CSE’s Fortnightly News Bulletin (August 5, 2010)

August 5, 2010
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News You Can Use

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An e-bulletin from Centre for Science and Environment, India, to our

network of friends and professionals interested in environmental

issues.

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You would be aware of the February 2001 study done by CSE highlighting

the endosulfan poisoning of residents of Padre village in Kasaragod

district of Kerala. You would also recall that after CSE’s study

government run scientific institutions had corroborated its findngs

and endosulfan use had been banned in the state by the Union

agriculture ministry. Over the years several countries across the

world have gone ahead and banned the use of this pesticide. Only last

month, the US Environment Protection Agency too has initiated the

process of phasing out the pesticide.

We have recently come to know of a criminal defamation case that Crop

Care Federation of India (CCFI), a pesticide industry body, had filed

against CSE and others at the Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court in

Bandra, Mumbai in 2006. In 2008 the learned Magistrate rejected their

complaint saying that the specific case was not defamatory. CCFI

challenged this order by filing a criminal revision application in the

honourable Sessions Court. In June 2008, the learned Sessions Judge

also rejected their application saying that CSE’s report was not of

defamatory nature.

It is only after the federation has filed an appeal in the Bombay High

Court that we have been made aware of this case. The Honourable High

Court has rejected CCFI’s appeal for an expeditious hearing and the

case will come up in normal course.

– Sunita Narain

Read more: Endosulfan poisoning in Padre village: Industry’s dirty tactics

http://www.cseindia.org/node/505

INSIDE:

* Editorial: See the light (By Sunita Narain)

* From Down To Earth magazine (News, features, opinion)

– Cover story: Choking access to drugs

– Column: Why do judges need to be ‘sensitised’?

– Landholders to get titles

– Strings attached

– India’s nuclear chimera

– Mango resistance

– Upturned harvest

* Web exclusive

– TV DTE: A Patient’s Dilemma

* From Gobar Times: Environment for beginners

– Whats cooking in the Indian streets

– Hot on the spill trail

* Short training programmes

– Course on Domestic wastewater treatment and reuse

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See the light

(Editorial by Sunita Narain)

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There is no question that India desperately needs to generate more power.

The energy indicators say it all. It has the lowest per capita

consumption of electricity in the world. This when access to energy is

correlated with development, indeed with economic growth.

Let us not dismiss the need for energy as a simple issue of

intra-national equity when the rich use too much, while the poor do

not have enough. This may be true for other natural resources, but

energy scarcity is more or less all around. Data shows India’s energy

intensity has been falling—we do more with each unit of energy

produced. In industry it is down by 2.2 per cent between 2004-05 and

2008-09, and in the agriculture and the service sector by as much as

4.7 per cent annually.

The reason is not hard to see. India has one of the highest prices of

energy and it does pinch industry and the domestic consumer. So saving

is part of the energy game. This is not to say we must not do more to

cut energy use and be more efficient. The point is there are limits to

efficiency.

But why am I stating the obvious? The reason is that even though India

knows it needs more power, it does not realise it will not get it

through conventional ways. It will have to find a new approach to

energy security before the high-sounding targets of the power ministry

are derailed and ultimately energy security compromised.

Just consider what is happening in the country. There are widespread

protests against building major power projects, from thermal to hydel,

and now nuclear. At the site of the coal power plant in Sompeta in

Andhra Pradesh, the police had to open fire on some 10,000 protesters,

killing two. In the alphonso-growing Konkan region farmers are up in

arms against a 1,200 MW thermal plant, which, they say, will damage

their crop. In Chhattisgarh, people are fighting against scores of

such projects, which will take away their land and water. The list of

such protests is long even if one does not consider the fact that most

of the coal needed to run them is under the forests, and the mines are

contested and unavailable.

Hydel projects are no different. Environmentalists are protesting the

massive numbers of projects planned on the Ganga that will virtually

see it dry over long stretches. The Assam government is asking for a

review of the hydel projects in upstream Arunachal Pradesh because it

believes these are resulting in floods. Assam’s 2,000 MW Subansiri

project is in trouble because state-appointed experts say the dam

could have serious impacts in downstream areas. The two

yet-to-be-built nuclear projects— the 6,000 MW Jasapara project in

Bhavnagar and the 9,900 MW Jaitapur project in Konkan—are already

facing people’s enormous anger.

