Rashmi Rekha Das
Ecological conservation is integral to sustainable development and the proper management of natural resources, including wildlife, water, air, and earth deposits. Environmentalists are a vigilant, hardworking and enthusiastic set of people who passionately lobby for the implementation of conservation measures aimed at the overall protection of the environment and natural habitats. They work for a cause of great importance to sustainable human development and welfare. On the eve of World Environment Day, June 5, Sunday POST highlights the achievements of green vigilantes in the state who have raised the banner of ecological conservation – a prerequisite for long-term economic development
People’s power
Meet the 67-year-old activist and lawyer, Prafulla Samantara, who has campaigned for 12 years to protect the Dongria Kondh community from losing their homes in the Niyamgiri Hills due to the threat of rampant mining. He protected the Niyamgiri hills from a massive, open-pit aluminium ore mine to be constructed by Vedanta Resources. He was among the four Indians who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, popularly called the ‘Green Nobel’. The Prize honours the achievements and leadership of grassroots environmental activists for their sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance natural environment.
Apart from shutting down the massive mining project, the victory that Samantara achieved has created a precedent authorising local village councils throughout India to decide on mining activities in their regions, giving these councils control over lands and lives. Samantara has been a part of many leading peoples’ movements, one of which was the Anti-POSCO Movement (POSCO Pratirodh Sangharsh Samiti).
Asked how he felt after receiving the Green Nobel, Samantara replied: “I am committed to fighting against corporate loot and state repression, come what may. And I want to protect the people and nature. My inner voice tells me to protect Mother Earth and I will continue to do so, without any compromise. This award is an international recognition of the people’s movement against the capture of natural resources and the spontaneous democratic resistance to undemocratic imposition of rules destructive to nature. Today the Dongaria tribe’s right to habitat has been ensured and the Supreme Court’s judgement on gram sabhas, being entrusted with the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, has restored the balance. There is an encouragement to campaign for community rights over natural resources in the country and to prevent greedy miners to destroy biodiversity.”
Commenting on the environmental challenges facing Orissa today, Samantara said: “Due to the construction of thermal power plants and huge dams on rivers many ecological issues have naturally erupted that include displacement of people, degradation of forests and the threat to rivers. Our organisation, Lokshakti Abhiyan, has decided to take up these issues along with the National Alliance of People’s Movements. We will campaign to liberate agricultural practices in India from chemical farming. I would like to appeal to every citizen concerned about the environment to try to think up an integrated national policy on the beneficial use of natural resources as well as the judicious use of non-renewable resources.”
Focusing on the scenario in Orissa, the environmental activist said: “There should be a line of control to protect, preserve and conserve resources for the future generation. Rampant mining and burning of fossil fuels at thermal power plants need to stop. Renewable energy should be a priority and the corporate sector must be compelled to produce solar energy for use. The state government has decided to set up a private port at Astaranga, which is not at all required. Once it is set up, it will destroy the coastal areas. That apart, bauxite mining is not required in the state as it feeds the people of Orissa and Andhra Pradesh. It is essential to maintain a green cover and forests that are sources of livelihood for thousands of people. Mining will destroy the ecosystem in the name of providing employment to a handful of local youths, and causing enormous pollution.”
Ahead of World Environment Day Samantara said it was essential to keep in mind that rivers are the lifeline of Orissa. The state government should take steps to de-pollute and conserve rivers and water bodies and river water should not be allowed for industrial purposes. Besides, youths have a special role in environmental protection. Future generations will be affected by today’s actions and with increasing ecological degradation will follow depletion of resources, loss of biodiversity, and long-living radioactive waste. Concern for the ecology is a spontaneous and pressing concern.”
Livelihood & women’s rights
Samantara is one in a galaxy of eco crusaders from Orissa. Another dazzling example is Rina Routray, a botanist by profession and a Ford Foundation research scholar at the Central Rice Research Institute in Cuttack. Frequent visits to rural areas during her research stint instilled in her a desire to come to the aid of socially marginalised and helpless women who would come to her for help. After spending 10 years in the academia, Routray finally decided to quit her full-time, high-paying research job in 2001 and launch initiatives for the social welfare of rural woman.
After quitting her job, she initially began channeling her efforts through the Women’s Organisation for Socio-Cultural Awareness (WOSCA), a non-profit organisation working for women’s development and controlled by women, of which she served as the president. In the initial years she helped rural woman belonging to SHG groups to find work in watershed and biodiversity projects in Ghatgoan, Jhumpura and Keonjhar Sadar villages where the women developed household kitchens in all households in over 15 villages with the help of rainwater harvesting techniques.
