When the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC), the statutory body of the Environment Ministry which appraises projects that require forest land takes up take up the matter of considering the proposal for the Tipaimukh hydroelectric dam, it would bode well to go back to nature’s fury that unfolded in Uttarkhand and the resulting cries for putting an end to putting developmental projects over nature. Clearing the proposal for the Tipaimukh dam would mean approving for the submergence of 227 sq km of forest land in the state that will destroy an estimated 82.47 lakh trees. As per the records of the Environment Ministry, “the Tipaimukh hydel project requires more than one-fifth of the total 118,184 hectares of forest land diverted for execution of 497 hydel projects in the entire country after the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 came into force. The forest land required for the project is more than 100 times the average rate of diversion of forest land for 497 hydel projects for which approval under the FC Act has been accorded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.” All the figures being mentioned in association with the proposed Tipaimukh hydel project are mind boggling but if the proposal gets clearance, the numbers will be a picture of the range of devastation to the flora and fauna in the region, not to mention the additional burden of displacing people living in the area. Even as NGOs, activists and people who are likely to be affected once the proposal gets cleared have been trying to make their case heard, the fact is that a more in-depth discussion in the public consciousness is totally absent.
Aiding this lack of a public and a more inclusive debate is the lack of the attention of the national media on delving deeper into the behemoth of development projects vis a vis nature, people’s rights etc. While small media outlets are burdened by lack of resources to dig into such issues, the lack of access to information, lack of expertise in the area all contribute to not being able to look into a sustained coverage of the ‘development v/s nature/people’s rights’ issue and given the final nail in the coffin that small media outlets are limited in who they reach out to; the discomfort of the national media in going beyond the development buzz that the government dresses up its actions means that there is no mention of people who lose their homes and livelihood, no mention of ecological imbalances. The media mention happens only when there are mammoth disasters taking place and preferably in the region beyond the north eastern states.
The national media in general gives its attention and engagement to the issue of ‘development v/s nature/people’s rights’ only in the aftermath of disasters or when there are protests taking place. We saw this cursory engagement in the form of the all too brief media buzz on the national scene following the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant suffering major damages after a 9.0 richter scaled earthquake and subsequent Tsunami hit Japan leading to radio activity being released. News reports carried coverage of the nature of destruction and the kind of efforts on the ground in terms of evacuation in Fukushima. The disaster in far away Japan also led to a brief media interest in Indian’s own nuclear power plant, which has been under construction at Koodankulam in Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu since 2002. But more than in depth reportage on the safety mechanisms or the lack of it at the nuclear power plant site, the media attention was on the protests by people in the area and activists of the People`s Movement Against Nuclear Energy group. Disasters or anything else for that matter taking place in the north eastern region do not get the amount of brevity, engagement or sustained coverage in the national media.
The added factor of the resources of the region being used to supply various outputs like power, oil and other minerals for the consumption of the people n the rest of the country subsequently puts on the veil of silence and sight on what is happening in the region. In such a context, what is needed is for environmentalists and subject experts to step forward, make studies and then share their thoughts. One cannot leave it to Government agencies who will give it the ‘development’ spin or to the NGOs whose very nature, especially in Manipur is to only oppose the take of the Government.