Picture courtesy: Kamalendu Bhadra
Story by Subhro Niyogi
(copyright: The Times of India)
It’s spring, a time when tender leaves sprout and flowers blossom. But trees in Gajashimul, Jitushal and Mohanpur in Jhargram seem to have forgotten it. They are in various shades of gray. The sky isn’t blue either. It is dull gray. Even the red soil has turned dark gray. It’s as though God, in a fit of rage, has wiped colours off these tribal villages and condemned its people to a world of ceaseless gray.
Located 170 km south-west of Kolkata along National Highway 6, life at the three villages and 47 others in West Midnapore’s Jhargram took a surreal turn after three sponge iron factories were set up some years ago. The units, categorized red by pollution control board (PCB) for the extreme threat they post to environment, spewed black smoke and sprayed the villages with a layer of soot.
When the first sponge iron unit, a small one, was set up in Gajashimul a decade ago, no one asked the locals whether they wanted a factory in the forest or explained its hazards. Many villagers thought a factory would better their life. Then a larger factory sprung up in Jitushal, followed by another in Mohanpur.
The three units — Reshmi Cement, Reshmi Ispat and Aryabhatta Sponge — have a combined capacity of 800 tonne per day. Consuming 1,200 tonne of coal and 40 lakh kilo-litre of water daily, they have inexorably changed the landscape and turned the air foul, the water filthy.
Seated in the porch of his soot-layered thatched house under a bare sonajhuri tree, Dulal Mudi of Bagmari village points to the dark smoke spewing ominously from the factory at a distance. "The factory has cast an evil spell in the area. Even crops have begun to falter," said Dulal, his fingers trembling in anger.
His wife Sabitri shows the blackened Lal Swarna variety of paddy originally named after its red hue. "The rice mills reject the paddy and call it Kalo Swarna mockingly," she said.
A quarter kilometer away and closer to the sponge iron factory at Jitushal, trees at Ghritakham village present a darker shade of gray. Here, pollution has affected the livestock. In the past two months, eight cows and five goats have prematurely delivered dead calf. Only two calves have been born this year.
"The veterinarian said the deaths could be due to grazing on soot-layered grass and leaves. Carbon that gets injected into their system may have caused the harm," said villager Anjana Mahato, livid with rage.
If pollution is affecting livestock, threat to humans is imminent. At the primary health centre in Gajashimul, Dr Gauri Shankar Adak is worried. He has detected signs of lung disease in some children. "If the factories continue to pollute, children will develop chronic lung problems from breathing in large dozes of carbon particles," he feared.
Though the windows at his quarter are always shut, he invariably wakes up to soot-layered mornings. "There’s a layer of gray dust everywhere. Usually, the village atmosphere is clean. But here, it’s worse than cities," he rued.
Yet, Gajashimul was known for its unspoilt nature. Since the Raj days, it has been a destination for ‘change’, a place to recuperate and rejuvinate. The rich built bungalows. Others patronized hotels. Now, that is history. The bungalows lie abandoned. Most hotels have closed down because people don’t come here anymore.
"We are surviving because others have shut. Who would want to come from the city and land in a spot that is more polluted?" said hotel Kaushalya Heritage manager Bapi Goldar.
The sponge iron units have not only throttled tourism, they have pushed the saal leaf business that forms the backbone of the rural economy here to the brink. There are few takers for the soot-layered, perforated leaves that rain down from the saal trees. Till some years ago, the luxuriant leaves were spotless and much in demand.
"I used to transport two trucks (20 lakh saal leaf plates) to New Market in Kolkata each week. Now, I can manage only one truck in a fortnight. The price they fetch is also poor due to inferior quality leaves," said Baikunta Mahato.
The saal leaves business at Lodhashuli has plummeted from 20-25 trucks daily to 2-3 trucks in as many days. The bamboo trade has died. Earlier, 8-10 trucks (4,800-6,000 bamboo sticks) carted bamboo to Durgapur, Asansol and Bokaro daily.
Today, there are none as bamboo thickets have withered. Production of cashew grown in the 250-odd gardens is down 70%. Mango orchards planted by the British bearing varieties like Himshagar and Begumfuli have not borne fruit this year.
Scraggy-haired, soot-covered children scamper in the barren orchards. They haven’t had a bath in days. With the searing dry heat touching 40 °C, that should be killing. But in this parched land, a bath is a sinful luxury when drinking water is scarce.
"All except one well in our village have run dry this year. The water level has dipped alarmingly," said Pushpa Midhya of Ghritakham. With sponge iron factories sinking deep tube wells, the water table is shrinking fast.
Cornered in their own land with the forest that has severed generations under threat, the tribals are beginning to resist. Paribesh Dushan Pratirodh Committee (PDPC), the local pollution resistance force set up in January, held a protest march against the proposed expansion of the factory at Jitushal on March 27. The factory owners promptly filed cases against 12 PDPC leaders, alleging production loss and damage to property worth Rs 25.54 lakh. That further enraged the locals.
