People in Tucson are asking questions about Vedanta and Sterlite, an Indian/British company seeking to take over Asarco, as venerable an old American/non-America mining company as you would find anywhere.
Now it appears the folk in Tucson are simply doing what an 8,000-strong tribe in India is doing: expressing concern about Vedanta and Sterlite and their commitment to mining, resource development, and land restoration.
The battle in India is ugly. Consider the salvos by Vedanta:
Vedanta argues that the area involved is a tiny fraction of the Kondh’s traditional lands, and will be returned to its natural condition once the mining is over. It has also pledged to bring health care, sanitation and education to an area where many die of preventable diseases, and where tribe members have in the past sold their babies to buy food.
On the other side, the tribe and the publicists are invoking religion as a reason not to mine (where is the Pope when we need him):
The Kondh is one of India’s most isolated tribes. It believes in witch doctors and animal sacrifices, and worship the mountains and forests they inhabit.
This battle is lead by a successful product of the old British imperial system, now turned inside-out:
Vedanta, which is controlled by the London-based billionaire Anil Agarwal, had received awards for its sustainable development programmes.
On the Vedanta website, we see this masterful piece of legalistic evasion on the topic:
The company aims to reduce the impact of its activities on the environment wherever feasible. The majority of our sites are certified to the international environmental management systems standard ISO 14001. This includes the requirement that environmental impacts are identified and that there are ongoing programmes for improvement across key impact areas.
Three years ago Vedanta published a Sustainable Development Report. It has pretty pictures and all the usual reassurances you find in documents of this type. But the three years that have elapsed since the report highlight the problem with such reports: they are generally non-sustainable. At least it is a terrible nuisance to put out an annual update.
Maybe they have been too busy pursuing opportunities in Tucson and the Kondh’s traditional land.
Comparison of what happens in Arizona versus India will be a fascinating topic for the future. Keep watch.
PS. Being the weekend, I cannot resist this from Wikipedia on the other meaning of Vedanta; makes you wonder what Agarwal was thinking when he named his company.
Vedanta (Devanagari: वेदान्त, Vedānta) is a spiritual tradition explained in the Upanishads that is concerned with the self-realisation by which one understands the ultimate nature of reality (Brahman). Vedanta which implies “the end of all knowledge” – by definition is not restricted or confined to one book and there is no sole source for Vedantic philosophy. Vedanta is based on immutable spiritual laws that are common to religions and spiritual traditions worldwide. Vedanta as the end of knowledge refers to a state of self-realisation, attainment, or cosmic consciousness. Historically and currently Vedanta is understood as a state of transcendence and not as a concept that can be grasped by the intellect alone.
The word Vedanta is a Sanskrit compound word which can be treated as:
- veda = “knowledge” + anta = “end, conclusion”: “the culmination of knowledge” or “appendix to the Veda“
- veda = “knowledge” + anta = “essence”, “core”, or “inside”: “the essence of the Vedas“. [1]
Vedānta is also called Uttara Mimamsa, or the ‘latter’ or ‘higher enquiry’, and is often paired with Purva Mimamsa, the ‘former enquiry’. Pūrva Mimamsa, usually simply called Mimamsa, deals with explanations of the fire-sacrifices of the Vedic mantras (in the Samhita portion of the Vedas) and Brahmanas, while Vedanta explicates the esoteric teachings of the Āraṇyakas (the “forest scriptures”), and the Upanishads, composed from ca. the 9th century BC until modern times.
Dear Jack Caldwell,
Mining as other gigantic ‘development’ projects have been devastating India’s land and people for years now, with the complicity of western firms and governments. In the very case of Vedanta, the scandal made the Norwegian government withdraw its funding though. A breakthrough that not many countries have accomplished so far.
Further, as you may know Anil Agarwal is one of the richest men in the world, his connivance with the authorities is known and he could not care less about indigenous people or workers.
Finally, the saddest thing remains that even the Indian Court is not rendering justice to the affected people anymore. That Court that used to be the pride of an independent impartial judicial power has sold its soul to ‘development’.
From reading this article I feel that there’s a fine line between being watchful about who or what goes on in your back yard and becoming a NIMBY. Every community has the right to know what’s going and how that might affect their way of life, but some times, overzealousness shows its ugly head and you end up with people that oppose change for the sake of it. Just the other day I was talking with an aunt of mine who was telling me about how her neighbors were opposing development in their little suburban town of 13,000. The reason? Allegedly, “Because a new mall might make their streets more crowded.” Duh! Well, it may be so, but it will also increase their property value exponentially and it will bring more jobs and it will fuel their economy in very positive ways.
So, I think that yes, we should stay alert as to what goes on in Tucson and this new mining venture, without forecasting doom beforehand.
[...] story of Vedanta, the sacred trees, and offended locals is told, from a bloggers perspective at this link. As usual, there is the claim that the forest and trees are sacred: The Kondh is one of [...]
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