ANDHRA PRADESH
ANTHRA, Secunderabad.
DECCAN DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY,Hyderabad.
SAMATA, Secunderaad.
SANJEEVINI, Visakhapatnam.
YAKSHI, East Godavari.

JHARKHAND
JHARKHANDIS ORGANISATION FOR
HUMAN RIGHTS [JOHAR], Jharkhand.
JHARKHAND MINES AREA COORDINATION
COMMITTEE (JMACC). Ranchi.

KARNATAKA
APPIKO / PRAKRUTI, Sirsi.
RIGHT TO FOOD CAMPAIGN, Gulbarga.

MAHARASHTRA
ECONET, Pune.
SHETKARI SANGHATANA, Wardha.
ANTHRA, Pune

MADHYA PRADESH
SHOSHIT SEWA SANSTHAN, Nairpur, Mandla.

NAGALAND
NAGALAND EMPOWERMENT OF PEOPLE
THROUGH ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
(NEPED), Kohima.

NEW DELHI
BHARATIYA KRISHAK SAMAJ.
JOURNALIST AND CONCERNED
CITIZEN.INSAF.
KALPAVRIKSH.
GRAIN.

ORISSA
LOKSHAKTI ABHIYAN, Berhampur.
VASUNDHARA, Bhubaneswar.

PUNJAB
KHETI  VIRASAT MISSION, Bhatinda.

RAJASTHAN
KRISHI AVAM PARISTHITIKI VIKAS SANSTHAN(KRAPAVIS), Alwar.
CENTRE FOR COMMUNITY ECONOMICS
AND DEVELOPMENT CONSULTANTS
SOCIETY (CECOEDECON), Sitapura.

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTION OF WASTELANDS
 DEVELOPMENT [SPWD], Udaipur.

To
Honourable Shri Muttemwar,
Minister for New and Renewable Energy
Government of India
1, Pt. Motilal Nehru Marg,
New Delhi - 110 011
Tels. (011) 23792044, Fax: 23010616

Subject: Please open up draft “bio”fuel policy for public debate and create pro people Energy Policy

Sir,

We have read the press reports of a proposed bio-diesel policy due to be finalised shortly by the Government of India under the leadership of your Ministry. As is evident from the media coverage, the discussions on this subject have been dominated by the corporate sector, business associations, energy entrepreneurs, industrial houses, private firms, government agencies and large PSUs. The voice of the small and rural and their needs does not appear to have been factored in into these discussions. This is a matter of deep concern to all of us who work with in rural and tribal belts with very small farmers, poor, women, pastoralists, indigenous communities, dalits and adivasis.

We sincerely hope that the UPA Government which has been voted into power by the Aam Aadmi will even now bring in the concerns of the poor and the small into these discussions, open up the draft “bio”fuel policy for public debate, have it whetted by millions of rural people, adivasis, small and marginal farmers, women and the other marginalized sections in the society.

We are aware that the central and state policies on biofuels heavily promote biodiesel and the preferred plant to generate biodiesel is jatropha. In its desire to massively produce biodiesel, many state governments as well as the Union Government are singlemindedly promoting jatropha cultivation in millions of hectares across the country.  In particular, we are extremely worried that in its present form of thinking the Policy might lead to the following negative consequences.

Contact Address: # 101, Kishan Residency, Street No.5, Begumpet, Hyderabad – 500 016, A.P., INDIA
Tel:+91-40-27764577, 27764744, Telefax: +91-40-27764722
E-mail : hyd1_ddshyd@sancharnet.in / hyd2_ddsppvr1@sancharnet.in.

• Large-scale jatropha plantations
  
  Many of us who are working in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and other areas of the country where the jatropha plantations have been introduced with much gusto have been witnesses to a series of negative effects of these plantations on human health,environment and economic downturns to the local communities and have rigorously documented them. And therefore we can unequivocally say thatjatropha plantations on large scale will pose another threat to our rural populations who are already suffering theconsequences of various developmental programmes which neither benefit them nor thelandscape around them.

• Increasing corporate takeover
  
  As is evidenced by the great “bio”fuel rush of the industry and corporate houses to make cash while the land burns, the trend unmistakably points to the corporate takeover of peoples lands and commons and turn them into another source of corporate profit. This is already a fait accompli in Africa where many Indian industrial houses have taken over huge tracts of land for “bio”fuel plantations unmindful of the consequences of its impact on local ecology and livelihoods. Therefore in recent times “bio”fuels are being renamed as Corp.-fuels since they fuel corporates and not ecology.

