WIO's Mahanadi River Basin Update - 5th June 2015

Mahanadi River Basin Update – 5^th June 2015

(An occasional update from ‘Mahanadi River Basin Initiative’ of Water Initiatives Odisha and Mahanadi River Waterkeeper)

Theme: World Environment Day

Growing Focus on Mahanadi

Greetings from Mahanadi on World Environment Day!

A leading daily newspaper of the region 'Pragativadi' profiled me as "Environment's Guard" in an exclusive feature that covered our work on the Mahanadi in specific and other environmental issues in general. The following link shows the feature but that is in Odia language and hence I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to friends who can’t read this language.  However, just wanted to give the link for your information.

http://climatecrusaders.blogspot.in/2015/06/pragativadi-features-me-as-environments.html

Several regional newspaper carried our view points in their WED features and articles.  However, one of India's leading English dailies quoted me extensively on water pollution issues in mining areas.  You can please find the link at:

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/odisha-s-story-about-pollution-mining-and-the-environment/article1-1355017.aspx

Two TV channels invited me for live discussions on environmental issues especially dealing with Mahanadi River Basin.  The details are as follows:

http://climatecrusaders.blogspot.in/2015/06/in-live-tv-news-programmes-on-world.html

We have reached out well to the communities and youths through these mainstream media as well as social media on our pages, groups and twitter handles.  Our updates now reach to about ten thousand people.

We encourage you to follow our updates at the following places:

Twitter: @MahanadiRiver

Facebook:

Our Group “Save Rivers to Save Civilizations” at https://www.facebook.com/groups/220598744649462/

Our Community “Save Odisha Rivers” at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Save-Odisha-Rivers/233282700036094?fref=ts

Our Blog at http://www.climatecrusaders.blogspot.com/

Thanks for your continued support to all our initiatives.

Look forward to listen from you and to work together.

Thanks and regards,

Ranjan

Tweet @MahanadiRiver

Tweet @ranjanpanda

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For further information please contact:

Ranjan Panda

Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha

Mahanadi River Waterkeeper (Member, Global Waterkeeper Alliance)

Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network, India

Mobile: +919437050103
Email: ranjanpanda@gmail.com, ranjanpanda@yahoo.com

Skype: ranjan.climatecrusader

Blog: http://www.climatecrusaders.blogspot.com/

Please join with us in saving Mahanadi, India's 6th largest River...

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Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO) is a state level coalition of civil society organisations, farmers, academia, media and other concerned, which has been working on water, environment and climate change issues in the state for more than two and half decades now.

Country's top corporates owe U.P. farmers 6000 crore rupees!

Indian economy's strength is its farm sector as it not only shelters majority of the population but also sustains their livelihood.  However, our governments have been favoring the rich and greedy corporate houses at the cost of the farmers.  The news pasted below is one such example...

Ranjan Panda

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Country’s top corporates owe U.P. farmers Rs. 6,000 crore

Updated: Jun 6, 2015 03:32 AM , By Mohammad Ali | 

The figures of arrears the industrialists owe the State’s farmers are the highest in the country.

Several sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh have committed suicide as they are yet to get more than Rs. 6,000 crore owed to them by some of the country’s top corporates for this crop season alone.

The corporate houses that owe the State’s farmers money include Bajaj, Birla, Modi group and the liquor baron Ponty Chaddha-led Wave group. These private defaulters, which own 40 of the 103 sugarcane mills, have left the farmers in a state of crisis.

Highest in country

According to an Uttar Pradesh Cane Development department document accessed by The Hindu, the figures of arrears the industrialists owe the State’s farmers are the highest in the country.

The top defaulter is Bajaj group which is yet to pay Rs. 1598 crore to the farmers. The Mawana group, which owns three mills in the State, has defaulted on the payment of Rs. 524 crore. The Birla group, which owns five mills, owes Rs. 376.5 crore, the Modi group, with two sugar mills owes Rs. 406 crore.

The Yadu group, owned by U.P. strongman D.P. Yadav has defaulted on payment of Rs. 50 crore. The Dalmiya group which owns three mills is yet to pay Rs. 94.3 crore. There are 20 others in the list with smaller outstanding amounts.

Senior officials of the Cane Development department told The Hindu that the officials will soon initiate action against the top defaulters.

A senior office-bearer of the Sugar Mill Owners Association said, on condition of anonymity, that the “government needs to seriously look at the crisis in the sugar industry and reward those who pay the farmers even in this crisis.”

“There is no dispute that the private sugar mill owners owe more than Rs 6,000 crore as arrears but frankly, the industry is going through a big crisis. Due to the decreasing sugar prices we are unable to recover the money from the market. So, we are just not in a position to pay Rs. 240 per quintal,” he said.

Sudhir Panwar, a farmer expert argued that farmers have not got even a fourth of the price of the sugarcane they sold to these private players.

‘Control sugar prices’

“The Central government needs to control the sugar prices which are continuously falling. When Modi addressed the rally in Meerut ahead of the parliamentary election last year, he raised the issue but he is yet to do any thing. The Centre abolished its control on the sugar market because of which the prices are continuously going down,” Mr. Sudhir Panwar added.

http://m.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/countrys-top-corporates-owe-up-farmers-rs-6000-crore/article7287537.ece/

Mining and Pollution in Odisha: Ranjan Panda's views in HT article!

