The other day I ran across a troubling report about people who think it is acceptable to use the ocean as a giant garbage dump. Here is an excerpt: "If you see this amazing floating pile of plastic in the Pacific Ocean, its called 'The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.' It features three million tons of plastic debris floating in an area larger than Texas. An eye-popping 46000 thousand pieces of plastic float on every square mile of ocean." Other sources estimate the amount of garbage is even bigger. Plastic is especially bad because it does not dissolve.
During our sojourn on earth, we have been charged, like Adam, with taking care of the earth and its creatures that God has given us. Genesis 2:15 says, "The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it." God delights in what He has made and this extends to the sea and all that live in it (Genesis 1: 10, 20-21).
This world should remind us of the greatness of our Creator and serve as a springboard of praise to Him. Indifferently using it as a garbage dump mars its beauty and threatens the creatures that live here. Showing respect and caring for the land, the ocean, and the air is our duty as believers in Christ.
How James Cameron’s Avatar relates to the exploitation of Indigenous People of the world and India
By Rohini Hensman
With forced expulsion and violence on their homeland, persecuted outsider-advocates, and commercial mining interest driving it all, James Cameron’s Avatar has striking parallels to events on the ground in India.
The plot of Avatar is relatively simple. In the year 2154, a colony of humans has been set up by RDA corporation on Pandora, an exotic planet inhospitable to humans but rich in a rare and incredibly valuable mineral, ironically named unobtanium. RDA is keen on exploiting this natural resource but the indigenous inhabitants, the Na’vi, are an obstacle to this goal, since the unobtanium lies beneath the forest they inhabit, with the biggest deposit beneath their ancestral Hometree. In a science fiction flourish, the humans interact with the natives through the Avatar programme, which blends the DNA of individual human beings with that of the Na’vi to create Na’vi avatars which can be controlled by the mind of the human. Through this, they can establish contact with the Na’vi, find out about them and their habitat, and try to persuade them to cooperate with the company. But should they fail, the military wing is poised to remove them by force. Our heroes, including Jake, a paraplegic ex-marine, who adopts his deceased twin brother’s avatar (which represents a sizable investment by the corporation) connect with the natives and learn to appreciate their culture. When the powers-that-be get impatient and give Jake and his colleagues an hour to convince the Na’vi to vacate their habitat, they rebel against their paymasters in an attempt to protect the Na’vi from ecological ruin and genocide.
The contemporary relevance of this film derives from the fact that, as the recent UN Report on the State of the World’s Indigenous Peoples (United Nations 2010) reminds us, there are still 370 million indigenous people in the world. Many are still being subjected to displacement and dispossession, and suffer physical abuse, imprisonment, torture and even death if they try to assert their rights. Nowhere is this more true than in India’s forest belt, where the Adivasis are being displaced from their traditional habitats by the pursuit of ‘development’, of late driven mainly by commercial interests including mining. As an official report notes, ‘As tribal areas are also rich in mineral resources, the mining projects proposed such as in Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh threaten the very existence of tribal people’ (Government of India 2008).
Indeed, the heart-breaking moment in Avatar when the ancestral Hometree of the Na’vi is destroyed, and many are killed while the rest are displaced, could well be a metaphor for what is happening in the state of Chhattisgarh in Central India, where the security forces of a fascist state government, together with a state-sponsored, largely tribal militia (Salwa Judum), have driven tens of thousands of Adivasis out of their villages and destroyed them. In the process, many have been injured, tortured, raped and killed. One non-tribal activist fighting against these injustices, renowned Dr Binayak Sen, was arrested and kept behind bars for over two years on false charges; another, Himanshu Kumar, had his Gandhian ashram destroyed, and has suffered continuous harassment. Journalists and human rights activists trying to investigate and report on the situation have been assaulted physically and kept out. Inordinate effort was needed to get Sodhi Sambho, a young Adivasi woman who was witness to a massacre, the medical treatment she needed for her bullet-shattered leg; yet even in hospital she remained a virtual captive of the state police, effectively cut off from journalists and even from her lawyer in the case pertaining to the massacre. Three other witnesses were detained by the police, who are the alleged perpetrators: the very opposite of a witness-protection programme (Jha 2010; Iqbal 2010;Sethi 2010).
