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Page added on August 9, 2020
India plans to fell ancient forest to create 40 new coalfields
Over the past decade, Umeshwar Singh Amra has witnessed his homeland descend into a battleground. The war being waged in Hasdeo Arand, a rich and biodiverse Indian forest, has pitted indigenous people, ancient trees, elephants and sloths against the might of bulldozers, trucks and hydraulic jacks, fighting with a single purpose: the extraction of coal.
Yet under a new “self-reliant India” plan by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to boost the economy post-Covid-19 and reduce costly imports, 40 new coalfields in some of India’s most ecologically sensitive forests are to be opened up for commercial mining.
Among them are four huge blocks of Hasdeo Arand’s 420,000 acres of forest in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, which sit above an estimated 5bn tonnes of coal.
It marks a significant shift. The coal industry in India is state-owned, but this auction of 40 new coal blocks will see the creation of a privatised, commercial coal sector in India. Among those bidding for it are India’s rich and powerful industrial giants, including the $14bn (£11bn) Adani group run by the Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, who operates India’s largest coal power plants and has close ties to Modi.
The coal auction has already proved controversial at both the local and political level. At least seven of the coal blocks up for auction were previously deemed “no go” areas for mining due to their environmentally valuable status and about 80% of the blocks are home to indigenous communities and thick forest cover. Four state governments – West Bengal, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh – have written to Modi in opposition or raised legal objections to the auction, and one coal block, which overlapped with the Tadoba tiger reserve in Maharashtra, has already been removed.
Amra, who is an Adivasi, a term used to describe India’s indigenous people, was one of nine local sarpanchs – village leaders – who recently wrote to Modi demanding a stop to the auction in Hasdeo Arand. He said: “If the government gave me the option to give up my life in exchange for no more mining happening in the forest, I would do it in a second.”
Amra has seen first-hand the environmental devastation wreaked by open-cast coal mines. In 2011, two vast open-cast mines were excavated on the forest’s peripheries, ripping up the fragile land and filling the surroundings with pollution, smoke, heat, noise and poison. Crime rose drastically in the area and the elephants that lived in the forest, disoriented by the new hostile conditions, became aggressive, leading to dozens of deaths.
The prospect of more significant blocks of the forest, the largest in India, being handed over to private mining operations was more than Amra could bear. Five villages will be destroyed and more than 6,000 mainly indigenous people displaced, as well as thousands of hectares of trees, torn down for mines and roads.
“If more mining happens everything will change; the natural resources will be gone, our way of life will disappear, everything will be under threat,” he said. “We are tribal people, we cannot go out and live in the cities and no amount of money can ever compensate us. There is no forest like this in the world – cut it down and it can never be replaced.”
While across the world governments have geared towards a “green recovery” post Covid-19 – the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, said recently there was “no good reason for any country to include coal” in recovery plans – India is putting fossil fuel at the forefront of its strategy to turn the pandemic into economic opportunity.
“Why cannot India be the world’s largest exporter of coal?” asked Modi as he announced the coal auction project.
Yet with its 45% ash content, making it some of the most polluting coal in the world, there is unlikely to be an international market for Indian coal. In addition, many major factories in India cannot run on “dirty” domestic coal, meaning they will still need to import it from abroad.
There is also a question of necessity. While India is the world’s second largest consumer of coal, and annually imports 247m tonnes, costing more than $20bn (£15bn), India’s electricity demand is forecast to fall by up to 15% over the next five years due to the economic reverberations of Covid-19. Meanwhile, a report this week by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air concluded that the current state-run coal mines of India already have capacity to produce 20% more coal than the expected demand in 2030.
Environmental activists also question why India cannot be weaned off foreign coal through a gradual increase in investment in domestic renewable energy, such as solar. This month, Modi inaugurated Asia’s largest solar farm in the state of Madhya Pradesh. India is the world’s cheapest producer of solar power and the cost of constructing a new solar plant is 14% less than that of a building a new coal plant. With proper investment, it has been estimated that the solar energy industry could generate as many as 1.6m jobs in India by 2022, far more than would be generated by domestic coal.
But India’s joint secretary for coal, Maddirala Nagaraju, said that all the country’s projections showed that demand for coal would increase and insisted that increased domestic coalmining was the “cheapest way of meeting the energy needs of the people”.
