Illegal Mining” in India

H U M A N R I G H T S Out of Control Mining, Regulatory Failure, and Human Rights in India WATCH Out of Control Mining, Regulatory Failure, and Human Rights in India Copyright © 2012 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 1-56432-898-8 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch is dedicated to protecting the human rights of people around the world. We stand with victims and activists to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom, to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime, and to bring offenders to justice. We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold abusers accountable. We challenge governments and those who hold power to end abusive practices and respect international human rights law. We enlist the public and the international community to support the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org JUNE 2012 ISBN: 1-56432-898-8 Out of Control Mining, Regulatory Failure and Human Rights in India Summary ............................................................................................................................. 1 Key Recommendations ........................................................................................................ 7 To the Government of India ...................................................................................................... 7 To India’s State Governments .................................................................................................. 8 To the United Nations Special Rapporteurs on the Right to Health and on the Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation ................................................................................................. 8 Methodology ...................................................................................................................... 9 I. Background: “Illegal Mining” in India ............................................................................. 10 Mining, Megaprojects and Controversy .................................................................................. 10 Patterns of Illegal Activity in India’s Mining Sector .................................................................. 11 What is “illegal mining?” ....................................................................................................... 12 II. Goa Case Study: Regulatory Collapse and its Consequences ......................................... 15 Background ........................................................................................................................... 15 “A Total Lack of Governance” .................................................................................................. 15 Failure to Track Basic Indicators of Compliance ...................................................................... 16 Consent to Operate ......................................................................................................... 16 Production Figures .......................................................................................................... 18 Central Government Failures ........................................................................................... 19 Conflicts of Interest and Allegations of Corruption .................................................................. 19 Human Rights Impacts .......................................................................................................... 22 Health, Environmental and Livelihood Concerns .................................................................... 23 Health Concerns ............................................................................................................. 23 Water and Agriculture ..................................................................................................... 24 Protest and Response ............................................................................................................ 27 Threats and Violence ............................................................................................................. 28 An Inevitable Scandal ............................................................................................................ 29 A Test for Goa’s New Government .......................................................................................... 30 III. Regulatory Collapse in India’s Mining Sector ............................................................... 33 The Answer is Always Yes: Government Approval of New Mining Operations ........................... 34 Inadequate Consideration of Community Impacts .................................................................. 35 India’s Environmental Impact Assessment Regime: Rotten Core of a Broken System .............. 36 Mandatory Public Consultations: A Lost Opportunity .............................................................. 40 Weak Oversight of Operational Mines .................................................................................... 43 Longstanding Critiques ......................................................................................................... 43 The Role of Corruption ........................................................................................................... 44 IV. Karnataka Case Study: Criminality and Mining ............................................................. 46 Seizing Control ...................................................................................................................... 46 A Broader Collapse of Governance ......................................................................................... 49 Human Rights Impacts .......................................................................................................... 50 From Impunity to Accountability ............................................................................................ 53 V. Mining and Human Rights: Government’s Duty to Regulate .......................................... 56 The Need for Regulation ........................................................................................................ 56 The Duty to Regulate to Protect Human Rights ........................................................................ 57 Social and Economic Rights Obligations ................................................................................ 59 VI. A Nationwide Problem .................................................................................................. 60 VII. Reining in the Abuse: Practical Steps Forward for India’s Government ........................ 63 Beyond the New Mining Law .................................................................................................. 63 Key Recommendations .......................................................................................................... 65 Dramatically Improve the Environmental Impact Assessment Regime ............................... 65 A Review of all Existing Environmental Clearances for Mining Projects .............................. 67 Stricter Oversight of Existing Mines ................................................................................. 67 New Steps to Ensure Accountability for Illegal and Abusive Actions .................................. 68 Acknowledgments ............................................................................................................ 70 Summary India’s mining industry is an increasingly important part of the economy, employing hundreds of thousands of people and contributing to broader economic growth. But mining can be extraordinarily harmful and destructive if not properly regulated—as underscored by a long list of abuses and disasters around the world. And because of a dangerous mix of bad policies, weak institutions, and corruption, government oversight and regulation of India’s mining industry is largely ineffectual. The result is chaos. The scale of lawlessness that prevails in India’s mining sector is hard to overstate. Even government officials acknowledge that the mining sector faces a myriad of problems, including widespread “illegal mining.” Generally speaking, that refers to cases where operators harvest resources they have no legal right to exploit. Official statistics indicate that there were more than 82,000 instances of illegal mining in 2010 alone—an annual rate of 30 criminal acts for every legitimate mining operation in the country. But this report argues that an even bigger problem is the failure of key regulatory mechanisms to ensure that even legal mine operators comply with the law and respect human rights. Global standards of industry good practice have evolved to recognize that unless mine operators exercise caution and vigilance, direct harmful impacts on surrounding communities are likely. In India and around the world, experience has shown that without effective government regulation, not all companies will behave responsibly. Even companies that make serious efforts to do so often fall short without proper government oversight. This report is not a targeted investigation of particular companies or headline-grabbing “megaprojects.”

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