Jana Yatra/Long March on its way towards Rampal

Soumya Dutta

In Bangladesh, a growing movement to save the world’s largest mangroves from coal power attack


Bangladesh’s 1,320 megawatt Rampal coal power project threatens to devastate the Sundarbans and the communities whose livelihoods depend on it. If completed, it will consume about 13,000 tons of imported coal daily, result in over six miles of river dredging each year, discharge highly toxic sludge, and release ten million tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Soumya Dutta & Neha Mathew

Think of nearly one crore (10 million) people with thriving natural resource dependent local economies, Bengal Tigers and Ganges & Irrawaddy Dolphins. What do all three have in common? The Sundarbans, a UNESCO World Heritage-listed mangrove forest, world’s largest continuous block of tidal mangroves at that, a recognized Ramsar wetland and also the world’s largest delta stretching across parts of Bangladesh and India. Its name, Sundarbans, means “beautiful forest” in Bengali.Many suggest that the name might have originated from the abundant Sundari trees, the mangrove species called Heritierafomes. The larger part (over two-third) of this over 10,000 SqKms forests fall in Bangladesh territory, but the borders are more political with nature integrating the parts in more ways than one.  It falls in the administrative areas of Khulna division in Bangladesh and the districts of South and North 24 Parganas in West Bengal in India. It is created by a rare mega confluence of four big rivers in southern Bangladesh and West Bengal – Ganges /Hooghly, Padma, Bramhaputra and Meghna. The GBM river system – though much smaller in water volume than the Amazon system, is known to carry about the largest silt load in the world of any river system, and have thus created this largest and unique and most fertile deltaic forests and rich habitations.

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Map of the project area bordering Sundarbans. The Possur river will be used to bring in massive coal barges from the Bay of Bengal (to the south) through the forest. The straight line distance from the project site to Sundarbans is 14 KMs. The dark area clearly shows the forest cover still existing, despite large scale deforestation over the last 200 years.

This international treasure hosts an important Biosphere Reserve and a national park (providing highest level of protection) in West Bengal state on its Indian side – The Sundarbans National Park (also a Tiger Reserve) and the Sajnakhali Wildlife Sanctuary. On its Bangladeshi side, it hosts three protected forests – Sundarbans East, West and South Wildlife Sanctuaries. The Sundarbans are home to a myriad of wildlife, including the rare Ganges and Irrawaddy Dolphins and is the largest habitat of the majestic Bengal Tiger. Over three million people’s livelihoods depend directly on access to the Sundarbans’ natural resources, while many more millions live in and depend on the Sundarbans indirectly. Stretching over 6,200 sqkms in the Bangladesh side, the forest protects over four crore people and the eighth most populous country from increasing climate change-driven extreme weather events like stronger tropical cyclones, on both sides of the Bangladesh-India border.

Andnow the Sundarbans are in big trouble.

This global treasure and the intricate riverine delta eco-system in the Bangladesh territory have played witness to several smaller industrial disasters over the past few years. On March 19, a cargo vessel carrying 1,235 tons of coal capsized in the Shela River at the Chandpai Range of the Sundarbans. In October 2015, another coal vessel carrying 510 tons of coalcapsized in the Passur River. In May 2015, a vessel with 500 tons of toxic fertilizer sank in the Bhola River in the Sundarbans. An oil spill from a sinking tanker in December 2014 spilled 357,665 litres of furnace oil into the Shela River. Despite these disasters, this is just the beginning for what is possibly to come to the Sundarbans — a destructive coal development. Two coal-fired power projects — the Rampal and the not-too-far Orion-Khulna projects — are proposed to be built less than 15 kilometres away from the Sundarbans. The Rampal project, which is well on its way with ground preparations moving fast – is being financed by the Indian Export Import Bank and the privately promoted Orion project will potentially be financed by the US Export Import Bank.

A joint venture between Bangladesh’s Power Development Board (PDB) and India’s state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) is already constructing the 1,320 megawatt Rampalcoal power project, also known as the Maitree(friendship) Super Thermal Power Project, and is now threatening to devastate the Sundarbans and the communities whose livelihoods depend on it.