“We are the country with the fourth largest coal reserves in the world and we need to provide energy security for over a billion people: coal is the only way,” said Nagaraju. He conceded that there would be “costly trade-offs” in opening up protected forest areas for mining, but said this had the support of local communities who “want the land to be acquired because they get high compensation packages”.
He added: “Yes, some people have objected, but the mining will bring a lot of development, employment and money to these areas. How else will we develop these Adivasi people in central India?”
Among the prominent opponents to the project is the former environment minister, Jairan Ramesh, who also wrote a letter to Modi condemning coal auctions. It was during his time in office that a survey was carried out in 2010 on India’s biggest coalfields and determined that 30% were “no-go areas” due to their biodiversity or resident tiger or elephant populations. Yet since Modi came to power in 2014, that 30% has been reduced to about 5%.
Ramesh alleged this was a direct result of pressure from the powerful corporate coal lobby, Adani in particular. The Adani group is contracted to operate two of the mines currently open in Hasdeo Arand, and has been pushing to expand mining operations in the forest for years, even reportedly offering microloans to local tribal people in order to win their support.
“Adani is behind this,” claims Ramesh. “He is one of the most influential forces on the government.”
“Modi poses as a great environmental champion globally but his track record is one of complete loosening of environmental laws and regulations,” Ramesh added. “The corporate lobbies are just too powerful and in the name of ease for businesses, environment has become the biggest casualty.”
The Adani group rejected the allegations as baseless and politically motivated. A spokesperson said the company: “Has always strived to provide balanced and affordable energy supply to an energy-deprived population of 1.3 billion people whose per capita energy consumption is less than half the world’s average and almost one-tenth of many of the developed economies.
“The Adani Group has been a leading contributor to India’s vision for a balanced energy mix and an enabler of India’s leadership in meeting its [Paris agreement on climate change] target.”
It said it aimed to become the world’s largest renewable energy company by 2025.
42 Comments on "India plans to fell ancient forest to create 40 new coalfields"
ANAL REAPER on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 9:07 am
GOOD!
At least those fucking INFERIOR dot niggers know what needs to be done to power their country.
Renewables are not renewable you fucking faggots.
Every Liberal on this website needs to be raped with a steel rod. Fucking nigger assholes.
zero juan on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 9:15 am
the fuck up juanPee has lost it, surely the owners would want to eliminate this noise that runs off intelligent conversation:
ANAL REAPER said GOOD! At least those fucking INFERIOR dot niggers…
Lord Voldemort of Chaz said Well it’s a full time job being the critic o…
Arse bandit said The crit of the critics of lunatics: See above pos…
Lunatic? said The critic of lunatics: See above posts
today i saw a single lib urn on the shelf so i swiftly make my way to it then lo and behold a supertard appeared nowhere and he is in front of me instead of figthing for the lib urn i coudnt muster strength to do so said this lib supertard clearly sorely need it. his mo…
An attack on a military base in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, has killed at least eight people and injured 14 others, officials say. said should ship muzzie FGM NASTY there
forbin on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 9:17 am
well that raised the tone of discussion on this web site….
juanPee shit on the moderated side on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 9:35 am
Re: America’s evil plan to nuke China as the final solution
Postby REAL Green » Sun 09 Aug 2020, 09:31:21
Ibon wrote:
Realgreen and JuanP remind me of ASG and Pstarr. If only these rivals could see how stupid they look from outside the gravitational pull of their mutual disdain for each other. They act like scorned lovers.
Yes I am trying to shame you both to just shut the Fuck up and stop clogging these threads with your bullshit rivalry.
Thank You.
Ibon talking about something he is clueless about! You have not been attacked for going on 4 years daily with socks and ID theft. In the beginning I tried to ignore him and just indicate my identity was being stolen. That last about a year. I eventually realized almost all the socks were from JuanP. Before this period that JuanP initiated the NUK option of trolling “ID theft” I came to realize many of the posts attacking me were in fact JuanP socks. He ignored me as JuanP for long periods but attacked me with his socks. I caught on to that and exposed his shit then he decided to do daily and consistent ID theft. I have since 3 years ago decided an aggressive offense is the only defense. JuanP knows this can end. I will ignore him and he ignores me. This includes his socks. You may say go somewhere else or ignore him but then you are showing how weak you are. You are agreeing with censorship by a troll. A simple id protected password on the unmoderated side would suffice to correct much of this problem. A little bit of active moderation to eliminate comments from the same IP would help with the spamming of sock comments. I moved to the moderated side to get away from the unmoderated side insanity but I am now finding JuanP has multiple socks there. C8, Bochen777, and suxs are 3 I have outed. You have to have gone through years of this shit to know his personality. The guy is a real nut case. So Ibon, please know what you are talking about before you make a stupid comment. BTW, I expect this thread of comments concerning JuanP and I to be wiped clean becuase Newf has said he will moderate this. I am fine with this but the suxs comment is clearly a JuanP comment. I have a right to self defense!!