"It’s the case of culprits harassing victims. Enough is enough. We have moved the local administration and PCB without response. If the government does not act, we will combat the situation," warned PDPC head Utangshu Mohato.
Days to go for the election, faith in the political system is dwindling. There are even murmurs of a boycott, similar to one in 2004. Contempt for parties that campaign on all issues except pollution, is evident. Though BJP candidate Nabendu Maheli claimed pollution is his poll plank, Pulin Behari Baske of CPM, Amrit Hazra of Congress and Aditya Kisku of Jharkhand Aditya are silent.
"What can you expect from these low-rung leaders who have no say in policy matters? Why blame them when politicians in Kolkata leaders don’t care less about the issue? Everytime the debate on industrialization in West Bengal crops up, the Opposition screams about large swathes of land in Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore. Did they care to find out how a polluting industry thrust on the people is destroying their lives and playing havoc with virgin areas," Utangshu questioned.
With patience running thin and the belt sitting on a powder keg, a spark is all that is required to ignite an explosion. Chatradhar Mahato’s public rally at Kalaboni on April 19 may provide just that. Kalaboni is 5 km from Lodhashuli and Lalgarh, Chatradhar’s battleground, only 30 km away.
"You’ll see how villages empty out that day as people trek down to listen to Chatradhar. His resistance against the administration’s apathy to police atrocities is an inspiration. We have been mute victims but not for long," said Subhas Mahato, a former saal leaf trader who lost his business to pollution and has joined the resistance force.
The lava of anger bubbling beneath is precariously close to eruption. Question is, will the administration act or will it allow the situation to spiral out of hand?
SPONGE IRON STATS
No. of Units in West Bengal: 62
Burdwan: 34
Purulia: 13
Bankura: 10
W. Midnapore: 4
S. 24-Parganas: 1
PCB DIRECTIVE THAT ARE FLOUTED
1. Do not store dust, coal char, coal fines in open space
2. Dust collection system in electro-static precipitator (ESP) should have pneumatic control system along with silo and pug mill.
3. Provide ‘Dry Fog Dust Suppression System’ for controlling fugitive emission
4. Provide concrete/paved road with premises
5. At least two tankers must continuously spray water within and outside premises
6. Develop green buffer zone along inner periphery, covering 40% factory area
It’s spring, a time when tender leaves sprout and flowers blossom. But trees in Gajashimul, Jitushal and Mohanpur in Jhargram seem to have forgotten it. They are in various shades of gray. The sky isn’t blue either. It is dull gray. Even the red soil has turned dark gray. It’s as though God, in a fit of rage, has wiped colours off these tribal villages and condemned its people to a world of ceaseless gray.
Located 170 km south-west of Kolkata along National Highway 6, life at the three villages and 47 others in West Midnapore’s Jhargram took a surreal turn after three sponge iron factories were set up some years ago. The units, categorized red by pollution control board (PCB) for the extreme threat they post to environment, spewed black smoke and sprayed the villages with a layer of soot.
When the first sponge iron unit, a small one, was set up in Gajashimul a decade ago, no one asked the locals whether they wanted a factory in the forest or explained its hazards. Many villagers thought a factory would better their life. Then a larger factory sprung up in Jitushal, followed by another in Mohanpur.
The three units — Reshmi Cement, Reshmi Ispat and Aryabhatta Sponge — have a combined capacity of 800 tonne per day. Consuming 1,200 tonne of coal and 40 lakh kilo-litre of water daily, they have inexorably changed the landscape and turned the air foul, the water filthy.
Seated in the porch of his soot-layered thatched house under a bare sonajhuri tree, Dulal Mudi of Bagmari village points to the dark smoke spewing ominously from the factory at a distance. "The factory has cast an evil spell in the area. Even crops have begun to falter," said Dulal, his fingers trembling in anger.
His wife Sabitri shows the blackened Lal Swarna variety of paddy originally named after its red hue. "The rice mills reject the paddy and call it Kalo Swarna mockingly," she said.
A quarter kilometer away and closer to the sponge iron factory at Jitushal, trees at Ghritakham village present a darker shade of gray. Here, pollution has affected the livestock. In the past two months, eight cows and five goats have prematurely delivered dead calf. Only two calves have been born this year.
"The veterinarian said the deaths could be due to grazing on soot-layered grass and leaves. Carbon that gets injected into their system may have caused the harm," said villager Anjana Mahato, livid with rage.
If pollution is affecting livestock, threat to humans is imminent. At the primary health centre in Gajashimul, Dr Gauri Shankar Adak is worried. He has detected signs of lung disease in some children. "If the factories continue to pollute, children will develop chronic lung problems from breathing in large dozes of carbon particles," he feared.
