India craves energy. Already, demand often outstrips supply by 10 per cent, and more than 400 million Indians live without any electricity at all. The government wants to electrify 5 million villages a year. Nuclear is slow, costly and controversial. India needs coal. India's massive coal reserves are hugely underdeveloped. In a country of 1.2 billion people, the land on top of any potential mine is almost always someone's home. There is a growing awareness of the rights of the rural poor over the land on which they live, and an increasing resistance to the forcible, often uncompensated land grabs by governments and corporations that historically have been common.
In Pakri Barwadih, the mud-brick homes are daubed with neat graffiti: ''NTPC Go Back.'' NTPC is the government-owned company that wants to mine the rich seam of coal beneath this dusty village in India's second poorest state. The three mines slated for this valley will consume this and 16 other villages, forcing more than 8000 families from their homes. The Pakri Barwadih mine is to be built and run by Thiess, a subsidiary of Leighton Holdings, in a joint venture with a company owned by the family of India's former coal minister.
Jharkhand in India's east is prone to severe, long-running droughts. Some 40 per cent of the state's population lives below the poverty line. Half the children under three are malnourished. But in the Karanpura Valley rains are regular.
The river that flows past Prasad's fields never runs dry, so he plants three crops a year of rice, wheat and vegetables. His family has worked this land, ''my entire ancestry, 15 or 20 generations, I don't know how long'', and he says he will refuse all offers of compensation for it. The fact the compensation offered for his acre has been raised by 50 per cent to $25,000 is evidence, he says, that those offering don't understand. ''If it was only me, I could take the money and live for the few years at the end of my life. But I have to hand this land on to my children and grandchildren. If I lose this land they will have nothing.
''Our lives are in this land. Without it, who are we? It is not just a house to live in, it is our way of life, our history. I am a farmer. My father passed this land to me, and I must pass it to my son. I cannot fail where my ancestors succeeded.''
Government's development minister Jairam Ramesh last month warned mining companies against forcing people from their land, saying it fuelled outlaw groups. ''This is a sad truth … that more displacement has been caused by government and public sector projects … particularly in Naxal areas. And this is why Naxalism has grown."
In Pakri Barwadih, the mud-brick homes are daubed with neat graffiti: ''NTPC Go Back.'' NTPC is the government-owned company that wants to mine the rich seam of coal beneath this dusty village in India's second poorest state. The three mines slated for this valley will consume this and 16 other villages, forcing more than 8000 families from their homes. The Pakri Barwadih mine is to be built and run by Thiess, a subsidiary of Leighton Holdings, in a joint venture with a company owned by the family of India's former coal minister.
Jharkhand in India's east is prone to severe, long-running droughts. Some 40 per cent of the state's population lives below the poverty line. Half the children under three are malnourished. But in the Karanpura Valley rains are regular.
The river that flows past Prasad's fields never runs dry, so he plants three crops a year of rice, wheat and vegetables. His family has worked this land, ''my entire ancestry, 15 or 20 generations, I don't know how long'', and he says he will refuse all offers of compensation for it. The fact the compensation offered for his acre has been raised by 50 per cent to $25,000 is evidence, he says, that those offering don't understand. ''If it was only me, I could take the money and live for the few years at the end of my life. But I have to hand this land on to my children and grandchildren. If I lose this land they will have nothing.
''Our lives are in this land. Without it, who are we? It is not just a house to live in, it is our way of life, our history. I am a farmer. My father passed this land to me, and I must pass it to my son. I cannot fail where my ancestors succeeded.''
Government's development minister Jairam Ramesh last month warned mining companies against forcing people from their land, saying it fuelled outlaw groups. ''This is a sad truth … that more displacement has been caused by government and public sector projects … particularly in Naxal areas. And this is why Naxalism has grown."
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