Thoothukudi in Tamil Nadu broke through to the international media when 16 protestors were killed on 22 May 2018. The people of Tuticorin District in Tamil Nadu however, have been protesting against the Sterlite copper smelting plant run by London headquartered Vedanta Resources for the past 24 years. The plant had been set up in an ecologically sensitive zone and has been operating with disastrous environmental consequences. It has been the cause of land, water and air pollution and the people in the surrounding villages have been severely affected by the plants operation. The protest movement intensified in 2018 following the proposal to expand the copper smelting units.
Even after the Tamil Nadu government has shut it down several times, the plant continued to be operational with the sanction of the Indian judiciary. Previously, attempts to set up this plant in three different states in India failed because of would be environmental and social consequences. The fact that it was installed in TamilNadu shows the contempt in which the Indian state holds the people of TamilNadu. In this sense the Thoothukudi massacre is the tip of the iceberg.
The mass protests against the Koodankulam Nuclear plant were met with similar repression. The protesting villages came under siege when state forces blocked the supply of water, food and electricity. 6800 people were charged with “sedition” and/or “waging war against the State”.
Sagar Mala is another disastrous project that has been announced to ensure the corporate looting of India’s natural resources. Special Economic Zones in the entire stretch of the Indian coast line threaten the livelihood of the fisher community representing 18% of the TamilNadu population.
The Indian government has given licenses – without the consent of the local people – to corporations to conduct oil and gas exploration in densely populated areas through the environmentally harmful “Hydraulic Fracking” method. The year-long protests of the people of Kathiramangalam village have fallen on deaf ears. The Cauvery delta region, which has been the cradle of Tamil Civilization, will be destroyed by this project. The Indian government has gone to the extent of denying the Cauvery river water for agriculture to the farmers in this region. The TamilNadu’s share of 378 TMC of water has been reduced to 177 TMC with legal sanction. The government has further notified that 45 villages in TamilNadu will be part of the Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region (PCPIR). 57,345 Acres of Farming land will be acquired for this project. The project once implemented will affect much larger area other than the regions currently identified. Over 5 million people live in these villages. The project will render the villages’ uninhabitable, resulting in mass displacement. The government has also given permission to Gail (India) Limited (GAIL) to lay 310km long pipelines in 7 districts of TamilNadu. The entire stretch of pipeline runs through the agricultural lands in 126 villages. The elected government of TamilNadu opposed the project and recommended the pipelines lay along the highways. But with the permission of the supreme court of India, the pipelines are being laid through the farming lands. GAIL has imposed severe conditions on the land owners and a meagre amount of 10% of the value of the land will be given as compensation to the farmers.
The alliance between the rogue British based multinational company and the Indian state has little regard for anything in its path. More generally, for the ‘industrial development at all costs’ paradigm, the wellbeing and concerns of the 80 million living in TamilNadu is not a factor. This is especially true as there is no support for the ruling BJP in this region in any case. The strategy of the BJP goes hand in hand with Britain’s hard-line Brexit policy makers who see the breaking away from the environmental and ethical rules of the EU as a new opportunity for ‘East India Company’ type of rapaciousness in the future. But, ‘Vedanta Resources’, and others like it, are multinational in character. For example, it is registered in several stock exchanges in Germany.
The problem is international. This is why we are setting up this international organisation – based on shared values – to build solidarity with those who are at the sharp end of this offensive. We ask all those organisations and individuals who have similar concerns to join our campaign.
23.06.18, Germany justice4thoothukudi@gmail.com
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