The Rampal coal project, if completed, will consume about 13,000 tons of imported coal daily, result in over six miles of river dredging each year and create an over 25-acre coal ash pond filled with highly toxic sludge – with nearly one million tons of ash generated each year. It will release about ten million tons of carbon dioxide annually, or the equivalent of cutting down about 450 million trees each year. The 4.7 million tons of coal needed to supply this plant every year will be shipped close to the coast in the Bay of Bengal at Akram Point and carried in barges through the fragile river inside the mangrove forests, day in and day out, spilling huge amounts of chemically toxic coal dust into the sensitive ecosystem. Huge increase of machinery and supply carrying barges through the sensitive forested rivers will be damaging to the wild life. Burning this massive amount of coal will also emit an estimated 52000 tons sulphur dioxide and 31000 tons of nitrogen oxides every year – both known to be health and environment damaging, including inducing acid rains. Daily hot water discharge of over 10 crore (100 million) litres in the Possur river (from the cooling system) is sure to devastate the aquatic life, including the economically important fish species. The Orion-Khulna power project, a 565 megawatt coal-fired power project privately owned by Orion Group, will add nearly half as much again of these toxic discharges to the water, air, and land. Taken together, Rampaland Orion plants will add over one-fifth as much climate threatening CO2 to Bangladesh’s current total annual CO2 emission! And taking advantage of the projected power availability, extremely polluting industries like cement plants, ship breaking yards, and many others are already making a beeline for these endangered forests.

Orion Group has also sponsored the Orion-Dhaka a coal power plant in the Mushiganj District, around 150 miles south of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s densely populated capital city. According to Orion Group, this Orion-Dhaka Plant may also be financed by the US ExIm Bank.

India is playing a massive role in the Rampal project with its state-owned NTPC holding half the equity at 15 percent of project cost (remaining half of the equity being held by Bangladesh Power Development Board), the Indian Ex-Im Bank is financing the US$1.82 billion (Bangladesh Taka 14,584 cores) project, Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL) has won the bid as a the equipment supplier, and Price Waterhouse Coopers, India (PWC-I) has been contracted to source coal for the project. The project would actually be illegal on the Indian side of the Sundarbans, as India’s Wildlife Protection Act called for a 15-kilometer exclusion zone around national parks, wildlife sanctuaries, and reserve forests, and the Rampal power plant is only 14 kilometres away from the Sundarbans, and only 4 KMs from the ecologically critical area (ECA).  The 1834 Acres of land acquired for the project (mostly using force and threats to the original land owning villagers, whom we talked to) was most fertile multi-crop land and aquaculture ponds, giving good incomes to the villagers.

NTPC is both the largest power producer and the largest polluter in India, and in tandem with Coal India Ltd, is the world’s largest coal producer-consumer government entity. Together, these two companies have displaced and devastated the tribal, indigenous, and farming populations in many forested regions in central and eastern India, poisoned many rivers, and caused massive health issues for the crores of people who live near their projects. And in Bangladesh where the environmental and social laws are even less stringent than in India, the consequences of the Rampaland Orion power projects would be devastating.

In fact, in April 2015, the group South Asians for Human Rights conducted a fact-finding mission and later last year released a report that highlights several human rights concerns as well as flaws in the Rampal coal project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) and resettlement process.

The Sundarbans here is not only habitat and livelihood support for over three million Bangladeshi people, it is also the best protection from increasing tropical cyclones, and protects around 35-40 million people from the worst impacts of climate change.  People of Bangladesh are also emotionally attached to the Sundarbans and its natural riches, as it is also an identity for them (the national cricket team is called ‘the Tigers’, and this emotional bond with the ‘beautiful forests’ have drawn people from even far off places to protest these destructive developments.

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Site preparation in Rampal progressing fast. Photo Credit: Soumya Dutta

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Fertile farmland & aquaculture ponds sit next to Rampal project site. Photo Credit: Soumya Dutta

Local Resistance from Bangladesh to India

These destructive coal projects have faced massive public resistance for years. The people of Bangladesh have been tirelessly fighting to protect their homes, livelihoods, and the Sundarbans. And as a result, the development of the Rampal power project has been delayed several years. Since 2001, communities in Bangladesh have been protesting to save the Sundarbans and started organizing protest marches and rallies across the country. About 20,000 people participated in the first Long March in 2013, marching nearly 250 miles from Dhaka to Rampal in protest of the proposed coal-fired power project. The protest was organized under the leadership of the “National Committee for Protection of Oil, Gas, Minerals, Electricity, and Ports.”

The second Long March was held from March 10-13, 2016, and nearly a thousand people from all walks of life in Bangladesh marched again for over 100 miles – with thousands more locals participating in protest meetings all along the route – in protest of both the Rampal coal project and the adjacent Orion Khulna power station. There were over a dozen large public meetings in as many towns on way from the capital Dhaka to the small town Katakhali during these four days, and throughout the march there was strong participation from youth, student unions, worker’s unions, left parties, farmers, tour operators and other people dependent on the Sundarbans.

Looking at the massive role that the Indian government is playing in the Rampal coal power project, an 11-member-strong contingent of Indian civil society activists took active part in the Long March to express solidarity and share actions. Throughout the route, activists heard many chants — “There are alternatives to producing power, BUT none for the Sundarbans,” “Sundarbans is our mother, we will not let it get destroyed,” “We will give our blood and our lives, but not give away the Sundarbans,”, “Coal plants kill and damage. We won’t let it happen here.”

