| Uranium Corporation of India Limited: Wasting Away Tribal Lands |  |  |  |
| Written by Moushumi Basu | |
| Sunday, 29 November 2009 | |
| CoprWatch.org — "I have had three miscarriages and lost five children within a week of their births," says Hira Hansda, a miner's wife. "Even after 20 years of marriage we have no children today." Now in her late forties, she sits outside her mud hut in Jadugoda Township, site of one of the oldest uranium mines in India. The Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) operates that mine, part of a cluster of four underground and one open cast mines and two processing plants, in East Singbhum district in the Eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. The deepest plunges almost one kilometer into the earth. Incorporated as a public sector enterprise under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) in 1967, UCIL has sole responsibility for mining and processing all of India's uranium. And since the strength of the Jadugoda region's uraninite ore is extremely low, it takes many tons of earth as well as complex metallurgical processes to yield even a small amount of useable uranium ore—along with tons of radioactive waste, disposed of in unlined tailing dams. UCIL processes the ore into yellowcake and sends it to the Nuclear Fuel Complex in Hyderabad, where it is officially designated for use in nuclear reactors. But it is an open secret that some of the nuclear material becomes the key ingredient in India's nuclear arsenal. (India is one of only three states—along with Israel and Pakistan—that are not signatories to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. North Korea withdrew from the Treaty in 2003.) Unhealthy Villages Radiation and health experts across the world charge that toxic materials and radioactivity released by the mining and processing operations are causing widespread infertility, birth defects and cancers. A 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), found that "primary sterility was found to be more common in the people residing near uranium mining operations area." Jadugoda residents Kaderam Tudu and his wife, Munia, considered themselves fortunate when their infant was born alive, until, "I found that my baby son did not have his right ear and instead in its place was a blob of flesh," says Tudu, a day worker in his late thirties. Their son, Shyam Tudu, now eight, has a severe hearing impairment. Even children who appear healthy are impacted. "The youths from our villages have become victims of social ostracism," says Parvati Manjhi, and cannot find spouses. "And a number of our girls have been abandoned by their husbands, when they failed to give birth," Now middle-aged, Parvati and her husband, Dhuwa Manjhi, who used to work for UCIL, are childless. Harrowing tales fill the region around the mines, and add irony to the area's name, Jharkhand, which in the local tribal language means "forest endowed with nature's bounties." If the lush land was the indigenous population's boon for centuries, its rich mineral reserves have become their bane. Six decades of industrialization has depleted the forest cover, degraded the environment, displaced tribal peoples—who along with Dalit ("untouchables") form an oppressed underclass—and devastated a way of life deeply interwoven with nature. Despite India's economic boom and proximity to one of the country's richest mineral reserves, the villages in Jharkhand are now among the poorest in the country, according to the Center For Science & Environment's (New Delhi) 2008 report "Rich Lands Poor People." Uranium Corporation of India Limited in Jharkhand UCIL's underground mines in Jadugoda, Bhatin, Turamdhih, Narwapahar, and its open cast mine at Banduhurang extract 1,000 tons per day (TPD) of uranium ore. Two underground mines in the pipeline at Baghjata and Mahuldih will boost that amount. The ore is processed at the Jadugoda and Turamdih mills with a combined capacity of 5,000 TDP. The company earned $64 million in 2007-08, and made a $3 million profit. The 20-year lease for UCIL's mines was up in 2007, and a new application is being processed. Under it, the company wants to add 6.37 hectares to tailing dam capacity and expand production, according to UCIL Chairman and Managing Director Ramendra Gupta. This move requires an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Management Plan (EMP) drawn up by the Central Institute of Mining & Fuel Research (CIMFR), along with a public hearing. Addressing the affected community at the May public hearing in Jadugoda, the company represented the local plans as "a marginal expansion." But the UCIL website promises "a quantum leap in UCIL's activities" that includes plans to "deepen the existing mines, expand its processing facilities," and "not only opening new mines, but also the development of the community around