Birbhum, India – Mainomoti Soren, a 42-year-old farmer from the village of Dewanganj, eastern India, is one of at least 100 women who clashed with supporters of a political protest in her village over an attempt by the government to buy land. her for coal mining buried there.
When police beat protesters with sticks last December, Soren, who was two months pregnant at the time, felt blood run down her leg and she fainted. The villagers rode their motorbikes to take her to the hospital, but she lost the baby.
Soren said: ‘I kept begging about my pregnancy, but they didn’t listen and beat me with sticks.
Soren is one of hundreds of Indigenous women who have spearheaded a fierce battle since September against the West Bengal government’s attempt to set up a coal mine in the supposedly large Birbhum district. second in the world. coal reserves are estimated at 2.102 million tons.
She is trying to hold onto the 4-acre (1.6 ha) plot of land she owns in Birbhum, about 200 kilometers (125 mi) from the state capital Kolkata, where she grows rice and vegetables. She keeps the things she needs to feed her entire family of four, including her husband and two children, and sells the rest, earning an average of about 5,000 rupees ($66) a month. With enough income, her husband works as a daily wage worker on another farm.
“We find it difficult to make a living,” says Soren, adding, “Losing our land will push us further into poverty.”
Villagers complained that no action had been taken against the errant policemen involved in the assault of the women protesters. Suhagini Soren, another villager who joined the protest, told Al Jazeera: “We were beaten when there were no female policemen. “They assaulted us very badly but have yet to take action,” she said, with only four stitches on her hand as a result of the altercation.
However, senior police officers have denied any police brutality. “There was a small scuffle between the two groups while the protest was taking place in the village. The police intervened and pacified both sides. But there are no reports of police brutality,” Nagendra Nath Tripathi, Birbhum police chief, told Al Jazeera. Police are investigating claims of atrocities, he added.
Controversial coal block
The proposed coal project spans 18 villages and includes 4,314 households and approximately 21,000 people in the Deocha-Panchami-Dewanganj-Hausingha blocks of Birbhum and is commonly referred to as the Deocha-Panchami coal mining project. Local people mainly farm on their own or other people’s land and also work for daily wages at quarries and crushers in the area.
In September 2018, the federal government allocated the block of coal to the government of West Bengal. A year later, the state government handed over the land to the West Bengal Power Development Company Limited (WBPDCL) for coal mining and power generation. The government plans to invest 350 million rupees ($4.6 million) for power generation.
The government has set aside approximately 3,370 acres (1,364 ha) of land for the coal mine, of which 2,392 acres (968 ha) are owned by local families, for acquisition purposes.
But acquiring land in this country, specifically in West Bengal, is a difficult problem. The current All India Trinamool Congress Government, led by Minister Mamata Banerjee, came to power in 2011 supported the people’s movement against the state government’s attempt at that time to acquire their land and lease it to the Tata Corporation to set up a car factory.
The coal mining move comes at a time when India has pledged to increase its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030, up from 150GW now, and net zero emissions by 2070.
Nivit Kumar Yadav, program director, Center for Science and Environment (CSE), a consulting organization based in New Delhi, said: “The government has promised zero net emissions by 2070 but they silent in reducing dependence on coal.
Currently, India gets about 51.7% of its power from coal-fired power plant uses about 700 million tons of coal per year.
In addition, coal is also widely used in various industries such as iron and steel, cement, brick, fertilizer and aluminum.
“There is no roadmap for decarbonisation. First, a proper plan needs to be made to find ways to reduce their emissions,” added Yadav.
Despite the large scale of the project, WBDPCL is still unclear how the mined coal will be used and whether it will be used to power local power plants or be exported. “The government has yet to prepare a mining plan based on the availability of natural resources. No decision has been made on its use yet,” said Amalesh Kumar, WBPDCL (mining) advisor, declining to provide any further details about it.
Environmental activists warn the project could also lead to an increase in air pollution in the area, an already serious problem in the region. “Locals are facing severe air pollution and health hazards as rock crushers and quarries have reduced groundwater by about 500 feet, resulting in a crisis. water crisis during the harsh summer. Kunal Deb, an environmental activist based in Kolkata, said.
Government compensation
In November, Minister Banerjee announced a package of 100 million rupees ($1.3 million) for those who would be displaced by mining. Under that plan, the government is providing 2 million rupees ($26,234) per acre, as well as the employment of a junior officer in the police for each family selling their land. In addition, it will also relocate the family to a new home and compensate for the house they have to vacate.
Before that, in February, it issued job offers and made selections for the positions of a policeman and a government secretary.
But villagers say such offers do not attract them. “The government is offering a job to one household member but what about the others? And steady work won’t earn a monthly salary in excess of 15,000 rupees to 20,000 rupees ($200-$265), a meager amount. Meeru Tudu, 60, a housewife from Haftingha village, said. Her family of 12 lives on their 5 acres (2 hectares) to grow rice and vegetables year-round, she said.
“We will not part with this land even if it costs us our lives,” she said.
While about 500 people have sold their land to the government so far, villagers say they are mostly people who have stopped farming. Some land sellers complain that the government has deceived them to secure more jobs for family members.
For example, 55-year-old Lakhiram Murmu, one of the people who agreed to sell their land, told Al Jazeera that government officials assured him that they would find work for all three of his sons and not only one person as given in the offer. But they haven’t delivered on that promise and have only offered one job so far. “We were cheated,” said Murmu, who signed a contract for his land but refused to accept money for it.
However, government officials have denied the allegations. Ashim Pal, additional judge for Birbhum district, said “everything was explained to the villagers before signing the document”.