Some Adivasis have joined the Communist Party of India (Maoist) (also known as ‘Maoists’ or ‘Naxalites’) in order to fight the state security forces, even though the goal of the CPI(Maoist) (capturing state power) and its methods (destruction of schools and infrastructure, recruitment of child soldiers, summary execution of those labelled as informers, etc.) are inimical to the welfare of the Adivasis and their own demands (Human Rights Watch 2008). The central government is supporting a military attack on the Maoists, despite the fact that many unaffiliated Adivasis will be caught in the crossfire, even though its own report makes it clear that so long as unchecked violations of the legal and constitutional rights of Adivasis continue, they will continue to be pushed into the ranks of the Maoists. It is probably in recognition of this fact that the government is considering legislation that will restrict mining by private sector companies in tribal areas, and take into consideration constitutional provisions for the protection of tribal communities and their rights. Mining companies are already lobbyingagainst this proposed restriction of their access to our earthly equivalents of unobtanium. Unless there is even stronger counter-lobbying by tribal rights, human rights and environmentalist groups, it is unlikely that this legislation will ever make it to the statute books. Poor implementation of the otherwise laudable Forest Rights Act (2007) demonstrates that pressure for implementation is equally important.
The bows and arrows of the Adivasis are as ineffective against the firepower of the invaders as they are in Avatar. Yet they do have weapons that were not available to the Na’vi: legal and constitutional rights, environmental laws, international law, greater knowledge of the devastating environmental impact of deforestation and militarism, and modern information and communication technologies. Struggles in the real world are more complicated and messy than the clearcut fight between good and evil in the world of Avatar: the invaders are not necessarily White; some of the indigenous people may collaborate with them while others may join groups like the Maoists whose interests clash with their own; indigenous people belonging to different tribes may fight each other for control over the same territory; some tribal customs may be extremely oppressive, especially to women; for many indigenous people, their biggest problem may be the discrimination and exclusion they face in mainstream society; and all these actors have to share the same planet, in some cases the same country. But despite these over-simplifications, the happy ending of Avatarencourages us to hope that the surviving indigenous people of the world, including the Adivasis of India, can win sufficient control over their lives and habitats to secure freedom from poverty, indignity and violent abuse.
Rohini Hensman is a researcher and writer active in the women’s liberation, trade union, human-rights and anti-war movements in India and Sri Lanka.
Mukhim, Patricia (2009) “Climate Change and N-E”, The Arunachal Times, 3 May 2009.
Scientists predict that by the end of this century most of Bangladesh will be under water. The country’s 130 million people who have learnt to survive in a country that has more water than land will spill over into the Northeast with a vengeance. This would make the present migration pattern look quite insignificant in terms of what that major exodus would do to the demographic profile of the region.
Talking about this at a recent conference of women from SAARC countries in New Delhi, Mohammad Yunus said in the inaugural speech, “We know this is happening but we have not worked out any solution to the man-climate confrontation.”
Climate change is an issue that threatens people the world over, but more so the indigenous inhabitants of the polar regions, the tropical rainforests and people living in the mountain areas. Debates on the issue of climate change have gained ground in the last 10 years particularly after Al Gore brought out his book, Earth in the Balance. So serious has the issue become that an indigenous peoples’ global summit on climate change was called in Alaska, USA, from April 20-25, where at least four participants from the Northeast attended, including Meghalaya’s youngest MP Agatha Sangma.
This summit is a preparation for the major climate change conference at Copenhagen scheduled for December this year. The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Peoples, headed by Victoria Taoli Corpuz, has held different regional consultations, to ensure that indigenous people/tribals have a voice to decide how the ill effects of climate change must be reversed or mitigated by some definite action plans which would involve powerful countries taking responsibility for the hundreds of years of irresponsible mining and industrial activities such as power generation and exploitation of resources which have all been commodified and given a value to.
The mechanisms
Developed nations have come up with different mechanisms to offset climate change. One of them is carbon credit rating or carbon sequestration whereby countries which conserve forests would be monetarily compensated for allowing those forests to become the carbon sinks of the developed world.