Though the windows at his quarter are always shut, he invariably wakes up to soot-layered mornings. "There’s a layer of gray dust everywhere. Usually, the village atmosphere is clean. But here, it’s worse than cities," he rued.
Yet, Gajashimul was known for its unspoilt nature. Since the Raj days, it has been a destination for ‘change’, a place to recuperate and rejuvinate. The rich built bungalows. Others patronized hotels. Now, that is history. The bungalows lie abandoned. Most hotels have closed down because people don’t come here anymore.
"We are surviving because others have shut. Who would want to come from the city and land in a spot that is more polluted?" said hotel Kaushalya Heritage manager Bapi Goldar.
The sponge iron units have not only throttled tourism, they have pushed the saal leaf business that forms the backbone of the rural economy here to the brink. There are few takers for the soot-layered, perforated leaves that rain down from the saal trees. Till some years ago, the luxuriant leaves were spotless and much in demand.
"I used to transport two trucks (20 lakh saal leaf plates) to New Market in Kolkata each week. Now, I can manage only one truck in a fortnight. The price they fetch is also poor due to inferior quality leaves," said Baikunta Mahato.
The saal leaves business at Lodhashuli has plummeted from 20-25 trucks daily to 2-3 trucks in as many days. The bamboo trade has died. Earlier, 8-10 trucks (4,800-6,000 bamboo sticks) carted bamboo to Durgapur, Asansol and Bokaro daily.
Today, there are none as bamboo thickets have withered. Production of cashew grown in the 250-odd gardens is down 70%. Mango orchards planted by the British bearing varieties like Himshagar and Begumfuli have not borne fruit this year.
Scraggy-haired, soot-covered children scamper in the barren orchards. They haven’t had a bath in days. With the searing dry heat touching 40 °C, that should be killing. But in this parched land, a bath is a sinful luxury when drinking water is scarce.
"All except one well in our village have run dry this year. The water level has dipped alarmingly," said Pushpa Midhya of Ghritakham. With sponge iron factories sinking deep tube wells, the water table is shrinking fast.
Cornered in their own land with the forest that has severed generations under threat, the tribals are beginning to resist. Paribesh Dushan Pratirodh Committee (PDPC), the local pollution resistance force set up in January, held a protest march against the proposed expansion of the factory at Jitushal on March 27. The factory owners promptly filed cases against 12 PDPC leaders, alleging production loss and damage to property worth Rs 25.54 lakh. That further enraged the locals.
"It’s the case of culprits harassing victims. Enough is enough. We have moved the local administration and PCB without response. If the government does not act, we will combat the situation," warned PDPC head Utangshu Mohato.
Days to go for the election, faith in the political system is dwindling. There are even murmurs of a boycott, similar to one in 2004. Contempt for parties that campaign on all issues except pollution, is evident. Though BJP candidate Nabendu Maheli claimed pollution is his poll plank, Pulin Behari Baske of CPM, Amrit Hazra of Congress and Aditya Kisku of Jharkhand Aditya are silent.
"What can you expect from these low-rung leaders who have no say in policy matters? Why blame them when politicians in Kolkata leaders don’t care less about the issue? Everytime the debate on industrialization in West Bengal crops up, the Opposition screams about large swathes of land in Purulia, Bankura and Midnapore. Did they care to find out how a polluting industry thrust on the people is destroying their lives and playing havoc with virgin areas," Utangshu questioned.
With patience running thin and the belt sitting on a powder keg, a spark is all that is required to ignite an explosion. Chatradhar Mahato’s public rally at Kalaboni on April 19 may provide just that. Kalaboni is 5 km from Lodhashuli and Lalgarh, Chatradhar’s battleground, only 30 km away.
"You’ll see how villages empty out that day as people trek down to listen to Chatradhar. His resistance against the administration’s apathy to police atrocities is an inspiration. We have been mute victims but not for long," said Subhas Mahato, a former saal leaf trader who lost his business to pollution and has joined the resistance force.
The lava of anger bubbling beneath is precariously close to eruption. Question is, will the administration act or will it allow the situation to spiral out of hand?
SPONGE IRON STATS
No. of Units in West Bengal: 62
Burdwan: 34
Purulia: 13
Bankura: 10
W. Midnapore: 4
S. 24-Parganas: 1
PCB DIRECTIVE THAT ARE FLOUTED
1. Do not store dust, coal char, coal fines in open space
2. Dust collection system in electro-static precipitator (ESP) should have pneumatic control system along with silo and pug mill.
3. Provide ‘Dry Fog Dust Suppression System’ for controlling fugitive emission
4. Provide concrete/paved road with premises
5. At least two tankers must continuously spray water within and outside premises
6. Develop green buffer zone along inner periphery, covering 40% factory area
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