HT Digital
ITANAGAR, Feb 18: Thousands of locals of Longtom-I & II, Panchun, and Injan of Kharsang held a mass protest rally on Monday against the ongoing auction of the Namchik East and West coal mine projects in Arunachal Pradesh’s Changlang district.
The demonstrators, expressing their strong opposition to the mining plans, marched en masse to protest against the potential environmental and social consequences of open-cast coal mining in the region.
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The protest, which was led by the Injan, Panchun, Longtom-I, and Longtom-II Committee (IPLLC), culminated in a memorandum being submitted to the chief minister through the Miao Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC). The memorandum called for an immediate suspension of the auction process owing to serious concerns of forced eviction and ecological devastation.
In the view of the protesters, open-cast coal mining presents a major risk to the indigenous Tangsa communities who live in the impacted villages. They pointed out that the project has the potential to displace about 3,000 residents in 500 households from their traditional means of living.
The demonstrators called on the state government to scrap the auction and review proposals for large-scale mining in ecologically sensitive areas, as well as protect the rights of indigenous forest and land. In their communications with the media, IPLLC members accused the government of conducting the auction process without consultations with affected communities and without a pre-agreement to go ahead. They argued that the neglect of prevailing norms in such a way ignores the interest of the local people. They also blamed the Union Coal Ministry for distorting key information by failing to include the number of households impacted in the planned coal blocks.
IPLLC President Semkhum Tonglim expressed grave concerns about the scope of the planned mining project, which spans approximately 600.07 hectares.
He said, “The project will not only displace on a large scale but also alter the ecological and demographic profile of the area in the long run. He further noted that Longtom-I and II, established prior to India’s independence, are classified under the unclassed state forest area and are inhabited by over 160 families with a population of over 1,000.”
The villages, he said, have been traditionally living by agriculture and forestry for decades, and their displacement would be a violation of constitutional rights, the Forest Rights Act of 2006, and the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980. The IPLLC reaffirmed its opposition to the project, vowing to increase protests until the auction is halted. The committee insisted that the government needs to re-strategize and engage in direct dialogue with the affected communities before proceeding further.
The Namchik East and Namchik West coal blocks, to be auctioned, are an extension of the Namchik-Namphuk coalfield with a total estimated reserve of 45.802 million tonnes of coal over an area of 600 hectares. The technical bid for auction commenced on February 3, and the final bidding process is on March 3.
