Shweta Site VisitJune - July 2012

~as reported by Bala Ram (AID Bay Area Chapter)

OverviewO Shweta (as part of The Other Media and with Madumita Dutta & Nity) has been

working in Pollution (industrial, mining, solid waste,etc) related work with the unique concept of “Community Enviornment Monitoring” (CEM) in several areas notably Cuddalore, Kodai, Cheyyur, Mettur (TN), Eloor (Kerala), Himachal Pradesh & Goa

O CEM means impacted community fighting for their case with empowerment/training from Shweta/Nity and others. The objective is to achieve fully localized effort and use that as a model in all impacted communities.

O With above, Nity, Shweta and team started in Cuddalore on CEM and are working on many such areas across India.

O Core members along with Shweta are,O Nity JayaramanO Saravanan (an experienced community volunteer who focus is on beach

related work)O Sreela, the Mettur co-ordinator under guidance from ShwetaO Others experts like Madhumita Dutta.

Village (ex: CEM Cuddalore) DemographicsO Several thousands villagers (and this expands to several tens of thousands of

villagers that will get fully impacted if upcoming massive petro-chemical park/oil refinery/10K mw coal power plant comes) are directly impacted by air, water pollution.

O This area has enormous economic potential rather than polluting industries. Agriculture based activities, solar industries, fisheries, etc give huge opportunities as Cuddalore is strategically located close to the mega world city of Chennai.

O What was once thriving villages are now smashed in middle of around 52 highly polluting industries. Note that the count is now around 30 as due to economic and China angle, around 10 to 20 or so have closed. But the area is highly dangerous to live with toxic chemicals in the air making even breathing highly dangerous.

In front of Sipcot Cuddalore area with local Cuddalroe CEM volunteers Pugazh, Arul and others

Local CEM volunteer Pugazh demonstrating the bucket technique of monitoring pollution

Shweta is the glue on Cuddalore (and other areas).Although the effort is highly local now, TN/Indian Govt has planned an entire stretch of 75 kms from Cuddalore to Nagapattinam for highly toxic industries including huge coal power plants which is being actively RTI-ed, NGT (national green tribunal) appeal, legal angle, continuous inputs, etc are given by Shweta.Shweta and team have taken up Cuddalore effort into Mettur also with the hope of achieving the same level of success in Mettur also.What was a pure unmitigated disaster in Sipcot Cuddalore is now ‘ improved’ due to CEM pioneered by Nity/Shweta team.(local effulent treatment plant which dumps effulent rather than properly treating the toxis into the background Uppanar river, which is highly toxic now due to pollution)

Pollution Patrol workbook analysis sheet which is submitted regularly to local Pollution control board.

Impact of Shewta & CEMO Due to continuous work of Shweta & CEM, support for pollution control is widely prelevant

in Sipcot Cuddalore.

O The ban of new industries was shortlived in this area as this area is highly toxic, the Govt is bulldozing with massive plans.

O Shweta and team are proceeding on case by case basis in tackling the new things as per law (which at every turn gets violated) that are coming up including the petro chemical complex and other massive plans between Cuddalore and Nagai.

O Continuous updates including the latest on the ILF&S (http://sipcotcuddalore.com/news_digitalchronicle_050612.html ) can be had at www.sipcotcuddalore.com which has Shweta (and her team) impressions on each and every action in pollution impacted areas.

O Shweta at same time is the core in Mettur, Himachal Pradesh, Goa areas with the effort of CEM.

O Without the unique concept of CEM and hands on working by Shweta (and Nity), areas like Sipcot Cuddalore, Mettur, etc would have been huge disasters and now they have strong hope of being another normal area

Impact of Shewta & CEMO Without the unique concept of CEM and hands on working by Shweta (and Nity),

areas like Sipcot Cuddalore, Mettur, etc would have been huge disasters and now they have strong hope of being another normal area in near future at same time their struggle being fully local in terms of organization and funding.

A typical hut house in Sipcot Cuddalore. These types of homes have been stuck in middle of massive factories that are causing massive pollution

The ‘ever starting’ Nagarjuna oil refinery which was blasted out by Cyclone Thane and resembled a war zone due to Cyclone hit.

Impact of the Huge GoI plans in Cud-Nagai BeltO GoI has masive plans in the fertile and thriving Cuddalore to Nagai belt (

http://www.indianexpress.com/news/tn-pcpir-to-create-7.5-lakh-jobs-in-cuddalore-region-ministry/973083/ )

O Shweta and team have approached NGT and have challenged the EAC (environment appraisal committee) order which overruled the NGT order (http://www.thehindu.com/news/states/tamil-nadu/article3453104.ece ) of stopping the ma-sss-ivve (10K MW is entire TN requirement and ILF&S Cuddalore plant is propsing 10K alone for this Cud-Nagai belt!!) coal power plant. (hearing is on Aug 9th on Shweta & team challenge on this).

O This area of Cud to Nagai which is fantastic beaches, Pichavaran mangroves, huge fishing communities, solid agricultural areas will get blasted into ‘development’ and Shweta team work is one of the core work in this area.

O Outside of this GoI has massive plans for other projects (ex: Cheyyur which is presented in next few slides) to brutalize our coastal areas already reeling under massive pollution/encroachment/shrimp farming/real estate/industrial take over/etc.

Shweta in a meeting with Cheyyur fishermen along with Saravanan and Brandon (UK based Doctorate student)

Cheyyur fishermen being explained the latest red book of GoI whichspeaks about projects in TN including Cheyyur.

The breathtaking pristine beach of Cheyyur which will be wiped out by a proposed ultra mega watt coal power plant which will also wipe out livelihood several

thousands fishermen.

Shweta, Saravanan and Brandon in the proposed Coal Jetty location in Cheyyur.

Say bye-bye to these fishing livelihood and say welcome to massive Fly-ash and coal pollution as India relentless pursues coal showing zero interest on

solar power and green buildings

Shweta work - SummaryO Shweta (and her team with Nity) is one of the very few people in entire TN who works in an

knowledgeable manner in pollution related work.

O She is a bundle of passion in environment and community area matched by only an handful of people in entire India (and the world).

O She is extremely knowledgeable on the complex environmental laws and is the glue between communities, labs and lawyers.

O She is working on more areas as identified in Goa, HP apart from TN thereby giving a scientific and legal manner in which communities will be working.

O She works on empowerment mode with continous guidance so that local people themselves via CEM can take their case forward on continous basis and achieve their goals (which is the toughest in environment area since fighting industrial pollution is a brutal battle day in and day out).

O By working with her, AID realizes one of its core mission which is ‘sustainable development with inclusive people participation which the pollution impacted communities are fight for also.’