The Jana Yatra or long march ended on the afternoon of March 13 with a large public meeting at Katakhali – the entrance to the Sundarbans area, giving a warning to Bangladeshi government to scrap the plan for the Rampal coal project or face even larger public actions.

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Public meeting in Khulna town, gateway for the Sundarbans. Photo Credit: Soumya Dutta

A Strong International Movement

Internationally, many organizations and activists are standing in solidarity to save the Sundarbans. Seven U.S.-based groups have already coalesced to urge the U.S. Export-Import Bank (which is said to be considering funding the Orion plant) to publicly commit to rejecting any proposal for the financing of harmful coal projects near the Sundarbans and any other harmful fossil fuel projects in Bangladesh.

Today, there are environmentally friendly and economically competitive alternatives for producing electricity to massively damaging coal. Bangladesh, in particular, has one of the fastest growing solar home system projects in the world. The potential for much less harmful wind power near the coastal belt, with new high hub turbines reaching well above the forest canopy, might be considerable.  And with very low power consumption at present, Bangladesh has a chance to go a much cleaner electricity route – if supported appropriately.  As it is already one of the most vulnerable (actually, the 2nd most vulnerable in the world) countries to climate change induced impacts and disasters, Bangladesh should not commit to disastrous projects like Rampal and Orion. Already facing massive land erosion, farm-land salinity, and submergence due to climate change effects, the rights of communities in Bangladesh need to be supported now more than ever.

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Local people at Rampal site. Photo Credit: Soumya Dutta

There is no excuse for destroying one of the world’s greatest treasures, and the home and livelihood support for so many, in the name of fossil fuelled power. It is also time for Indian and U.S. financial institutions to join the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund and major French banks and say no to financing coal projects in Bangladesh and near the Sundarbans.

Postscript

Less than one month after the massive Jana Yatra ended with a clear warning to Bangladesh and Indian governments that people will not allow this massively destructive projects in their mother-lands, the Sundarbans, news of another large coal power development in another beautiful region of Bangladesh coast resurfaced with tragic consequences.  On the 4th of April 2016, indiscriminate and unprovoked firing by police and hired goons of the promoter company, killed four villagers protesting the illegal and forceful acquisition of their land by Bangladeshi business conglomerate S Alam Group, which is trying to set up a 1220 MW coal fired power plant in the densely populated and very productive coastal area of BanskhaliUpazila in Chittagong.  Hundreds of people are reported injured. As reported, the police fired upon and even helped the company goons to assemble and fire on the thousands of unarmed protesters from the villages under threat of losing their lands, houses, mosques – even cyclone shelters in this natural hazard prone coastal belt. This is a brazen attack on the fundamental rights of ordinary people, on democracy and justice.

As Indian people’s movements and civil society groups, we express our heart-felt condolence to the families and friends of the innocent people killed and injured. We strongly condemn this heinous attack on ordinary people’s basic rights to their land, homes and nature-dependent livelihoods and demand immediate ordering of an impartial probe on this whole incident.  We also demand that the cases slapped on over 3000 local people be immediately withdrawn and the forceful land acquisition process be stopped forthwith pending full investigation.

This big coal power project in the coastal area of Chittagong is being pushed in collaboration with two Chinese companies, SEPCOIIII Electric Power and HTG, and the agreement for this was signed in 2013. The Bangladesh government approved this in February 2016.  The area targeted is home to thousandsof families, around 70 mosques, grave yards, a technical education institution, around 20 cyclone shelter houses, 1 high school, 8 primary government schools, several Madrassas, 5 markets, and 1 government hospital. In spite of this large and thriving population in the locality, a total of only 150 households have been reported in the area by the local administration in order to be able to handover the land to S. Alam group.

Local people have earlier requested relocating this to a sparsely populated area, but ignoring the rich agricultural, fisheries and salt-making based economy of the area, the Bangladesh government has permitted the group to set up a big and highly polluting coal power plant in the coastal Gondamara village area of Banskhali, Chittagong.  The over 600 Acres of land being acquired would uproot thousands of local farmers, many of whom get three crops a year from these fertile lands. The area is also rich in fishery resources, and thousands of small salt producers practice their environment friendly livelihoods while supplying salt to Bangladesh.

Thesemassive protestsshow that this kind of big and polluting project based “development” is hurting many more people in this poor country than the supposed beneficiaries. The people of Bangladesh have every right to get more electricity, but this must not be at the cost of snatching away their livelihoods, their most productive farm lands, the hugely economically important and protective mangrove forests.  Bangladesh is known to be one of the most vulnerable countries from the adverse impacts of increasing climate change threats, and must protect the lives and livelihoods of its vulnerable people at all costs.

Soumya Dutta, is convenor of Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha & founder member -India Climate Justice. Neha Mathew is with the Sierra Club’s International Campaign.

A version of this article was published by The Huffington Post

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