its operations." While the company has created local schools and provides jobs and social services, villagers who attended the hearing argued that these provisions do not compensate for the health effects and destruction of their way of life. "Why are we being made to pay such a heavy price, for so many decades"? Asks Hira Hansda, speaking of her three miscarriages and birth to five infants that quickly died. Her husband Sonaram worked at the tailing dam as a casual employee between 1984-87, and like many villagers, he links the deterioration in local health conditions to the arrival of the uranium mines. The last three surveys conducted in the area found increased radiation levels. Heavy Security at UCIL's Public Hearing Keeps Villagers Out The public hearing on UCIL's new application took place at the heavily fortified camp of the Central India Security Force (CISF) within the UCIL colony at Jadugoda. Conducted by the Jharkhand State Pollution Control Board, the proceedings were marked by restrictions on personal liberties under sections of a law applying to situations with the potential to cause civil unrest. Leaving little room for the public or protesters, the hall was packed with hundreds of UCIL workers and other company beneficiaries who held placards reading: "When compared to hunger, pollution is a small issue," and "Save UCIL." Those who had lost their lands and health to the mines were physically barred from the tent. Outside the proceedings, protesters shouted: "Do not destroy our land," "No uranium, no uranium waste, no weapons, care for the future." Many indigenous villagers waved the banner of the Jharkhandi Organization Against Radiation (JOAR), winner of the Germany-based Nuclear Free Future Award for its long crusade against the hazards of uranium mining in Jadugoda. The protesters denounced the hearing as "a farce" and demanded that it be immediately stopped. Villager and JOAR president, Ghanashyam Biruli, issued the demands: no new uranium mines, bring the existing mine under international safety guidelines, return unused tribal land, provide livelihood and rehabilitation to displaced people, clean up the contamination, commission an independent study of environmental contamination and health effects, and monitor water bodies to ensure that the radionuclides do not seep into the aquifer that is the lifeline of more than 100,000 people. The activists also argued that since the country can buy uranium on the international market, there is no compelling need to expand UCIL's capacity. The real compelling need, they asserted, was protecting health and the environment. The 2008 health survey by the Indian chapter of International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) provided clear evidence, finding that: * Couples living near the mines were "1.58 times more vulnerable to primary sterility" with 9.6 percent of couples in study villages unable to conceive after three years of marriage, compared with 6.27 percent in a reference (control) group. * Birth defects followed a similar pattern with 1.84 times higher incidence: "[B]abies from mothers, who lived near uranium mining operation area, suffered a significant increase in congenital deformities," according to the report. While 4.49 percent of mothers living in the study villages reported bearing children with congenital deformities, only 2.49 percent of mothers in reference villages fell under this category." The national rate for people with disabilities (including congenital deformities) is 3 percent, according to official government statistics. * Deformed babies near the mining operations are almost 6 times more likely to die, with 9.25 percent mothers in the study villages reporting congenital deformities as the cause of death of their children. In the reference village, mothers reported 1.70 percent of babies died of deformities. * Cancer deaths were also higher: 2.87 percent of households in study villages attributed the cause of death to be cancer, compared to 1.89 percent in the reference village. These factors contributed to a lowered life expectancy. In the study villages 68.33 percent of the population died before reaching the state's average life expectancy: 62 years old. UCIL Denies Contamination Despite such alarming reports, radiation data are not made public because they fall under the purview of the Atomic Energy Act of 1962. UCIL / DAE (Department of Atomic Energy) also cites security concerns for refusing to release data on health of the workers. But Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda, a 1999 award-winning film by Shri Prakash documented that, despite a law mandating regular monitoring, in the last five- to ten-year period few workers underwent blood and urine tests to assess the impact of radiation. Independent scientists have confirmed the danger. Professor Hiroaki Koide, from the