Discontent, Conflict, Social Resistance and Violence at Non-Metallic Mining Frontiers in India
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Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal 2 (1): 31–42, January 2019 SPECIAL SECTION: Ecological Distribution Conflicts in India Discontent, Conflict, Social Resistance and Violence at Non-metallic Mining Frontiers in India Arpita Bisht Abstract: The twenty-first century is witnessing increased extraction of natural resources across the globe, which includes biomass, metal ores and tailings, fossil energy carriers, and industrial and construction materials. Increasing extraction of resources is largely a result of either intensification of extractive operations in existing extractive locations, or as a result of expansion of frontiers of resource extraction to new geospatial locations across the world. Amongst these, extraction of construction materials has been the highest in the last century. This article analyses conflicts surrounding such minerals which are non-metallic, low value, and extracted to a large degree by local or regional extractive agents, with a special focus on the social violence exerted in such conflicts. Keywords: sand mining, ecological distribution conflicts, EJAtlas, extractivism, social violence 1. INTRODUCTION In the twenty-first century, extraction of natural resources has increased all across the world. Between 1900 and 2005, total global raw material consumption—which includes biomass, metal ores and tailings, fossil energy carriers, and industrial and construction materials—saw a massive increase from 7,117 million tons to 59,474 million tons (Krausmann et al. 2009). Among these resource groups, extraction of construction materials witnessed the maximum increase growing by a factor of 34, closely followed by ores and industrial minerals which increased by a factor of 27 (Krausmann et al. 2009). This increase in extraction of construction The Energy Resource Institute (TERI), Darbari Seth Block, IHC Complex, Lodhi Road, New Delhi 110 003, India; [email protected] Copyright © Bisht 2019. Released under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC 4.0) by the author. Published by Indian Society for Ecological Economics (INSEE), c/o Institute of Economic Growth, University Enclave, North Campus, Delhi 110007. ISSN: 2581-6152 (print); 2581-6101 (web). DOI: https://doi.org/10.37773/ees.v2i1.54 Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [32] minerals, such as sand and gravel, appears as a certain fact although it is true that sufficient data is not available to corroborate this for most regions of the world. Extraction of minerals related to the construction industry are of strategic importance, and likely to see further increase, specifically in the fast urbanizing and industrializing economies of the Global South across the world. This article deals with conflicts surrounding such minerals, which are non-metallic, low value, and extracted to a large degree by local or regional extractive agents. World over the growing extraction of resources is largely a result of either intensification of extractive operations in existing extractive locations or expansion of frontiers of resource extraction to new geospatial locations. Since the 2000s, the bulk of resources are extracted in the rapidly industrializing countries such as China, India, and various countries in Latin America (Özkaynak et al. 2012). The growing resource extraction in these countries has led to expanding frontiers of resource extraction into physical spaces inhabited by people. This frontier expansion often directly impacts the lives of local communities through displacement. The resultant ecological degradation, further impacts their lives and livelihoods, directly or indirectly, by altering the patterns of their access to natural resources (Martinez-Alier 2002), which they are often dependent on for sustenance. As such, this expansion often results in the generation of Ecological Distribution Conflicts (EDCs) and resistance movements by affected people “in defence of communitarian livelihoods against resource extraction” (Martinez-Alier et al. 2014). In this article, EDCs against sand and gravel extraction in India are analyzed. The second section of this article presents a brief look at how non-metallic minerals are linked to urbanization in India. The third section presents discussions around the most common and troubling facet of such mineral “extractivism” in India—that of social violence. It also discusses the outcomes of some of the cases of social resistance movements against such forms of “extractivism” over the past two decades. The fourth section concludes the article. 2. URBANIZATION, THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY AND DEVELOPMENT MINERALS “EXTRACTIVISM” In a previous article on environmental conflicts in India (Bisht and Gerber 2017) the main focus was on iron ore and other metallic materials. Here the focus is on so-called “development minerals”, which are minerals and materials that are mined, processed, manufactured and used domestically in industries such as construction, manufacturing, and agriculture. They can [33] Arpita Bisht further be sub-divided into four broad categories: a) construction minerals, which include sand and gravel; b) industrial minerals (calcium, feldspar, talc, graphite, dolomite, mica etc., including ilmenite as a titanium ore); c) semi- precious minerals (opal, amythyst, garnet, etc.); and d) dimension stones (such as granite, limestone and marble). The extraction of such minerals often occurs within unclear and uncertain legal and regulatory frameworks. Further, there is often a lack of publicly available, reliable, and easily accessible geological data with regard to quantities of extraction of these commodities (Hilson 2016). As in other newly industrializing economies, India’s contribution to mineral extractivism has significantly expanded in the past few decades. Since the early 1980s, India’s metabolic profile experienced sustained growth in absolute as well as per capita material consumption of natural resources (Singh et al. 2012). Apart from bulk minerals like iron ore and bauxite, these construction minerals, including but not limited to stone, marble, sand, granite etc, have seen increasing extraction across the country (Joy and Rao 1988; Gadgil and Guha 1994). Development minerals are largely utilized in the construction industry, therefore, with predicted increases in urbanization, their consumption is likely to go up in the coming decades. The rural population of India increased from 298 million in 1951, to 833 million in 2011. Further, the population residing in urban areas1 in India, as per Census records, increased from 11.4% to 30% between 1901 and 2011. By 2030, according to the UN State of the World Population (2007), India’s urban population would be 40.76% of its total population. These figures represent a massive increase in urban populations, which will require further expansion of existing infrastructure to support such a transition. Currently, India’s metro-cities accommodate a large section of its population. Mumbai and Delhi, two largest cities, have populations of close to 22.1 million, and 28 million, respectively, as per the 2011 census of India. However, expansion of more cities and towns is expected in the near future, further adding to the growth of the construction industry. Two major factors are responsible for the boom in construction activities: private construction and public expansion of urbanization. As disposable incomes have increased, it has raised the demand for private residential accommodations. This has led to an expansion of construction all across the country, particularly in the peripheral areas of large cities. Besides the 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_area Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal [34] increase in private construction activities across the country, the government of India, in order to address issues related to overcrowding and urban management has embarked upon the Smart Cities Mission. This program envisions and supports the creation of 100 “smart” cities which will serve as model areas based on integrated development plan, which is expected to have a rub-off effect on other parts of the city, and nearby cities and towns in India, among others, with the aim of reducing population burdens in the five metro cities. As a result of all these policies, there is a predicted necessary increase in construction and urbanization activities in India in the near future. Of all the development minerals, sand and gravel are major interest being the basic ingredient of the construction industry. Sand utilized in the construction industry is usually only available in and around rivers. Other forms of sand such as desert sand cannot replace river sand in its utility for construction purposes (Rajendran 2013). This industry operates with multiple small-scale, regional and local agents, and involves a large degree of informality and often illegality in its operations. Available studies estimate that of the total number of mines producing development minerals in India, about 90% are informal. These informal mines generate close to 50% of the total output of development minerals (Chakravorty 2001). Previous research unraveled extraction of sand, which is widespread and often carried out illegally by small-scale actors near rivers or beaches, as the cause of most ecological distribution conflicts (Bisht and Gerber 2017). The EJAtlas had reported only eight cases of sand and gravel conflicts in India as of December 2018 (out of nearly 300 environmental conflicts) but this is due to