today i saw a single lib urn on the shelf so i swiftly make my way to it then lo and behold a supertard appeared nowhere and he is in front of me instead of figthing for the lib urn i coudnt muster strength to do so on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 9:52 am
this lib supertard clearly sorely need it. his mouth was stuffed with a muzzie ck and the lib urn is like a drug and keeps him from lib withdrawal, a life and death issue.
it broke my hart
christmas is fast approaching and i will once again be the one bearing no gift.
story of my life
Sissyfuss on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 10:02 am
I would like to comment on India’s cognitive dissonance concerning coal as a major power source but looking at the audience present, why bother.
Outcast_Searcher on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 11:50 am
Sadly, of course they do, because coal is the cheap solution for the rapid “India Growth Miracle Decade” plan they have.
Of course, what happens after THAT is a wee bit of a problem.
But it’s not like the supposedly rich and tech. superior US does much better re strategic thinking.
Look at the mess re their debt and the COVID-19 virus, for example.
The right’s solution is to ignore the issues, and the left’s is to print money and destroy the dollar over time. Neither of those is sustainable either.
I’m a US born citizen living in a dark red state and dealing with much ignorance re people not wearing masks or distancing, BTW.
Davy on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 12:01 pm
“I’m a US born citizen living in a dark red state and dealing with much ignorance re people not wearing masks or distancing, BTW.”
omg wtf, lol…AND THE BLM protest and Antifa destruction are not ignorance from the dark blue urban areas? Tell me about that mask wearing and social distancing amongst the radicals. Total hypocrisy! Man we have some doosie comments over here by our extremist liberal friends.
Chrome Mags on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 1:01 pm
What India needs now is more people. They should be shooting for 4 billion people. Drill down as deep as you need to so you can drain the land of its water tables. Get that water out and give it to the people. Do not stop until there is zero fresh water for 4 billion people, then worry about it.
This sarcasm has been offered up due to the illogic of what India is doing.
The Board on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 2:38 pm
the fuck up daveee has lost it, surely the owners would want to eliminate his delusional noise that runs off intelligent conversation:
Everything davy and his ‘JuanP’ socks has ever said.
zero juan on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 2:56 pm
Welcome to hell fuck face
The Board said the fuck up daveee has lost it, surely the owners…
ANSEL REAPER for the new supertard convert said For The Lord hates a heart thatdevises wicked plan…
ANSEL REAPER a conversation story said this is what supertard said Abraham van Helsing o…
makati1 on Sun, 9th Aug 2020 6:01 pm
Almost the whole state of West Virginia was deforested and mountains leveled for the coal under them. Now it is almost gone and trees never came back over the tailings. Also in parts of Pennsylvania.
FFs rule and they will be more and more the cause of wars. No change in use until forced by lack of.
Richard Guenette on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 12:36 pm
India should withdraw from the so-called Paris Accord and use its resources to help industrialize its economy (learn from the European Industrial Revolution).
Richard Guenette on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 12:37 pm
The so-called “Green” parties lack common sense and possess wishful thinking. Climate change is a mixture of both natural and man-made activity.
Richard Guenette on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 12:45 pm
Leave it up to world leaders to protect their countries’ environmental problem. They should withdraw from the UN and help its own people (including its indigenous peoples).
