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Chhattisgarh tribals losing land to biofuel

By Savita Verma in New Delhi

Santosh, a tribal woman, is in the Capital to tell the high and mighty
how villagers back home are being threatened to give up their lands
for cultivation of jatropha. The plant is being promoted in the
country as a source of biofuel due to its high oil content.

The 23-year-old from Chhattisgarh' s Bilaspur district is not alone.
Dharam Singh, a Gond, also wants his voice heard.
The two say forest officials in the state are pressuring them to give
up their land.

"They have sent us notices asking us to vacate our land to make it
available for planting jatropha. They say we will be sent to jail if
we don't vacate. How can we vacate the land which we have been
cultivating for generations, " Santosh says.

The notices have been sent to two other villages, she says. Together,
these villages would constitute over 300 acres of land. Before coming
to Delhi, the villagers knocked on the chief minister's doors for
redress. But nothing has come out of their appeal.

According to the Panchayat (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act,
1996, tribals should be given the right to decide what to do with
their commons land. However, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan governments
consider village commons as wasteland, which can be used for jatropha
cultivation.
The Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Environment has
carried out a study in Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Vidarbha on the
impact of biofuel promotion on villagers. It says that land assets of
the villages are being appropriated, tribal rights are being trampled
upon, bio-diversity is under threat and food production is falling.

"In Chhattisgarh, agricultural crops of tribals have been destroyed to
plant jatropha. The tribals are being denied their right to decide
upon what to do with their commons, which is a violation of the legal
recognition of collective rights and the Panchayats Act," Manu
Shankar, a researcher with the foundation, said. Tribal villagers, he
said, are opposed to jatropha plantations.

"The spread of industrial biofuel is not solving the problem of
climate change. It is instead creating landlessness. The diversion of
food crops to fuel has led to increase in food prices," Dr Vandana
Shiva, the foundation's director said.
The process would exacerbate poverty and undermine sustainability. It
would also affect bio-diversity, she warns.
Chhattisgarh, for example, is known to grow about thousands of
varieties of rice but these are in danger because of the emphasis on
jatropha cultivation. Similarly, in Rajasthan, numerous varieties of
medicinal plants and grasses are under threat due to promotion of
bio-fuels.
"Village commons need to be protected and their transfer to industry
for jatropha plantations must be immediately stopped," Shiva said.

Bio-fuels are being proposed as a major solution to address the
climate crisis. Their use is supposed to cut down the emission of the
green house gases, which are responsible for global warming and
climate change.

However, the process of converting crops like soya, corn and palm into
liquid fuels uses up more fossil fuel than it substitutes and thus can
actually raise carbon dioxide levels. "The US will use 20 per cent of
its corn to produce five billion gallons of ethanol which will
substitute just one per cent of oil use. If 100 per cent of corn was
used, only seven per cent of the total oil would be substituted, "
Shiva said.

She said it is the US' demand for energy that is responsible for
promotion of biofuel cultivation in a big way. "The US is pushing
Third World nations to take up biofuel production on a large scale so
that their energy needs get met."

savita.verma@ mailtoday. in

Published in www.mailtoday. in page 2-3 on 2nd Dec 2007