Villagers in Shendi village, in Maharashtra, claim they were not consulted about the state's decision to give Dow Chemical around 40 hectares of grazing land, allegedly for research and development. Nor were environmental safeguards put in place considering the tainted and dubious record that the American multinational company enjoys in India

The Maharashtra government has given around 40 hectares of grazing land to Dow Chemical for a controversial chemical research and development facility planned by the company in Shendi village, in Chakan, 30 km from the city of Pune.

This, despite massive protests from villagers who claim they were not informed nor were environmental safeguards put in place considering the tainted and dubious record that the American multinational company enjoys in India.

On March 28, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh gave his approval for the Rs 400 crore, 100 hectare facility, based on a report by a committee headed by State Environment Secretary S Goyal to examine the villagers' protests. State officials say the project will go ahead once it is approved by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

In a September 2006 letter to the government, Dow proposed a Dow Technology Park, including research and development. This February it told the committee the facility would be "a research and not manufacturing site dedicated to technology related to purification and desalination of water, paints, etc".

Permission given by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board last October has been scrapped for new consent which states that the facility will be used only for "research and development" and not for manufacture, as was earlier sanctioned.

Goyal stated that protests by locals who had used the Right to Information (RTI) Act to unearth the government's lapses were prompting the state to treat the project as a special case. Earlier clearance had been given as a matter of routine. "Now we have added many new conditions such as an environmental impact assessment, risk analysis, onsite and offsite safety. Also, given the Bhopal litigation, we are directing them to get clearance from the MoEF," he said.

However, activists say there is no environmental impact assessment report for the project. Based on documents obtained from the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, using the RTI Act, a Pune-based organisation has found that Dow was given consent to use 20 chemicals, listed as hazardous (in Schedule I of the Manufacture, Storage and Import of Hazardous Chemical rules) under the Environment Protection Act, 1980.

The villagers say they had no clue about the facility as recently as December 2007, when construction work was stepped up. "In December we heard that Dow was setting up a research unit near Pune. We wondered if the factory coming up in our village was the same; there was no board put up. We found then that it was Dow's centre. A gram sabha meeting was called and a resolution was passed against the facility," says Shantaram Maruti Panmand, former sarpanch of Shendi.

The villagers claim they were not consulted about the project. "Of the 65 hectares of grazing land, the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) had encroached about 40 hectares, which it has given to Dow, without the gram sabha's permission," says Panmand.

The village's dairy business has reportedly suffered losses worth Rs 8-10 lakh in the past six months. "We used to send 5,000 litres of milk in a truck, but barely manage to send a tempo a day now," says Kishan Kendre, a Shendi resident. "Each family has 10-20 cattle and earned Rs 10,000 per month from the dairy business. We are now forced to buy fodder worth Rs 9,000 per month. I have been forced to sell 20 buffaloes."

However, Pune Collector P K Deshmukh says the villagers' claims are not valid. "Grazing land is government land and it has been rightly and legally transferred by the revenue department to the industrial department; and legally notified. MIDC has allocated the land to Dow. The law does not require the permission of the gram sabha or panchayat," he says.

Over 10 villages in Khed taluka of Pune district have launched large-scale protests to save their grazing lands. They are not allowing construction material for the facility into their villages.

The situation first turned ugly in late-February when the state tried to send two trucks of cement and one truck of steel, along with three truckloads of reserve police, into the area. The villagers retaliated by digging up the approach road, and over 130 people were arrested on February 28. Others did not allow the police to leave and cut off the water supply to Dow's workers at the site. To avert an escalation of the situation, the police released the arrested villagers the next day.

Despite the state's assurance that the situation is under control, the tension is palpable. "We are not scared and are ready to get arrested again," says Panmand.

Activists support the villagers' claims. "Dow says MIDC has given it the land. But the land revenue records as of January 10, 2008, show that the 40 hectares is under the village panchayat. In spite of all the talk of empowering panchayats in the country, officials still have such draconian powers," says Neeraj Jain of the Remove Dow, Save Pune Movement against the proposed facility.

The Maharashtra government signed a memorandum of understanding with the company on October 31, 2007. After protests began, the state set up a high-powered committee in early-February to look into Dow's proposal. The committee is expected to submit its report soon.

"The committee held meetings on February 14 and 25. We raised a lot of questions but the collector could answer none. We demanded the project report but we were told it was confidential," says Ankush Baburao Ganwat, one of the villagers who were arrested.

The villagers are now planning to file a chargesheet against the company. "On March 16, a people's court, headed by two retired judges of the Bombay High Court, was held in Pune. This was followed by a protest march from Dehu village to the plant site, on March 23," says Jain.

Source: Business Standard, April 1, 2008
              Hindustan Times, April 1, 2008