zero juan on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 12:51 pm
the lunatic is full dipshit:
Richard Guenette said Leave it up to world leaders to protect their coun…
Richard Guenette said Defund the EPA. It is a sick joke and grossly inco…
Richard Guenette said Where are the “Green” political partie…
Richard Guenette said The so-called “Green” parties lack com…
Richard Guenette said India should withdraw from the so-called Paris Acc…
Richard Guenette said As for gun control, it doesn’t work. Hunters…
Richard Guenette said The West should embrace centrism and avoid the ext…
IFuckPoliticiansInTheAss said MarketWatch dot com Phillips 66 to stop making fu…
why is whitey (((supertard))) president bil maher attaching whitye supertard president trump said yup, due to muzzie lovin he has a gigantic muzzie…
IFuckPoliticiansInTheAss said StarvingLion: I don’t think they’ll al…
so now whitey supertard president trump is taking my advice to play up the beer/CONVICT-19 said libs are terrified of CONVICT-19 becuase they have…
supertrad im not superemetard and you write it like (((supremetard))) ok i am a tard and former paultard youre supertard said so anyways now MUZZ-19 is produced by putin codena…
IFuckPoliticiansInTheAss said StarvingLion » Wed 12 Aug 2020, 12:40:14 Oil is up…
REAL Davy on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 1:58 pm
The lunatic is full of goat-shit.
zero davy on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 12:51 pm
zero juan on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 2:03 pm
That’s a good lunatic. Let your anger out dipshit. Welcome to hell!
REAL Davy said The lunatic is full of goat-shit. zero davy on Wed…
Three killed in Bangalore clashes over Prophet Muhammad post said yup, someone with a muzzie ck stuck deep in the mo…
Richard Guenette said Jobs should be created and inflation should be con…
REAL Davy on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 2:49 pm
I am a bad lunatic. I let my anger out. Welcome to hell dumbasses.
Germany: Muzzie senator demands ban on alcohol in all Berlin pubs and bars on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 3:19 pm
the muzzie ck in mouth is dripping
suckle the milk
zero juan on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 3:36 pm
juanPPee, you are gone lunatic. nothing there but madness. Welcome to hell, dipshit:
Germany: Muzzie senator demands ban on alcohol in all Berlin pubs and bars said the muzzie ck in mouth is dripping suckle the milk…
Davy said Oh dear. Poor widdle juanPPee gets all emotional a…
REAL Davy said I am a bad lunatic. I let my anger out. Welcome
JuanP on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 5:13 pm
I am genuinely sorry for ruining this lame forum. Please forgive me, dumbasses.
Duncan Idaho on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 5:36 pm
The 2020 Race Is Down to Center-Right vs. Far Right
https://truthout.org/articles/the-2020-race-is-down-to-center-right-vs-far-right/
Davy on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 5:40 pm
I am genuinely happy for ruining this lame forum for everyone. Please forgive me, dumbasses.
Duncan Idaho on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 5:42 pm
Cop caught fondling dead woman; ‘some are even sexually victimized after their deaths,’ lawyer says
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/8/12/1968658/-LAPD-officer-s-own-body-cam-caught-him-fondling-dead-woman-s-body-family-sues
Pigs just being pigs—-
Duncan Idaho on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 5:48 pm
“Trump and his sycophants are all insecure men who are terrified of feeling emasculated in the presence of an accomplished woman. They assume all men are just like them and they assume that all white women are racists just as they are. They are incorrect.”
the board on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 5:49 pm
JuanP on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 5:40 pm
“I am genuinely happy for ruining this lame forum for everyone. Please forgive me, dumbasses.”
honesty is the first step to getting your mental health back, juanPee.
Duncan Idaho on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 5:54 pm
Kamala Harris is the America that Trump tried to Stop: the Best of Jamaica and India and born in Oakland
https://www.juancole.com/2020/08/america-jamaica-oakland.html
Oakland?
About as far away from repug land as any place in ‘Merika.
Davy on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 10:34 pm
I will never get back my mental health. I never had any to begin with. Honestly.
supremacist muzzies jerk hardware may i help you yes uh butt plug is it a spark plug u talkin about let me see we dont have that BUTT PLUGG BUTT PLUGGA BUTT sorry sir we dont have that butt plug thank you on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 10:44 pm
I guess i should have my treaties updated
Too many muzzies lovers here that’s why I’m hardly ever here anymore
I never spent more than a second here, zero second is about right
POLL: should we put on trial and if convicted execute DROPOUT-19 for CONVICT-19 on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 10:59 pm
admission fraud, practicing without academic credentials
POLL2: put on trial and if convicted amputated whitey supertard scientific supremacist thunderf00t for muzzie loving and high british english speaking
REAL Green on Wed, 12th Aug 2020 11:25 pm
“I will never get back my mental health. I never had any to begin with. Honestly.”
Honesty is the first step to recoverin Davy.
