these sites outweighs the comparably short term profits of coal mining being conducted without adequate environmental and social safeguards.
As a state party to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, India, and therefore the state of Jharkhand, is duty-bound under international law to respect and protect the human right to food. In the light of these obligations I am concerned about the massive expansion of mining activities at Purnadih and other parts of the Karanpura region. By supporting this process, India and the state of Jharkhand are violating their people's right to food.
I therefore ask you to:
- Take action by ordering an immediate stoppage to the eviction of Kusum Tola and other places in the Karanpura region
- Enforce a suspension on all new mining projects in the Upper Damodar watershed in the Karanpura region;
- Undertake a social, human rights and environmental impact assessment of all the coal mines being presently operated and planned in the Northern Karanpura Valley
- Facilitate an open and transparent review of the way mine clearances are granted.
Please inform me of any measures you intend to take.
Respectfully yours