Research Reactor Institute, Kyoto University, Japan, sampled soil and air in the surrounding villages and documented that "The circumference of tailing ponds is impacted with uranium radiation. The strength of the radiation is of 10 to 100 times high in comparison to places without contamination. ...There are places where uranium concentration is high in the road or the riverside, and it is thought that tailings are used for construction material," including on villagers' houses." Tailings are production waste material that, according to critics are unsafely stored, dumped, and used for landfills, roads and construction. UCIL Technical Director D Acharya denied that the company was responsible for radiological contamination. "UCIL's safety and pollution control measures are at par with the international standards, comparable at any point of time," he said. The company is dealing with naturally occurring materials, he noted, the very low grade ore extracted is a minimal environmental hazard, and the company is not enriching the ore in Jadugoda. But tacitly acknowledging the risks, UCIL head, Gupta, noted in the 2008 Annual Report that "External gamma radiation, Radon concentration, suspended particulate matters, airborne long lived Alpha activity and concentration of radio nuclides- uranium and Radium in surface and ground water, in soil and food items etc are monitored regularly." Although he presented no evidence, UCIL Technical Director Acharya said that allegations of health problems are canards spread by anti-uranium lobbies, and that the physical fitness of the employees can be gauged the UCIL football team's success in winning the DAE tournaments for the past five years. "From time to time we have also conducted structured health surveys and examinations, by independent sources," said Acharya. "One was done by the erstwhile Bihar Assembly, about ten years ago, but the findings are absolutely normal." (The area was part of Bihar at the time.) "The effects of radiation are being constantly monitored by independent watchdogs, and there are health physics experts who are always with us, for round-the clock-vigil of the situation. Hence, there is really no cause of concern," he added. That is not the experience of many villagers, who link serious health problems to the mines. Like many of the women in the surrounding areas, Hansda's pregnancies were a time of terror. "It fills within us fear and apprehensions of the possible ordeal that may be in store. Who knows what would be the fate of the baby," she said. |
By Thomas Biesheuvel
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- ArcelorMittal, the world's biggest steelmaker, dropped the most in four months in Amsterdam trading after third-quarter profit missed analyst estimates as demand remained depressed in Europe.
Operating income plus depreciation, impairment expenses and exceptional items was $1.59 billion, Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal said today in a statement. That missed the $1.78 billion median of 15 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The company forecast fourth-quarter operating income at $2 billion to $2.4 billion. The stock fell as much as 6.4 percent.
"We see some more downside to our 2009 forecasts," said Rochus Brauneiser, an analyst at Kepler Equities in Frankfurt who has a "buy" recommendation on the shares.
Steelmakers around the world have cut production and jobs in the past year after usage tumbled. Demand in Europe, which is ArcelorMittal's biggest market, dropped 32 percent in the third quarter compared with a year earlier and the market is "stuck in slow motion," industry group Eurofer said last week.
The shares fell 50.5 cents, or 2.1 percent, to 23.995 euros in Amsterdam trading at 9:53 a.m. in Amsterdam. Earlier they traded at 22.94 euros, the biggest intraday decline since June 22. The stock has increased 41 percent this year, valuing the company at 37.4 billion euros ($55.4 billion).
Other steelmakers have suffered from the collapse in demand. U.S. Steel Corp., the largest U.S. producer, yesterday posted its third consecutive loss. Tata Steel Ltd., India's largest steelmaker, missed analyst estimates after saying yesterday second-quarter profit slumped 50 percent.
Output Curtailments
ArcelorMittal cut output as much as 50 percent earlier in 2009, fired workers, and sold shares and bonds to refinance borrowings. Fourth-quarter steel capacity utilization will be about 70 percent, which compares with 61 percent in the third quarter and 50 percent in the second, Chief Financial Officer Aditya Mittal told reporters on a conference call.
"We have seen the first signs of recovery in the third quarter," Chief Executive Officer Lakshmi Mittal said in the statement. "We should continue to see further gradual improvement through 2010, although the operating environment remains challenging."