We are not seeing the big picture as yet. We still believe these

countless struggles are a minor hiccup. People’s anger can be

disregarded, paid for or just squashed. But I believe not. As I have

argued in the past, this is the environmentalism of the very poor;

people across the country are fighting for survival. They know their

poverty will only be replaced by more destitution if and when these

projects are built.

It is time we accepted this fact. It is time we accepted that many of

the projects, planned or proposed, will not be built. The availability

of land and water will be the real constraints on growth. So what do

we do?

One, we need a law that makes basic energy a fundamental right of all

Indians, like the right to employment, education and now food. This

will ensure people are empowered to demand energy as a right and that

the state has to share whatever it has with all. This will create real

conditions for generating energy in new and different ways. Generation

could be decentralised and local or even big and grid-connected. This

will give every community a real stake in power development.

Two, India must accept it cannot build all the projects it has

planned. It has to prioritise them taking into consideration the

cumulative capacity of the environment. In other words, it needs to

assess how much water can be taken away for hydel projects while

ensuring natural flow in rivers at all times. It must allow only those

projects that do not compromise the environment and people’s

livelihood. Currently, this is not done. Every stream and every

district is up for grabs. In Arunachal Pradesh, there are 10 projects

on every stream; some 150 MoUs have been signed, adding to some 50,000

MW of power generation (roughly one-third of the country’s current

installed power). Just one block of Chhattisgarh, Dabra, has nine

thermal projects in a 10 km radius. MoUs have been signed for 49

projects in Janjgir-Champa district of Chhattisgarh. This madness must

stop.

Three, India needs to enhance the capacity of environmental

regulators, so that they take correct and clear decisions. Projects

need more careful scrutiny, and the assessment must have credibility

in people’s eyes.

We must first realise the need to change the game of development. Only

then will there be light.

Read this online: http://downtoearth.org.in/node/1631

Post your comments at: http://cseindia.org/node/1639

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Down To Earth Magazine

(http://www.downtoearth.org.in)

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Cover Story: Choking access to drugs

How cheap drugs are being squeezed out

http://downtoearth.org.in/node/1656

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Web exclusives

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TV DTE: A Patient’s Dilemma

http://downtoearth.org.in/node/1690

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More news, features, opinion in Down To Earth

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Patently Absurd: Why do judges need to be ‘sensitised’?

http://downtoearth.org.in/node/1617

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Frontpage: Landholders to get titles

http://downtoearth.org.in/node/1633

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Frontpage: Strings attached

http://downtoearth.org.in/node/1635

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Special report: India’s nuclear chimera

http://downtoearth.org.in/node/1652

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Special report: Mango resistance

http://downtoearth.org.in/node/1660

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Life and Nature: Upturned harvest

http://downtoearth.org.in/node/1672

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Gobar Times

http://www.gobartimes.org

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Whats cooking in the Indian streets

http://www.gobartimes.org/20100815/gt_covfeature1.asp

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Hot on the spill trail

http://www.gobartimes.org/20100815/open_forum.asp

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Short training programmes

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Course on Domestic wastewater treatment and reuse (August 24-28, 2010)

Course details: http://cseindia.org/node/1561

Course contact: Merajuddin Ahmad,

Water Management Unit

Email: ahmad@cseindia.org

Tel: 91-11-2995 5124, 6394, 6399, Mob: 9899820945

Fax: 91-11-2995 5879

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Recent Publications

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Challenge of the New Balance

CSE’s landmark study on how India will reduce emissions to combat

climate change.

Order print copy: http://csestore.cse.org.in/challengenewbalance.html

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Mobility crisis – Agenda for Action 2010

CSE’s latest book in its Right to Clean Air Campaign series.

Order now: http://csestore.cse.org.in/mobility-crisis.html

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established in 1982 by Anil Agarwal, a pioneer of India’s

environmental movement.

CSE’s mandate is to research, communicate and promote sustainable

development with equity, participation and democracy.

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