Odisha's story about pollution, mining and the environment

• Priya Ranjan Sahu, Hindustan Times, Bhubaneshwar
| 
• Updated: Jun 05, 2015 12:25 IST

In coal producing states, women carrying away illegally scavenged coal is a common sight. Here, womenfolk carry coal from an open-cast coal mine in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. (Getty Images Photo)

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Odisha’s resource-rich Sukinda valley acquired infamy as the fourth most polluted place in the world in 2007, ranked by the Blacksmith Institute of the US.

The finding was vigorously contested by the state pollution control board as vastly exaggerated, but it did manage to cause a constructive debate on environmental issues in the region.

The valley in Odisha’s Jajpur district has around 97% of the country’s reserves of chromite ore, a vital component in the production of stainless steel, leather and alloys.

The downside to the heavy tapping of mineral resources from a dozen open cast mines in the area over 70 years has been the utter degradation of Sukinda’s landscape. Water in the region has been severely contaminated, the soil polluted with toxic substances, the forests almost wiped out and farms laid waste.

Locals say half the mines now stand closed but the damage has already been done, thanks largely to the improper disposal of waste in river water by the miners.

Hrudananda Nayak, a local resident who used to work in a mine that was closed in 2002, says people in a 20km radius of the mines have no choice but to drink toxic water and inhale chrome dust. “You will find people suffering from skin diseases, gastroenteritis and diabetes in every family across the valley. Every village has at least two cancer patients,” he said. After Nayak lost his mining job, he took up farming on his four acres of land but the production remains low as the soil has been degraded.

Besides the 60,000 people falling under the seven gram panchayats of Sukinda, more than 40,000 in another five gram panchayats of the neighbouring Dhenkanal district have been directly affected by the fallout of mining.

The importance of mining as a source of livelihood has also seen a rapid decline. In 1975, more than 40,000 labourers worked in the mines. The number is now down to 4,000 because of modernisation of processes. Modernisation, though, has not led to a let-up in the pollution level.

Veteran labour union leader Mayadhar Nayak says mine owners should have been more responsible about waste disposal. "Dumping of waste in the river has worked like slow poison. Diseases take time to surface but their seeds were sowed over a long period,” he says.

The Brahmani, Odisha’s second-largest river that runs through Sukinda valley, is the state’s most polluted because of excessive hexavalent chromium exposure, which has multiplied the risk from cancer-causing carcinogenic substances for the 26 lakh people dependent on the river. Surveys have indicated more than 80% deaths in heavily mined areas are caused by chromite-related diseases.

Though the state pollution control board disputed the Blacksmith Institute report as highly exaggerated, its own findings also showed high levels of hexavalent chromium in surface water.

Hearing a writ petition in May last year, the Orissa high court was not satisfied with a report by the state pollution control board that the pH and hexavalent chromium levels after treatment were within the limits prescribed under the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986 and asked the central pollution control board to conduct an independent study on Sukinda’s pollution.

The central board gave its report in October last year, saying that hexavalent chromium pollution had gone up due to chromite mining and recommended the constitution of a consortium of members from all mines operating in the valley to take remedial steps.

Casting doubt over the consortium’s efficacy, noted environmentalist and water activist Ranjan Panda says local authorities can not evade responsibility as without their connivance mine owners could not have polluted the area with impunity.

“Though an independent assessment was done upon the high court’s intervention, we doubt it will address the alarming proportions of pollution,” says Panda. “Only one season’s data were analysed. A thorough study is needed. The consortium thing does not address issues related to the damage already done.”

http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/odisha-s-story-about-pollution-mining-and-the-environment/article1-1355017.aspx

In Live TV News Programmes on World Environment Day 2015!

4th June at 7.30 PM went live on Focus TV to discuss pollution of Mahanadi at Cuttack.  

5th June at 11.30 AM went live on Prameya TV to talk about impact of Unsustainable Lifestyles on Mahanadi...

Ranjan Panda

Convenor, Water Initiatives Odisha (WIO)

Mahanadi River Waterkeeper (Member, Global Waterkeeper Alliance)

Convenor, Combat Climate Change Network, India

Pragativadi features me as "Environment's Guard" !

Got featured as "Environment's Guard" by leading Odia daily Pragativati in it's special feature on World Environment Day 2015.

Thanks for your continued support all friends, co-sailors and well-wishers!

Happy World Environment Day 2015!

If we can produce Three Earths by 2050, we can continue the way we are pursuing ‘progress.’  If not, let’s live a life that keeps alive the only Earth we have…

Let’s make this promise on World Environment Day 2015!

Ranjan Panda

Water Initiatives Odisha

Combat Climate Change Network, India

Mahanadi River Waterkeeper(Member, Global Waterkeeper Alliance)

Ah, those first drops of rains!

Ah, those first drops of rains;

Dancing down, piercing through the scorching heat...

So refreshing, so promising!

Stay with us please;

For the craving fields, soul and mind...