Davy on Thu, 13th Aug 2020 12:00 am
Shut up lunatic. I was having a REAL HONEST moment here.
supertard madkat i started reading ZH and i see mentions of face DIAPER-19 so thats where you got it from you didnt invent it on Thu, 13th Aug 2020 12:12 am
so why didn’t u attribute your source?
that’s dishonest.
so you didn’t invent face diaper-19. you swiped it off ZH
If i swipe something off here or supertard’s blog for passive income imma say so
zero juan on Thu, 13th Aug 2020 5:11 am
Lots of stupid from the lunatic last night. Man, he is dumb. I understand why he admits to being a school dropout. The problem is juanPee has a huge ego where he thinks he is smart and wants to tell everyone it is so. Then his mental illness creeps in and he pukes stupid. What a mess. Mods pleas shit can the idiot:
supertard madkat i started reading ZH and i see mentions of face DIAPER-19 so thats where you got it from you didnt invent it said so why didn’t u attribute your source? that&…
Davy said Shut up lunatic. I was having a REAL HONEST moment…
REAL Green said “I will never get back my mental health. I never h…
POLL: should we put on trial and if convicted execute DROPOUT-19 for CONVICT-19 said admission fraud, practicing without academic crede…
supremacist muzzies jerk hardware may i help you yes uh butt plug is it a spark plug u talkin about let me see we dont have that BUTT PLUGG BUTT PLUGGA BUTT sorry sir we dont have that butt plug thank you said I guess i should have my treaties updated Too many…
Davy said I will never get back my mental health. I never ha…
Davy said “My Ford Taurus got water in the floor board the o…
Ben Dover said im gay
muzz says lebanon is destroyed because homo sex and a tons of other stuff said muzz tells other muzzies in lebanon to cut tounge….
sputnik-v19 MUZZ-19 will be perfectly safe anyone with a saline solution is going to make tons of money and unlike pharma which dont want liability you can guarantee sputnik-v19 will be safe said it’s the only want to combat CONVICT-19
everyone please respect supertard madkat and supertard davy and supertard bochen777 said please love supertards. hold no hate of supertard…
REAL Green said “Mak, I am sorry for playing around with you the o…
Rik on Fri, 14th Aug 2020 2:54 pm
CO2 is good for the environment and us.
zero juan on Fri, 14th Aug 2020 2:56 pm
Rik said CO2 is good for the environment and us.
Rik said MSAS: Make Saudi Arabia Secular.
Rik said Saudi Arabia should go from an absolute monarchy t…
Rik said If people are worried about their privacy, donR…
Rik said The real threat to our world is globalist scum.
Rik said People have the right to freedom of choice. We are…
Davy said More AsiaDown USAup for juanPPee: “Trans-Pacific S…
Bochen777 said JuanP on Fri, 14th Aug 2020 2:05 pm https://forum…
bochen777 said https://forum.ascendchina.ch/ babe
the New REAL JuanP said I w
Mrs. Juanita Pee on Fri, 14th Aug 2020 2:59 pm
Will somebody kick my stupid husband off this forum so I can get him off the couch and doing something. He stinks and he is a fat slob.
Dennis Meaney on Fri, 14th Aug 2020 7:20 pm
India, fuck you!
REAL Green on Fri, 14th Aug 2020 9:46 pm
We like the weigh you think Denis. What country are you from freind?
zero juan on Sat, 15th Aug 2020 4:23 am
night time with the lunatic:
REAL Green said We like the weigh you think Denis. What country ar…
Dennis Meaney said India, fuck you!
Rik if ur whitey supertard john mcaffee u can have tons of money so u can buy any panties u want but i wouldnt go to germany u get arrested id go to ukraine where panties is ok and good said but if u too poor u retire living on fixed income…
Davy said mak, I packing up I cant this Dent county slum any…
Rik said Ditto for the rest of humanity.
Rik said Americans really need to take ownership of their O…
Rik said if u dont have money for panties u can still get &…
the old JuanP said Rik, you suck cock
the board on Sat, 15th Aug 2020 4:26 am
It is fun to yank the lunatic chain. We told him yesterday how he had not been on the moderated side in a long time and poof he goes and comments a short mindless post. No real thought there but he tried.
“Re: THE Glacier Thread (merged) Unread postby JuanP » Sat 15 Aug 2020, 00:54:06
“Warming Greenland ice sheet passes point of no return” https://phys.org/news/2020-08-greenland-ice-sheet.html”