The effects of Mining and Perils to the Natural Habitats in India- Legal and Illegal
Mitigate the risk of illegal Mining — Ostrum’s design Principle aids in utilizing the Common Pool Resource (CPR).
Mining is money to the capitalist’s sense whereas the debt paid due to the bad mining practices are catastrophic irrespective of region. In India mining scams, illegal mining have been highly speculated for years together. Regions like Odisha, Goa, Madhya, Aravalli and Pradesh are the living examples of the havoc they have created on the natural habitats.
Perils of mining on natural habitats
Globalization has become a fashionable concept these days, it is promoting increasingly homogenized global modern capitalist culture. The world is facing contradictions in the years following globalization. On the one hand, the rise of Neo-liberal philosophy is making the state a receding player in the process of development and welfare. On the other hand, the rising consciousness for inclusion and protection of human rights has reinforced the global commitment to ensure opportunities to all by increasing access, equality and quality. Globalization has even lead to the environmental degradation by some multi-national corporations out throwing the government & environmental regulations to the wind & follow illegal ways to carry out their operations to maximize the profits in the shortest possible ways and times.
The environmental issues of bauxite mining include, air, water and soil pollution due to bauxite dust, leaching of bauxite into water sources resulting in reduced soil fertility as well as affecting agricultural food products and aquatic life. Bauxite occupational exposure affects the health of miners and has negative consequences on the health of surrounding communities, such as increased respiratory symptoms, contamination of drinking water, other potential health risks from ingestion of bauxite and heavy metals, including noise-induced hearing loss and mental stress.
Matters of the governance: Legal & Illegal
Currently, the legality of mining is determined by the central and state governments in India. The government policy on mine leasing was established in 1957, with the Mineral Concession Rules coming in 1960. These rules have been amended up to January 2000. Now that more than 60 years have passed since these rules were framed, when it comes to governance they have gathered numerous deficiencies, having implications on land use. Firstly, one finds a strong link between failure to good management strategy and the rate of mineral exploitation in India. The public sector mining companies, which are state monopolies on major minerals such as coal and fuels are running barely in a state survival most of the time; trying to make up for their inefficiencies, not by improving production, technical and managerial efficiencies of existing mines, but by opening new mines or increasing their output rates. This is even worse, as apart from the unjustifiable rates of extraction there is a load of inefficiency transferred to the economy. Second, while granting mine leases there is no public consultative procedure in place. The current lease procedure for all minerals, starts from an “application for reconnaissance permit” stage, going up to licensing and, finally, granting the lease period for mining. But in this decision process the ‘man’ around the mineral is forgotten. There is no dearth of different laws in India to safeguard and preserve such inherited natural resources and provide protection to human and animal habitats. Some of the relevant ones are: The Amended Forest (Conservation) Act of 1988, the Wildlife (Protection) Amendment Act of 2006 and the Biodiversity Act of 2002. The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Rights Act of 2006 and the Wildlife Act strictly make it necessary for the ‘state’ to have the approval of Gram Sabha to lease out the forest lands to Miners. At all these stages, the fundamental link between man and land (including forest and water bodies) are ignored.
Secondly there is lack of a competitive bidding system in mine lease policy. This could remove unscrupulous and inefficient miners from the race. However, the proposed 2010 Bill provides some changes to bring such a competitive nature of auctions and biddings. Thirdly, something must be said about the royalty rates. If one examines the status of royalty rates, the revenue from all mineral royalty hover around a meager share of around 3–4 % of Total Revenue from all sources. Fifth is the major on-going problem of illegal mining which forms the crux of this discussion. This trend began ever since the governments started de-reserving major mining areas reserved for the public sectors, to private parties.
According to the union Ministry of Mines, between 2006 and 2009 as many 1,41,819 cases of illegal mining of major and minor minerals have been reported. The loss to the nation is just anybody’s guess. Causes for illegal mining can be traced to globalization process and deficiencies in export and port regulations. These illegal mining is contributable & profitable only to the multi-national corporation involved in such acts. This tells the sad story of a “rich land but poor people”, around the mining areas.
Mitigate the risk of illegal mining
Mitigation of illegal mining is of prime necessity to uphold the enforcement issued by the authorized authorities whereas due to various reasons attributed to making profits to the various multi-national corporations has given rise to the illegal mining. To mitigate, Ostrom’s design principle aids in envisioning the path towards the more formal & clear ways of utilizing the Common Pool Resource (CPR).
Individuals or households who have rights to withdraw resource units from the CPR must be clearly defined, as must the boundaries of the CPR itself. Appropriation rules restricting time, place, technology, and/or quantity of resource units are related to local conditions and to provision rules requiring labor, materials, and/or money.
Most individuals affected by operational rules can participate in modifying operational rules. Depending on the seriousness and context of the offense, participants who violate the operational rules face graduated sanctions.
A good and efficient (low cost) mechanism for conflict resolution to be formulated for any conflicts raise between outsiders and appropriators.The government authorities/bodies should allow the groups to formulate the internal rules of conduct to self-organize. Appropriation, provision, monitoring, enforcement, conflict resolution, and government activities are organized in multiple layers of nested enterprises.
Sharing of the world resources (commons) in future: A wider lens of perception
Envisioning a new economic paradigm for managing the earth’s shared resources is undergoing a major revival in the 21st century. Commons, a much-discussed topic amongst the progressive thinkers as a ‘third sector’ in society that transcends both the market and state, an alternate political philosophy that challenges the very basic ideology of ‘Laissez-faire economy.
Throughout the human history in almost every culture and world region, the commons have been brought to its knees through individual or group selfishness, violent seizures, legitimated thefts, and above all through the pursuit of material gain and commercial profit.
A major challenge in sharing the world resources lay in front as the values of profit and commerce are infiltrated in every aspect of the society. Not only the commons being depleted but it is also slowly being eliminated altogether by the lobbyist’s nature of the multi-national corporation leaving behind nothing to extract profit from the last vestiges of our planet’s natural wealth. Many commons advocate today unfortunately overlook the essential premise that humanity is the greatest commons of all, with many implications of how the world resources can be sustained and safeguarded for the future population.
A noted scholar like Elinor Ostrom and many others today, whose collected research & scholastic theoretical insights into the policy and practice of sharing the common resources serves as the guidlines. Below are inward psychological factors which are responsible for the inefficient usage of the world resource.
· Greed, which acts as a majoritarian in the depletion of the resources.
· Lack of education in holistic way, with the result that ordinary people are ignorant about the need and co-operate to protect the shared world resources.
· A lack of myopic view in the formulation of a better world to the upcoming generation.
· Understanding & utilization of the globalization in a negative & commercial manner.