The plunge in global steel demand has ended and usage will grow by 9.2 percent next year as automakers and builders recover, the World Steel Association said earlier this month. ArcelorMittal said in July it would restart blast furnaces in Belgium, France, and Spain as customers rebuilt inventories.
Price Gains
The company posted third-quarter net income of $903, or 60 cents a share, after a $899 million tax gain. That compares with $3.82 billion, or $2.78, a year earlier.
The cost of hot-rolled coil, a benchmark steel product used in cars and construction, gained 16 percent in the third quarter, the steepest increase in 15 months, according to data compiled by Metal Bulletin. Steel coil, which currently fetches 415 euros a metric ton, has dropped 38 percent from a year earlier after the global economy contracted.
The company amended terms on $31 billion of facilities in July allowing net debt to rise to 4 1/2 times its Ebitda, from a limit of 3 1/2 previously.NEW DELHI—Steel companies have pledged billions of dollars to expand in India, but they are struggling to secure the land they need in two mineral-rich states because of fierce opposition from local tribes and slow-moving governments.
The standoffs in the northeastern states of Orissa and Jharkhand have hit two of the world's top five steel producers, ArcelorMittal and Posco, and are threatening to stall a key driver of India's industrial activity in the years ahead. According to the steel ministry, projects worth $82 billion are being held up because of delays related to land acquisition and environmental clearances.
Tribes in India have opposed steelmakers acquiring land for new projects. A protest last year against a planned ArcelorMittal plant in Jharkhand.
"India will face severe problems in expanding its steel-production capacity if the land-acquisition problem isn't dealt with soon," said N. K. Patnaik, executive director (Orissa), Uttam Galva Steels Ltd., an Indian steelmaker.
Companies bet that India's demand for steel will grow more than 10% a year in the next decade, led by India's gradual emergence as an auto-making hub. State and private spending on power plants, bridges, ports and a slew of low-cost housing projects are also expected to keep steel demand rising.
Land acquisition for new plants has been a problem for years as state governments and manufacturers seek to move farmers and others who live off the land to make way for industrial expansion.
About 66% of India's 275 million tons of new steel capacity in the next decade is expected to come in Orissa and Jharkhand, according to government data, because of the abundance of iron ore, coal and water, which are essential for setting up a steel plant. Few other states offer such possibilities, so shifting elsewhere is extremely difficult.
But nowhere has the land acquisition sparked as much anger and protest as in the two impoverished states, where a large portion of the population consists of tribal groups. These groups, often with the backing of activists and left-wing political organizations, have succeeded in halting land acquisition for several mining and industrial projects.
The issue attracted renewed focus recently after Lakshmi Mittal, chief executive of the world's largest steel producer, ArcelorMittal, vented his frustration over progress on new, or greenfield, projects earlier this month.
"The company continues to work on its two greenfield projects in Jharkhand and Orissa. However, in the event that land acquisition continues to prove difficult, we will start to search for alternate sites in India for our greenfield projects," Mr. Mittal said in a statement.
South Korea's Posco signed a deal with the Orissa government in June 2005 to set up a 12-million-ton-a-year steel plant but has yet to begin construction. "We are willing to offer both financial compensation and employment in our project," said Posco's general manager in India, S. K. Mohapatra. The company's projection is that plant construction could be completed by 2014.
Dayamani Barla, a prominent tribal activist in Jharkhand, says tribal identity is linked to land, forest and water, and once tribal people are displaced, their cultural and social identity would be destroyed. "Tribals can't live without the forest or without farming," she said. "Our battle is for saving our environment, forests, culture and social values."
Ms. Barla is the founder of the protest movement, Adivasi Moolvasi Astitva Raksha Manch (Indigenous Peoples Survival Forum), which has led protests against ArcelorMittal's proposed steel plant in the state of Jharkhand.
"Instead of destroying our forests, polluting rivers and destroying homes, the government should evolve policy to give only wastelands to industrial projects, so no conflict rises," she added.
