Global Issues
INDIA: Protests Overshadow Communist State’s Chemical Hub Plans
An ambitious plan to establish a chemical industry complex in an ecologically fragile coastal zone of India’s eastern state, West Bengal, has snowballed into a debate, with the ruling communists facing resistance from environmental groups and political rivals over the project.
The communist government of West Bengal wants to create a low-tax chemical hub on Nayachar Island, barely 10 kilometres from the Sundarbans archipelago at the mouth of Bay of Bengal, home to a huge variety of marine life, endangered tigers and the world’s largest mangrove gene pool. The archipelago is already threatened by rising sea waters caused by global warming.
Indonesia’s Salim group is looking to develop the hub in coordination with the state-run refiner Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL) based on an agreement signed in September 2006.
After a similar plan met with violent resistance in September 2007 in nearby Nandigram, the Nayachar island was chosen, primarily for its proximity to Haldia, a river port town where some of the global petrochemical giants have set up factories. These include the IOCL and Haldia Petrochemicals, a showpiece project of the West Bengal government.
The government plans to turn the area into a multi-billion-dollar Petroleum, Chemical and Petrochemical Investment Regions (PCPIR), combining Nayachar with the Haldia industrial area. This proposed complex will cover an area of 250.19 sq km, including 200.83 sq km on the mainland and 49.36 sq km on the Nayachar island. It is projected to generate one million jobs, including direct employment for 400,000 people, based on government data.
The decision to set up the chemical hub has been challenged by environmental advocates, fishermen and a powerful political party, triggering a controversy involving the communists trying to industrialise the state they have ruled uninterruptedly since 1977.
Green groups have warned that they would challenge in court any environmental clearance that will be issued for the project. The federal government in India, which favours the project, has promised the state government to expedite the grant of clearance for the project. Such a clearance will pave the way for the first phase of the planned hub. In the meantime, they are building up local resistance to the project.
To date no environmental impact assessment report has been submitted to the Indian Environment Ministry for the planned hub.
Activists argue that petrochemical industries are hazardous. The international environmental group Greenpeace, for instance, has warned that even the treated effluent from chemical factories can contaminate the waters as they are carried away by the tides.
'The authorities are saying that the surrounding waters of Nayachar will act as a buffer in case of any accident. These are the waters of river Hooghly (the local name for Ganges, India’s lifeline), which are intimately connected to the coastal waters,' said Santanu Chakraborty, secretary of Direct Initiative for Social and Health Action (DISHA), a citizens’ group fighting coastal destruction.
'Tidal influx will bring any contamination to Sundarbans and all the municipalities that draw water from river Hooghly. This is the worst possible site for a chemical hub.'
While West Bengal’s reformist chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who is known for his capitalist ideals, says the government will set up the chemical hub at any price, protest clouds are gathering over Nayachar, a 64-square-kilometre island inhabited by about 3,000 people illegally, mostly fishermen.
According to Chakraborty, selecting Nayachar for a mega chemical hub is tantamount to ecocide. 'These are basically biodiversity hotspots close to Sundarbans. Nayachar is less than 10 km from Sagar and less than 8 km from Kakdwip, two areas which are under the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve,' he said. 'This is on a river (Hooghly) where numerous creeks connect this entire Sundarbans; any pollution or spillage will affect the entire region.'
DISHA says Nayachar is located inside the coastal regulation zone, as defined under a 1991 state notification. Setting up or expanding industrial activity in such an area is prohibited.
The federal government’s coalition partner, Trinamool Congress, has voiced its opposition to the project. This powerful regional party of West Bengal is a rival of the communists but shores up the Congress party-led coalition government in New Delhi.
Emboldened by the communists’ electoral losses in the April-May general elections in India, the party has vowed to stop the project. Trinamool has previously successfully led a farmers’ campaign over land seizure, forcing removal of a plant at Singur, near Kolkata, which was intended to manufacture the 'world’s cheapest car,' Nano, by Tata Motors, an automobile giant under the iconic Tata industrial group of India.
'The government of India has cleared the project overall,' said West Bengal industry minister Nirupam Sen. 'Now we have to take clearance for each project as a matter of policy.'
In October last year the federal government signed an agreement with the West Bengal state to speed up the Nayachar chemical hub project, eight months after clearing the PCPIR proposal.
The Indian government said the PCPIR policy is a window to ensure the adoption of a holistic approach to the development of global-scale industrial clusters in the petroleum, chemical and petrochemical sectors in an integrated and environment-friendly manner.
Mithu Haldar, a young boatman and college student, favours the project, saying it will generate jobs for educated young people like him. 'There are many educated jobless youngsters here. The project should benefit them,' he said as he rowed a boat in the backdrop of the Haldia petrochemical plants splitting fire and smoke.
Islander and fisherman Sukhdeb Barui, however, is opposed to it. 'How much do we understand about this industry? I doubt if the project would benefit us. At best we can be engaged to clear the shrubs,' he said.
As the controversy continues, Nayachar has become a hub of discontent for the moment.
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service