Strip Mining is not ‘Farming’, Mr Timblo

One cannot give strip mining a green spin merely by calling it ‘farming’, argues VENITA COELHO
Herald 21 January 2009

Auduth Timblo’s defence of the mining industry (Herald, 16 Jan) was titled ‘Mineral Farming brings health and employment’. I beg to differ with this viewpoint. Mr Timblo, you were careful to not use the term ‘mining’ since, as you said, it “Literally means work carried out in a mine.” I wonder why you didn’t use the exact technical term for what you are doing, viz., strip mining. Mining that strips off trees, greenery, rich topsoil and the layers of earth below that. Mining that strips the earth bare.

Farming grows and nurtures food. The land is used in a manner that sustains lives year after year. Strip mining on the other hand strips down forests, destroys water resources and leaves barren devastation in its wake. You ask, “Dare I use the term mineral farming”. If I were you, I wouldn’t dare to try and give mining a green spin by equating it with farming.

You talk with cheer of “winning the mineral”. Unfortunately there are losers as well: the people who live in the villages that are in proximity to mining areas, the forests of Goa, the environment of Goa, and the water resources of our state. The Regional Plan 2021 itself scathingly indicts your industry, pointing out that mining needs to be reviewed “in the context of long-term environment damage being caused with relatively limited economic benefit to the state”.

Here are the facts. Manufacturing contributes 25 per cent to the GDP of Goa and use 2 per cent of its land mass. In contrast, mining uses 8 per cent of Goa’s land mass and contributes only 4 per cent to the State’s GDP. It is time for Goa to ask whether it is worth it? And if you listen to the roar from villages affected by mining, the answer is resounding “No”.

You further state that “it is well established” that “these (mining activities) and other streams converge to give us labour-saving devices, creature comforts, longevity and other benefits that we crave in modern times.”

What mining in Goa has given us is 40 mines operating in forest areas. It has given us floods in Bicholim. It has given us devastated Kushavati river. It has given us paddy crops ruined by slurry washed out from the mining dumps of several mining companies. it has given us damaged water bodies and stripped forests.

What we need and crave is clean water, clean air and a clean environment. Air thick with ore cuts down longevity. Water contaminated with ore slurry leads to a host of ailments. Farmland that has been silted leads to people starving because they have lost their means of livelihood.

You say “environment costing” is now built into the industry. Then why do mining companies leave abandoned mines as they are without replanting the forests they destroyed? When a Supreme Court order forces them to replant, they quickly use Australian acacia- a fast-growing and damaging option that is wholly alien to the Goan ecosystem.

You point out that “it is possible to reduce the workforce engaged in the mineral sector in Goa by 60 to 70 percent.” No one is agitating for you to stop employing people. We are agitating for you and the mining lobby to do business with a conscience. Not to make money at the expense of our farmers, our land and our health. Not to snatch the right to life of communities settled here for several hundred years.

You claim that “education, health, and the equitable distribution of wealth is synonymous with mineral development for over 100,000 families in Goa.” Did you count the families that are currently struggling to survive in Rivona and Uguem because their standing crop was ruined by slurry? The Timblos themselves have been ordered by the High Court to deposit money as compensation for the damage caused to the crops of Surla village.

Here are few simple statistics that underline the problem. Goa constitutes only about 1 per cent of the land mass of India. Yet it exports about 35 per cent of its ore. The quantity of our yearly export is 33,000,000 tons – several large-sized hills. For each tonne of ore that is ‘won”, three tonnes are wasted and discarded. So 99,000,000 tonnes of misplaced and barren soil is dumped indiscriminately. This material leaches into water bodies, silting them and playing havoc with ecosystems and marine life. The Mandovi is estimated to carry 2,00,000 metric tonnes of this sediment every year.

You are kind enough to admit that is a few cases “Commercial greed overtakes concern for others” Unfortunately it is not just a few cases – the industry itself is built on greed. It is an industry that strips the earth for short-term gains and for the enrichment of an elite few. Several reports point out that profits mining in Goa are more than negated by the ecological costs of damages inflicted by mining. The Government itself earns over Rs.200 crore a year from this activity and yet spends little or nothing on repairing damage to ecological assets.

You and your family have been in the industry for over thirty years and you write in defence of your livelihood and your name. If today village after village is standing upto mining, it is in defence of their livelihood. Your name is obviously is of great value to you. Therefore you have chosen to sue Seby Rodrigues, the anti-mining activist, for Rs.500 crore for what he mentions in his blog about your company, Fomento. But about Seby’s name? Your vice president of Corporate Communications, Sujay Gupta, did his best to have Seby labelled a Naxalite on behalf of your company some months ago. The falsehood led to red faces in the administration and among the opposition. The same Sujay Gupta is named guarantor for the court case against Seby – incredibly filed at the Calcutta high Court. And yet every Sunday we get to read about how much Mr Gupta loves Goa and how glad he is that he lives here. This is much in the same vein as you saying that "Goa is home”. Does your home deserve to be stripped and gutted, its air polluted, its water contaminated?

Your attempt has been to paint the Timblos as the ‘good guy’ in mining. Good guys don’t launch vindictive suits for astronomical sums against ordinary activists who are helping people fight for their very survival.

Certainly there are bad guys in mining. Your love for Goa would be better demonstrated if you concentrated your efforts on self regulation within industry that would help weed these elements out. Since your family has been around for thirty years in this business and owes its fortune to it, surely it is your duty to lead in this respect? The Rs 500 crore you demand would be better spent in rehabilitating land that the mining lobby has stripped and left bare. That sum can buy a lot of saplings. That sum can protect a lot of lives.

Dare I say it – you yourself would do far better for looking the problem straight in the eye and calling it by name instead of soft-peddling it as “mineral farming”. Strip mining is exactly that. And that is the problem.

Those wishing to support Seby Rodrigues can sign an online petition at http://PetitionOnline.com/sue4000/petition.html