Miners have been targeted too. The most vocal protest has been by Dongria Kondh, a tribal group in Orissa, protesting against the bauxite mines of Vedanta Resources in the Niyamgiri Hills of the state. In Jaduguda in Jharkhand, protests also have erupted over uranium mining.
In the face of angry protests, state governments consider it politically risky to push through projects. Many of the tribal groups live in forests, which are state property, but since they have lived there for centuries, governments don't want to antagonize them by forced eviction.
In September 2008, three land surveyors of Bhushan Power and Steel Ltd. were beaten up and their faces smeared with cow dung by villagers for conducting a land survey in Jharkhand for the company's proposed steel and power projects. Last year, hundreds of tribal members assembled near the proposed site of an ArcelorMittal steel plant chanting slogans such as "Go back Mittal."
"The tribal groups are not going to give up their land for any industrial project, be it Mittal or anyone else," said Dilip Minz, an activist with the Jharkhand Mines Area Coordination Committee. "Forced eviction of tribal population for industrial projects causes cultural, social and political damage to tribal populations that are very hard to repair."
Many locals are suspicious after past projects failed to adequately compensate landholders for their eviction, making it difficult for companies now to persuade them to relinquish land even with offers of compensation and employment. "The people in the state are upset about being underpaid in past industrial projects," said N.N. Sinha, Jharkhand's industries secretary.
While several industrial projects do offer jobs to one member of a tribal family, widespread illiteracy and lack of skills, other than farming, among tribal groups mean a small portion of them get jobs in factories. Most factory jobs are filled by nontribals living in small towns or larger villages, where education and skills training is more available.
Prafulla Samantara, secretary of the Lok Shakti Abhijan (Peoples Power Movement), which is protesting against steel projects being set up in Orissa, said, "People oppose land acquisition because they have seen what happens when people give up lands. They are starving and living on the street."
He said that tribals don't stand any chance of getting jobs in the new steel or other industrial projects being set up in the state. "How can the people benefit from industrialization, when they can't even read A,B,C,D?" he said.
Local governments also now get involved to vet terms, creating multiple layers of bureaucracy. "Since there were complaints of earlier deals undervaluing land, all matters related to land acquisition have to be approved by the district administration," said Tuhin K Mukherjee, executive director of JSW Steel Ltd., one of the India's largest steel companies. "Matters...often move back and forth in as many as 60 to 70 layers of bureaucracy."
A. M. R. Dalwai, secretary of Orissa's department of steel and mines, adding that apart from the challenge of persuading local landowners, environmental clearance for mega steel projects also takes time. He said private companies needed to step up efforts to persuade local landowners to give up their land for industrial projects.
Some projects are moving forward. Bhushan Steel, a midsize Indian company, is ready to begin commercial production of its five million tons a year plant in Orissa over the next few months, after acquiring land in Orissa in 2005.
Write to Prasenjit Bhattacharya at prasenjit.bhattacharya@dowjones.com and Sahil Mahtani at sahil.mahtani@dowjones.com
PUBLIC HEARING WITHOUT THE PUBLIC
UCIL'S 2009 EXPANSION PLANS
The much-awaited public hearing by the Uranium Corporation of India Ltd (UCIL) is over. There were lots of public and there were also lots of policemen and members of different security forces. For every one person not in uniform, there was one person from the forces in uniform, some wielding batons, others with rifles and some in riot gear. UCIL has about 2000 permanent workers and nearly 1000 people who are either on casual or temporary employment. So the total number of beneficiaries is about 3000, if you add the other members in the families of the beneficiaries, then UCIL family has more than 15,000 people. Though most of the workers are exposed to dangerous levels of radiation, most of them consider themselves fortunate and lucky. That is quite expected in a country where the wage rates/returns in farming is very low and there is not any other job opportunity.
