27 December 2008

A background note

Located on the Gulf of Kutch, Mundra is a coastal taluka in the largest district of the state of Gujarat. The wide inter-tidal zone in the region creates a unique marine ecosystem dominated by mangroves and natural creek formations along the coast which the Waghers, a Muslim community, depends on for fishing. The inland areas of this coastal taluka are used for agriculture, horticulture (date orchards) and animal husbandry. The poorest of communities, mostly Muslims and Dalits, depend on coal-making from the scrub forests of prosopis juliflora, mostly growing on revenue wastelands and forest department lands.

The Adani group of industries started their operations in the area in 1998 with the construction of a jetty. A small-scale start was followed by consistent land purchases for the construction of warehouses, container terminals and other infrastructure. The full-fledged new private port was completed by 2000. Roads, rail and finally even an airport was set up in the area. All this was to eventually form a part of the Mundra SEZ plan, which was approved by the Ministry of Commerce, in April 2006. The total area around Mundra consists of no less than three contiguous SEZs held by the same Adani Group; Mundra Special Economic Zone (1082 hectares), Gujarat Adani Port (2648 hectares) and Adani Power Private Limited (294 hectares). The company has recently obtained approval to merge the three zones to form one single SEZ in order to avoid the long drawn out paper work and administrative hassles.  Further, the Adani Group has been granted the right to use and develop 1400 hectares of land around Mundra Port for 30 years under a concession agreement with the Gujarat government. This brings the total amount of land available to approximately 6300 hectares around Mundra to be developed into SEZs according to the company's own estimates.

The legal status of land which now belongs to the Adani Group, can essentially be divided into four parts; government revenue and forest land under mangrove or scrub forests; government land being used and managed by panchayats under the category of gauchhar  or grazing land; government revenue wasteland that lay waste or was being used for grazing; and patches of private land. A State Forest Department report, released in early 2007, claims that 340 square km (34000 hectares) of mangroves along the state coastline have either disappeared completely or are on the verge of disappearing. These drastic losses of mangrove forest stem mainly from industrial activities, specifically in the Gulf of Kutch. In certain areas like Mundra and Hazira, they disappeared overnight. (http://www.indianexpress. com/printerFriendly/26752.html). Quoted in this report, the Mundra SEZ had 3000 hectares of mangroves out of a total of 13000 hectares and much of these had already been cleared.

Apart from running excavators another technique being used by the company is to let the mangroves die a natural death by staving off sea water with bunds to deprive the mangroves of salt water essential for their growth. In addition, the mangroves are also suffering from port and industrial activity with threat from oil spills and pollution. Local NGOs, national and regional media have repeatedly carried news of the consistent destruction of forests and the fact that it is a clear violation of all forest conservation laws and yet it has not drawn adequate response from the state or central governments. With most of the mangrove land not notified as forest lands or on lands under the jurisdiction of the revenue department instead of the forest department, there has been unwillingness from either department to accept responsibility and take action against the company. Despite strict legislations like the Coastal Regulation Zone disallowing construction activity the port was granted an environment as well as a forest clearance by the MoEF almost 7 years ago. While the extended SEZ is yet to get an environmental clearance, bunding and land-clearing activities in the area continue.

Apart from supporting migratory bird populations, mangroves also form the spawning grounds for many a fish species, thus supporting the local fishing communities, which form a significant population in the area. Mundra has almost 1000 families dependent on fishing who now live under the threat of losing their livelihoods as the port and jetties expand into their traditional fishing harbours. Since their shelters along the creek shores are transient, with no legal titles, staking a claim on lost fishing grounds is hard for them. As mentioned earlier, most of this land has been classified as un-surveyed seashore or revenue wasteland. The dredging activities at the port and movement of barges and large shipping vessels also affect fish catch. Last year, one fishing village, Shekhadiya stood up in protest as the land being acquired for the SEZ's airstrip blocked their daily path to the creek. In 1997-98 when fishworkers of Jahrpara village (using the Navinal creek) carried on a movement after being evicted forcefully from their fishing shelters by the company, they got no response from the government. Further, about 14 villages have lost more than 1400 acres of grazing land to the SEZ. The Maldhari community, who graze cattle and camel on these lands as their main occupation have been badly hit as a result.

The people of the area have also not gained in terms of employment. Local residents claim that at any point there are 10 to 15000 migrant and contract labourers in Mundra living in hutments and shanties along the roadside, without basic facilities like water and sanitation.

The region surrounding MPSEZL has other mammoth projects like Kandla and Jamnagar Petrochemical SEZs where similar environmental, cultural and socio-economic fallouts are being borne out. Yet there is no cumulative environment impact assessment to evaluate the damage these developments are causing to the marine ecosystem of the Gulf of Kutch.

For More Details Contact Bharat Patel
Setu information Center
Bhadreshwar, Mundra
Kutch - Gujarat, Ph. 02838-282445
bharatp1977@gmail.com
Manshi Asher Independent Researcher-Activist
manshi.asher@gmail.com

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***ACTION ALERT!!!***

SAMPLE LETTER:

The Minster of Environment and Forests
Mr. Seguvan regupathy,
Paryavaran bhavan, Cgo complex, Lodi road,
NewDelhi - 3  INDIA
Fax no. 011-24362222 Tel no. 011-24368633
email- mef@nic.in

SUBJECT : CONCERN OVER THE APATHY OF YOUR GOVERNMENT TOWARDS THE THREAT POSED TO THE MANGROVE FORESTS IN MUNDRA (GUJARAT)  FROM THE MUNDRA PORT AND SEZ PROECT

Dear Sir

We express our shock and concern at the consistent disregard and apathy shown by your Ministry towards the incessant destruction of mangroves and the marine environment of Mundra as a result of the development and expansion of Adani group's Mundra Port and SEZ.  It is a well accepted fact the world over that Mangrove forests are ecologically, highly sensitive areas and need to be protected and conserved. Mangroves are critical to Marine Coastal Soil Conservation, breeding and nursery grounds for fish, crustaceans and other sea life, as well as vital habitat for birds and other wildlife. Kutch has been declared as the most important mangrove areas in Gujarat. Two main varieties of mangroves -- Avecennia Species (Cher), and Rhizophora Species (Kharod) -- are mainly found in Kutch. Mundra was the taluka/region which housed more than 20% of mangroves of the Gulf of Kutch.

We would once again like to bring your urgent attention to the fact that the Mundra region, located along the Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat has for the past decade seen unprecedented destruction of old, rich and diverse mangrove forests over large tracts of land under the jurisdiction of the government for the adhoc expansion carried out by the Adani group of industries. We have news that tens of millions of mangrove trees spread over more than 3000 hectares have been cleared through violations of the environment and forest clearance conditions and norms.

The traditional harbours of the fishing villages (1000 fishing families) have been blocked creating problems for them to access the coast for their day to day livelihood. Many of the revenue wastelands were actually grasslands which have been handed over to the company despite consistent opposition. Local people, NGOs, community organizations, and environmentalists have raised this issue consistently with several departments and through the media. But there has been no justice for the local people or an acknowledgement of the issue.

We write you now to express our deep concern about destruction of the marine ecology and the devastation of the local populations of Mundra. We urge you to take the following corrective steps: 

ß Initiate an independent investigation into the activities of the Adani group in the area

ß Take appropriate action against the perpetrators of these destructive activities

Until the above is done, the government should bring a halt to the developer's activities in the area

Submitted by: Manshi Asher