By Nageshwar Patnaik in Bhubaneswar, January 30, 2015 :

Now that the cat is out of the bag, the Congress can no more pretend about the real reason behind the denial of environmental clearance to Vedanta Aluminium Limited’s (VAL) plan for expansion to its alumina refinery at Odisha’s Lanjigarh.

The outburst of environment minister in the erstwhile UPA government Jayanthi Natrajan on Friday against the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, especially with regard to giving environment clearance to the Niyamgiri bauxite mining project has exposed too many skeletons in the cupboard.

Incidentally, it also provided fodder to the non-Congress parties here to lunch a tirade against the former UPA government. The ruling BJD, a bitter critic of the Congress, said Ms Natrajan’s  revelation on the issue of environment clearance to VAL established that the UPA never wanted industrial development in Odisha.

“I thank Ms Natrajan for exposing the conspiracy of UPA to destroy the economy of Odisha. Vedanta came here to set up an industry and create jobs in Odisha, particularly in Rayagada. Today, she admitted that the ministry of environment and forest headed by her in the UPA government did not grant green nod to the company under pressure from Rahul and his mother Sonia Gandhi,” senior BJD leader Rabinarayan Nanda said.

He added that cancellation of the forest clearance was a big jolt to VAL.

“It’s well-known that Rahul and Sonia were extra-constitutional authorities in the government and used to influence the decisions of the UPA government. When such extra-constitutional authorities try to take over the government, the democratic set up fails and Congress exactly did this during period from 2004 to 2014. This incident proves that and exposes their motives,” he said.

While admitting that there could have been pressure from Rahul to deny permission to Vedanta to mine bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills, a defensive Congress said it was aimed at protecting the interests of the primitive Dongria Kondhs who inhabit the area.

“I think Rahul might have spoken to her about the Vedanta issue at Niyamgiri. I see nothing wrong in it. He had visited the hills here and had assured to Kondhs to defend their rights in Delhi. This is for the good of people. Corporates can’t just take over all the hills and displace people from their homeland for the sake of money,” said Pradeep Majhi, former Congress MP from Nabarangpur.

In her startling disclosure, Natarajan said that she received “specific requests” from Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on environmental clearances and she consequently rejected the expansion of the mega project despite pressure from her Cabinet colleagues seeking approval.

Incidentally, the east coast region boasts of 74% of the total bauxite reserves. In the last three decades, not a single bauxite mine has been opened in this region comprising part of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha, where a staggering 2600 million tons of in situ reserves of bauxite was discovered way back in 1970, which virtually promised to become a game changer in the world of Aluminium with India becoming the fifth highest bauxite reserve country in the world with deposits of about 3.5 billion tonnes or 5% of world deposits.

Odisha’s poorest Kalahandi and Koraput districts have 10 bauxite deposits accounting for a whopping 1846 million tons while Andhra Pradesh has nine deposits having 800 million ton proven reserves.

Consequently, the Indian Aluminium Industry today produces only a nominal 1.318 million tons of metal with a very low per capita consumption of 1.3 kg against world production of 40 million tons and per capita consumption of 30-35 Kg in developed countries like Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada, USA etc, experts said.

“It is unfortunate that India could not leverage its strength by emerging as the epicentre of an aluminium revolution and that too at the lowest cost quartile. It is ridiculous not to utilise huge bauxite deposits in the name of environment and indigenous tribals. Bauxite mining is more eco-friendly than any other minerals”, says Dr. P. K. Jena, former director general, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research and chairman of the city based Institute of Advance Technology and Environmental Studies (IATES).

Dr Jena further asserts that bauxite deposits are always available at the top of the plateaus, which have sparse vegetation as the mineral is porous in nature and does not hold water which trickles down the mountain slopes.

“The dense foliage is invariably below the bauxite belt deposit and after mining operations, the reclamation process is very smooth and dense vegetation sprouts up easily the mined area can be suitably utilised for rain water harvesting as well”, he remarked.

Bauxite has one more fundamental advantage over other minerals. The value addition is invariably done close to the mining source. The refinery and smelter generally come up within the state itself opening up huge opportunities for employment and development.