Yesterday 200 villagers of Matigoda entered the UCIL premises and started ploughing the land. Even though the land was acquired long back, the villagers were paying the tax. They were not paid any compensation. Nobody got a job either. The situation became tense. They were invited for a negotiation after few hours. They were taken to the local police station. The meeting lasted for a few hours and ended with some promises, but no document was signed.
The public hearing was held in the private land of UCIL, near the camp of the Central Industrial Security Forces. Early morning, hundreds of UCIL workers and other beneficiaries had occupied the chairs kept in the hall for the public hearing. The real public, who have lost their lands for the mines and whose health has been damaged due to radiation, had no place in the entire process.
The hearing was held to get the peoples' consent for a capacity addition of 20% (from current 2020 tpd to 2500 tpd or uranium ore to be milled) and for another tailing pond to house the radioactive mill tailing. The total tailing that will be let off in the pond will be about 850,000 tons per year. About 15 acres of forest land has also been sought for these. UCIL got all what they sought.
UCIL sponsored group carrying different banners supporting UCIL and its activities came and entered in the venue and placed their banners. Some of these banners were carried by small children, who did not understand the meaning of what was written on them. One banner carried by the supporters read: "when compared with hunger, pollution is a small issue. Save UCIL".
When JOAR and other groups carrying their banner trying to enter the venue, UCIL supporters man-handled, few women activist were beaten up and Pargana Charan Murmu was pushed away. He and some others fell down. Police and other security forces were mute spectators to this denial of a place to sit and air their grievances. Finally, the company supporters and the forces pushed the villagers out of the hall.
No one was allowed to enter the hall and allow to speck, in this situation JOAR and other organization decided to boycott the public hearing. We also joined them with shouting slogan – "public hearing is farce"- "stop false public hearing"-" land water and forest is ours" we came out and sat for a Dharna.
UCIL succeeded in convincing the workers that those who were critical of the project were working towards closing down the mining and milling activities in Jadugoda. The slogans shouted by the workers and other beneficiaries and the placards they were carrying all said about saving UCIL. Incidentally, the critics position that they are demanding safe operations for workers, people in the neighborhood and the ecop-system was unheard.
Around 11 AM, the General Manager of UCIL read out a document listing the details of the project. The GM appeared like reading from a science text book. There were technical terms like Becquerel, in his speech. A journalist who was covering the event asked one of us: what does a Becquerel mean? The presentation by the general manger lasted for about 30 minutes. After this, the organizers announced the names of the speakers from the 'public'. Everybody was unanimous on one issue – UCIL provides jobs, food, clothing and houses. All talks about radiation is anti-national propaganda. UCIL has to be protected at any cost. There is no need to hear any viewpoint which is against the interests of the company.
JOAR and other organizations fighting on environmental issues related to radiation, livelihood issues related to loss of land due to mines and contamination of farmlands and water bodies decided to boycott the drama called public hearing, as there was no possibility of presenting the view of the affected people. Ghanashyam Biruli, Dumka Murmu and Charan Murmu of JOAR briefed the press. Among their demands are (a) no new uranium mine (b) bring the existing mine under the international safety guide lines (c) return of tribal land acquired earlier, but not utilized for mining (d) provide livelihood and rehabilitation to the displace people.(f) clean up of the contamination (g) an independent study about the environmental contamination and health effects among the people (h) continuous monitoring of the water bodies to ensure that the radionuclides do not seep into the aquifer, the life line of more than 100,000 people. The activists also reiterated their position that there is no compelling need to expand the capacity of UCIL as the country can now buy uranium from international market.
Ghanshyam Biruli, President JOAR
Dumka Murmu, Secretary JOAR
Charan Murmu, Pargana
VT Padmanabhan, Genetic Epidemiologist, Bangalore
Dr Meher Engineer, Physicist, Ex Director, Bose Institute, Calcutta
Pradip Dutta, Writer and People Science Activist, Calcutta
Shriprakash, Film maker, Ranchi
Note- Please find attachments of comment on the EIA/EMP reports and some pic of hearing
