[In the village of Gare, where
Agrawal has helped villagers voice their objections to Jindal's plans for more
mining operations, the earth shakes violently for a half-hour each morning as
workmen blast a gaping coal pit with dynamite, sending clouds of black dust
billowing up. The acrid smell of smoke hangs in the air, already hazy yellow
from the nearby power plant pollution.]
AP | Apr 28, 2014,
05.04 PM IST
 |
Ramesh
Agrawal, who ran a small internet café in Raipur, capital of Chhattisgarh,
has
been awarded for his contribution to control the unchecked industrial
development
throughout India.
|
GARE VILLAGE(AP): The man walked
into Ramesh Agrawal's tiny internet cafe, pulled out a pistol and hissed,
"You talk too much.'' Then he fired two bullets into Agrawal's left leg
and fled on a motorcycle.
The 2012 attack came three
months after Agrawal won a court case that blocked a major Indian company,
Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, from opening a second coal mine near the village
of Gare in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh.
For a decade, Agrawal, who has
no formal legal training, has been waging a one-man campaign to educate illiterate
villagers about their rights in fighting pollution and land-grabbing by
powerful mining and electricity companies. He's won three lawsuits against
major corporations and has spearheaded seven more pending in courts.
"When I started this
fight, I knew I'd be a target. It will happen again. Let it happen. I'm not
going anywhere,'' the soft-spoken yoga enthusiast said in an interview this
month in the city of Raigarh, where he hobbled around his modest home with a
cane and a metal brace screwed into his shattered femur.
On Monday, Agrawal, 60, will be
recognized in a ceremony in San Francisco as one of six recipients of this
year's $175,000 Goldman Environmental Prize, often called the "Green
Nobel.''
Among the other winners are
former corporate lawyer Helen Slottje who fought fracking, pumping chemicals
and water underground to break open shale rock formations, in New York state
and South Africa's Desmond D'Sa who closed down one of the country's largest
toxic dumping sites. The award was established in 1990 with a grant from
philanthropists Richard and Rhoda Goldman to honor grass-roots environmental
activists in the six regions of Africa, Asia, Europe, Island Nations, North
America and Latin America.
"This is the biggest
milestone in my life,'' Agrawal said of the award, which he flew to California
to receive. "But it also makes me sad, that someone in a foreign country
who I don't even know is willing to do so much for us, while so many people
here don't even know us or want to help.''
Activists, lawyers and analysts
in India say that's changing as hundreds if not thousands of small, scrappy
movements are challenging building and mining projects that local residents
believe will damage the environment, undermine their livelihoods or even uproot
them from their homes.
"People are gaining
confidence and losing patience,'' environmental lawyer Ritwick Dutta said in
New Delhi. "These are not established activist groups or nonprofits like
Greenpeace campaigning on global issues like climate change. These are regular,
everyday people worried about their survival, and their voices of dissent are
forcing India to change.''
Villagers in the central state
of Madhya Pradesh have won national TV coverage for their cause by standing
neck-deep in water for days to protest large hydro-power dam projects that
would flood their farms and homes. Apple growers in northeast Himachal Pradesh
are suing dam builders who they say have tunneling plans that will damage their
orchards.
"People used to say, `You
can't fight with the big guys.' But once we started winning a few cases, people
started believing in themselves and believing in this country again,'' Agrawal
said.
India's rapid economic growth
over the past decade has boosted the incomes and living standards of millions,
mostly city-dwellers.
But the environmental impact
has often been ignored, and the rural poor largely left behind. The 400 million
Indians who live on less than $1.25 a day are dubious about their economic prospects,
particularly those who have lost their land or been forced to live with
poisoned groundwater, dirty air and fetid rivers.
"Why should these
villagers pay for development that is defined by shopping malls and luxury
items?'' Agrawal asked. "We have to redefine what development means, and
decide if it's for the few or the many.''
Environmental activists are
also increasingly facing violence — at least 908 have been killed in 35
countries over the past decade, including six in India, according to a report
this month by the London-based Global Witness group.
After he was shot, Agrawal's
attackers turned themselves in, revealing themselves to be Jindal Steel &
Power's security guards. But police never linked the attack with the company.
He also has been jailed for 72
days on what he said were false charges of extortion and defamation that were
later dismissed.
In the village of Gare, where
Agrawal has helped villagers voice their objections to Jindal's plans for more
mining operations, the earth shakes violently for a half-hour each morning as
workmen blast a gaping coal pit with dynamite, sending clouds of black dust
billowing up. The acrid smell of smoke hangs in the air, already hazy yellow
from the nearby power plant pollution.
The company has been mining
coal in the area for several years, but Gare and the neighboring villages of
Sarasmal and Kosampali have seen little economic benefit. No new schools or
hospital clinics have been built, and only a few dozen menial labor jobs were
offered after protests by residents, who were once self-sufficient growing rice
and vegetables, villagers said.
There are, however, new roads
on which dozens of uncovered coal trucks rattle through communities every day
with coal dust blowing off the back.
"For six years I have been
sick,'' 55-year-old villager Sushila Choudhury said through bloodshot eyes and
the wheezing cough of an asthmatic. "Why are they doing this to us? We
haven't done anything wrong.''
Dr Harihar Patel, the area's
only trained doctor for 10 kilometers (six miles), said he's seen a jump in the
number of people with asthma and other lung ailments, skin lesions and
exhaustion.
"The system is not working
properly. The rich get richer, and the government supports them over us,''
Patel said. "Twenty years ago we had no idea this could happen to us, to
our land and our water.''
Agrawal began researching the
rights of the poor in confronting corporations in 2005, after becoming alarmed
by the sudden influx of industry into his home state of Chhattisgarh. In 2010,
he won his first court victory in blocking Indian company Scania Steel &
Power Ltd from expanding a coal-burning power plant without clearance.
He's been helped by some legal
tools along the way. In 2005, India passed a law giving citizens the right to
review public records.
Six years later, India launched
a separate environmental court system that gave any citizen the right to demand
a hearing on environmental matters.
Two years ago, the court ruled
on a lawsuit filed by Agrawal on behalf of Gare residents to revoke Jindal's
clearance for a second mine in the area. Jindal has since reapplied for
clearance to mine in the village, and Agrawal is preparing another suit to block
it.
"We have to look after the
environment, or there will be hundreds of thousands of people with nothing, no
employment, no money, no farmland, no forests,'' he said. "They will end
up cutting each other's throats just to survive.''
