8) All ‘Red’ category industries should be strictly banned. As the list of
industries categorized as ‘orange’ includes many activities like food and fruit
processing, there will not be a complete prohibition on this category. But all
efforts should be made to promote industries with low environmental
impacts.
Now, this is where I have a very serious problem. When I first read this recommendation, I did not think much about it, mainly because I was (as any other gullible Indian) thinking that RED means something really dangerous, hence may be it is okay to let it go. But then, I wanted to know what are these industries. I got a categorization list at the Centure, applicable across India. Here it is:
http://envfor.nic.in/legis/ucp/ucpsch8.htmlNow, I tried to figure out a corresponding list at the state level (Kerala for me). Excuse me for my internet skills, I couldn't find one. So, I had to go to the Kerala State Pollution Control Board and look at the actual applications in the last half year 2012 to figure out what could potentially be this list for Kerala.
http://www.keralapcb.org/writereaddata/Consent%20Details%202012.htmI have to admit that my analysis is not complete in this. But I think whatever I found is good enough to say a few things:
1) Laboratories, clinics or even simple hospitals.
2) Milk processing and Diary farms
3) Slaughter houses and meat processing, chicken farms
4) Mobile towers
Now, I would like to take a pause and go to recommendation 9 & 10 directly:
9) Building and construction projects of 20,000 m2 and above should not be
allowed. Townships and area development projects should be prohibited.
10) All other infrastructure and development projects/schemes should be
subject to environment clearance under Category ‘A’ projects under EIA
Notification 2006. All these projects will be considered by the Central government under Category A.
Let us read these three recommendations together.
I don't need to talk about Clinics/Hospitals, as if you can't understand the fathom of the implication of its absence, you are being inhuman towards those people. Diary is a big secondary income for many of the farmers living in Western Ghats, without which they cannot sustain. Likewise, meat is not only a dietary thing, it is also an income. No more advancement in telecommunication, the next generation will remain a step behind the rest of the country. Then, the rest of the industries (I have talked about only the common denominators. I am pretty sure the impact of not having the other types of industries will also be huge, but I can't produce any solid reasoning here, that's just my ignorance, please note).
Also, note the vagueness surrounding the Orange category. Another opportunity for bureaucrats to pick up bribes and politicians and other local power holders to make life difficult for ordinary people.
In case of infrastructure development, you need to get approval from the highest of authorities. In a state where even the most important state highways and national highways take decades to build and years to maintain, what chance does a project from an ESA territory hold?
Likewise, you can't have big towns. They can keep their petty shops, but not entitled to visit a well-developed town. You know why? Because we (the others) want to keep visiting them, and we think they only way we can achieve that is by making them not to do it.
In a nutshell, these three recommendations tells me one thing very straight - the farmers should do ONLY farming. Which is very innocent at first. But, if you think about, you realize that it means another thing - if you are a tribal, you can continue to be a tribal. If you are not a tribal, you have two options: either slowly convert to a tribal, or leave the place. The complete area will grind to a halt slowly over a couple of decades. Some people will chose to stay, but most of the next generation will need to find other places to build their lives.
But where will they go? CITIES. More people, more pollution, more everything. We can all live in a state of endless polluted nirvana. Having got rid of devilish farmers who used to produce environment-nasty crops and feed us, we then become totally dependent on TN/Andhra/Karnataka etc for various things. Then we will keep cribbing that we are not getting vegetables to eat for Onam. We import everything. That requires transportation. But we cant build highways because of increased population density in the lower areas. And we get into a cycle of chaos. But, you know, all this migration, transportation & pollution is good for environment, because we presumably saved Western Ghats.
My suggestions:
1) It is important for every Keralite to recognize that continued habitation and development in the Western Ghats is a MUST to distribute the extreme population density of the state and to avoid any further load on our social and physical infrastructure with an already broken backbone. A mass immigration (even if it is gradual) is not going to help any environment anywhere.
2) To achieve that, certain basic necessities like the ones I listed above should be exempted in the recommendation #8. The other Red & Orange industries can have special permissions.
3) The restrictions on Infrastructure projects should be further categorized so that things like local roads and important transportation facilities are not constrained.
4) Social infrastructural institutions like educational institutions and hospitals, even if they go beyond the stipulated area, should be exempted and townships that serve such institutions around them should be allowed.
5) If at all we need to bring in further restrictions, the affected areas should be financially compensated. Because they have put in their blood and sweat in that land. They are entitled to the rewards of that effort as much as anybody anywhere. The compensation can come in various shapes, like pension funds or reservations in higher educational institutions or direct cash transfer or anything else. In any case, the implementation should happen after the consent is received from the interested parties, not before that.