While such proposals seem attractive at the outset and states like Arunachal Pradesh, which claim to have 81 per cent of their land under forests, have already made plans for claiming green bonuses, the consequences of such mitigating factors are yet not fully known or understood. First of all, the question is who will measure the quantum of carbon that can be dumped. Secondly and most important, who gets the money and how will it be used to create/regenerate deforested areas?
Arunachal claim
Arunachal Pradesh’s claims seem a little out of sync with the realities in that state. This last frontier is one that India looks at as its reservoir for hydel power. Arunachal Pradesh has the capacity to generate 50,000MW of hydro-electricity which would, of course, be pumped into the national grid for use by the country and even for evacuation to neighbouring countries like Bangladesh which are power starved. Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Dorjee Khandu has already signed several power project agreements with the private and public sector.
While public sector units (PSUs) like NEEPCO are being put through very stringent environmental impact assessment (EIA) benchmarks, one is not so sure if similar stringency is adopted for the private sector, which is willing to pay money upfront for quick clearance of the projects. We know how every arm of the government can be made to hasten the process of decision-making when palms are greased. So while the PSUs will have to abide by and adhere to strict environmental guidelines during project implementation, the private sector may not be so circumspect. Ironically, the former can be held accountable for any adverse outcome but the latter may not be around to take responsibility. Moreover, the memoranda of agreement between private parties and the Arunachal Pradesh government are shrouded in secrecy.
While there are demands from various NGOs and anti-dam activists that such MOAs be put in the public domain, those demands very often fizzle out in the absence of a strong network of environmental activists within the region. Very often, NGOs have had to depend on the support of groups like the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), New Delhi, which have the capacity to provide alternative views which could counter government claims. How much of forestland would have to go under to make way for the big dams? Arunachal is a fragile eco-system located as it is along the lower reaches of the Himalayas. It is one of those regions which determine the rainfall patterns of the entire North Eastern Indian alpines right down to the Arakan mountains of Southeast Asia.
The effect
The decisions taken by the Dorjee Khandu government will affect generations of indigenous peoples/tribals not just in Arunachal Pradesh but the entire region. Eco-systems have no boundaries. They extend from one region into another and one state to the next without any clear-cut demarcation. A heavy cloudburst in a mountainous state like Arunachal could result in major catastrophic floods in downstream areas of Assam. This is a regular phenomenon as rivers breach their banks and change their courses leaving a trail of devastation. Hence it is not a happy situation when individual states sign power production agreements without any concern about the cataclysmic effects on neighbouring states.
Whose benefit
We have always imagined that the role of the North Eastern Council is to create a convergence between state governments so that decisions taken by one can benefit others or at least cause no harm. But such is not the case today. Large tracts of forests in Arunachal Pradesh, including those areas which are a catchment for the Ranganadi and Dikrong projects of Neepco, have been rapidly deforested. It is not that the forests have been cleared only for jhum cultivation because there is no evidence of farming activities. But tract after tract of forestland is seen being burnt. The remains are black bald patches, which suggest very rapid devastation of the environment. It would be a good idea for chief minister Khandu to take the Doimukh trail to Yajuli and see for himself this trail of devastation before making further claims for a “green bonus fund”.
But Arunachal Pradesh is not the only state whose forests are fast depleting. Meghalaya, with its smoke-stacked industries, is using charcoal in unimaginable proportions. This has resulted in rapid depletion of forests, particularly in West Khasi Hills. In the Jaintia Hills, the problem is a more severe one. Irresponsible mining has led to the death of the Lukha river which once was a pristine water body, providing clean drinking water to people living around it. More and more forests are cleared for coal and limestone mining without even a plan for reclaiming and regenerating abandoned mines. These are alarming signs. But politicians of all the seven states seem totally unconcerned about the environment and the climate change impacts which are manifested in delayed monsoons, unseasonal rains and rising temperatures and which have created havoc for the farmers. Politicians can no longer get away with their wealth creation programmes at the cost of the environment. It is time to cry “halt” now or suffer the consequences.
(The writer can be contacted at patricia17@rediffmail.com)