With the help of NABARD under the WADI project, Routray led local women to create more than 1000 acres of mango orchards and herbal medicinal plantations. She worked as a regional volunteer with the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) on its Green Rating Network projects, where she had to conduct pollution assessment studies on factories and power plants along Orissa’s industrial belt.
Subsequently Routray created the ‘Sabuja Bahini’, a brigade of more than 500 rural women from Dhinkia panchayat who volunteered to guard the green forest belt incubated by the Indian Oil Corporation Limited in the region on a honorary basis. She also initiated the Paradip-Jagatsinghpur Women’s Worker Union in 2012, which brought more than 5000 rural women from the unorganised sector under its umbrella. The union has been working to provide unorganised workers their basic rights by registering them and distributing labour cards. Workers’ participation in workshops on industrial regulations and environmental protocols are essential.
Five years of working to solve the problems of rural women labourers helped Routray understand the inherent social constructs that obstruct women’s emancipation. This realisation made her take up the issue of women’s empowerment at the grassroots.
Asked about her observations ahead of World Environment Day, Routray said: “The problem is we talk about the consequences of climate change in the future tense. We speak of it as something that will happen in the next century or the next generation. But with water scarcity at the doorstep and air pollution touching new levels in metro cities, people need to understand that our generation will have to face the brunt of climate change if we don’t work to protect the environment. On Environment Day, let’s pledge to take up the work to preserve the planet. Most of us are aware of what needs to be done to create a clean and green environment. Let’s not leave the execution of the task to our grandchildren.”
‘Gachha sir’
Living examples teach better than textbooks and acts of exemplary dedication and commitment are truly inspiring. Meet Antaryami Sahu, a septuagenarian who is never tired of planting trees. A true worshipper of Nature, Sahu is an environmentalist in the core sense – for him nature is god and god is nature. Wherever he spots a barren patch, he takes out seeds from his bag and plants them there. Be it any day of the week, Sahu, who is fondly called ‘Gachha sir’ in the locality, plants trees all around the town.
“Nature has bestowed her choicest blessings on this form of life. We have a duty towards nature. Protect nature; protect everything created by God for the posterity,” exhorted the retired schoolteacher.
“Prakruti maa ku kichi deba,” he said in Oriya, which is loosely translated as ‘We should give something back to nature in return for the favours we take.’
Planting trees has been the sole purpose of Sahu’s existence. It all started when he was a Class VI student in 1962. He knew that there were no big trees in his village under which domestic animals could take shelter. He planted a banyan tree which is today a gigantic one affording shade and shelter to both animals and human beings providing a pleasant shade throughout the year. His life mission is to convert wastelands into extensive patches of greenery.
Sahu has planted a staggering 30,000 trees so far and has become an inspiration for villagers as well as his students. According to the septuagenarian, there is a growing need to save the green cover as forests are depleting fast due to rapid industrialisation and heedless encroachment. “When humans destroy the wilderness and forests to build homes, factories, shopping malls, amusement parks, garbage dumps, stores and restaurants, even botanical parks, they don’t spare a thought for the animals that once lived there. This way, we contribute to the perennial displacement of animals from their natural habitats thereby inflicting great misery upon them. The need of the hour is to conserve forests as well as animals,” he said.
Commenting on the significance of World Environment Day, Sahu said: “Every year the district administration holds a meeting to mark the occasion. Although it executes the decisions taken at the meeting in and around the township areas, the rural pockets are neglected. Besides, the people are not concerned about the safety of wild animals. Generating awareness is of the essence.”
Preserving the planet
Meet Mamata Mohanty, a doctor by profession, who makes it a point to plant neem and woodapple trees wherever she holds health camps. So far, the doctor has planted around 1 lakh trees. She also plants trees at schools and colleges across the state. Asked what was the reason behind planting woodapple and neem trees in particular, she said: “Rising carbon dioxide emissions is a big challenge. It is prompting action to reverse global warming. But little or no attention is being paid to the long-term fall in oxygen concentrations and its knock-on effects. Gone are the days when the planet’s forest cover was at least twice what it is today, which means that forests are now emitting only half the amount of oxygen. Desertification and deforestation are rapidly accelerating this long-term loss of oxygen sources.” Felicitated with the BMC Bandhu Nagar award, Mohanty has been planting trees since 1992. Her message is to build a clean and green environment.