• Land grab
  
  The unavoidable consequence of these trends is that more and more land will be grabbed by the powerful while the less powerful and the poor stand and watch helplessly. We will be happy to provide you with many such case studies.  Just to illustrate, in Rajasthan, the government has decided to allocate 45 per cent of the state's 10.56 million hectares of ‘wastelands' for Jatropha cultivation, which mercifully has not happened yet.  We would like to point out the misnomer “waste”lands which all of us know is certainly not a wasteland for the local people. In reality they are Orans or Gauchers, people’s commons used by pastoralists, herbalists and the poor women for their fodder, medicinal and fuelwood needs. That these lands are being snatched away from people is resulting in a groundswell of anger that might lead to disastrous consequences
  
  

  We would also like to point out that in the serious Food Security situation in the country to which event the honourable Prime Minister pointed out sometime ago, it is possible to bring back much of the “wastelands back under agriculture and increase country’s food production by as much as 80% of the current production levels. In fact the Deccan Development Society in Andhra Pradesh, one of the signatories to this letter, has shown how thousands of hectares of cultivable fallows can be brought back under production and through this initiative has been able to create a Community Controlled Local PDS system based on the principle of Local Production, Local Storate and Local Distribution. If we are able to do emulate this example, we will be able to create Food for People and Not for Cars. This is the moral obligation of the government and we fervently hope that the UPA government committed to the Aam Aadmi will not stray away from this course.

  It is not only the so called “waste” lands but also fertile tracks of land which might attract Jatropha Plantation if farmers who are in a distress situation not finding good markets for their crops, are lured into jatropha trap. Already Rajasthan Government under its Biofuel
  

  Policy has declared an attractive MSP for jatropha seeds. If this gets better returns than food crops and all the farmers start cultivating Jatropha on their farmlands [as is being done by some Punjab farmers on their farmlands], imagine the unthinkable consequences for the food security of the country. If you cant get rice, eat Jatropha?

  Until recently we were priding ourselves that this country was self sufficient in edible oil production. But the new obsession with “bio”fuels puts us on the doorsteps of converting whatever edible oil is produced in the country slowly gets converted into “bio”fuels and reaching the tanks of cars rather than the plates of people. For a one billion+ population of this country a majority of who are malnourished [remember India is on the top of the world’s malnourished nations, even above sub Saharan countries] shouldn’t Oil for Food be the priority rather than Oil for Cars?

  Under these conditions it is beyond our comprehension why MSPs are being announced for Jatropha by the same Sgovernment which has not been able to announce attractive MSP for farmers produce leading to thousands of farmer suicides in the country. Especially in the face of the fact that an eminent expert Mr Surya P Sethi, Energy Advisor to the Planning Commission in his “Roadmap on Bio-fuel” suggests NO SUBSIDY ON BIO-FUEL CROPS AND OTHER INPUT, NO MSPs FOR BIO-FUEL CROPS. Won’t this be interpreted that the United Progressive Alliance is more interested in saving automobile industry than human lives? Mr Minister, please think of the consequences of such policies and the perceptions it is going to generate.

• Ecological Hazard
  
  

  Jatropha is a pest bank and planted in large scale can create havoc on the farming in the surrounding areas with unremitting pest attacks on the farmlands. It serves as a breeding ground for various insects which then spread to adjoining crops. There may arise a need to burn down acres of standing Jatropha crop to thwart the catastrophic spread of the pests and diseases to other plants and crops. The Indian farmer who is already reeling from an unbearable burden of farming will be completely crippled by the new pest burden he has to tackle.
  
  Not being an indigenous plant to India, Jatropha kills all other indigenous plants in its vicinity but allows the growth of other foreign weeds. Large scale cultivation of Jatropha threatens to destroy native flora. This has prompted the locals and the tribals to pull out the Jatropha plants growing in their areas.
  
  There have been hundreds of diseases and deaths as a consequence of jatropha plantation surroundings in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu which have been widely reported by the media.
  
  Scientific research has pointed out to the carcinogenous properties of jatropha, the kind of skin allergies and dizziness it can cause because of the presence of toxic Hydrogen cyanide in the plant.
  
  Whether Jatropha or not, “bio”fuel plantations will necessarily be huge monocultures destroying the biodiversity in large parts of the country turning them into “bio”deserts. This would be a permanent ecological disaster the consequences of which are unimaginable.
  
  Once this trend catches on, the pressure to grow biofuels will be so high that vast stretches of natural forests will be denuded and converted into artificial forests of jatropha monocultures. This spells ecological disaster for the country
  

• Rising food crop prices
  
  The natural consequence of these developments will be huge jumps in the food prices and a definite attack on the food security of the Indian people. The maize price in Mexico for e.g. has doubled in recent years once maize was put into large scale “bio”fuel use. This offers us ample lessons and we can be blind to them only at our peril.
  
  
• Misuse of government schemes
  
  In their misplaced enthusiasm to promote biofuels governments such as Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh have started blatant misuse of radical schemes such as NREGA for large scale “bio”fuel plantations. Thus well conceived programmes like NREGA which intended to develop permanent peoples assets by creating employment for people, are being used to use people as labour to create permanent corporate assets using government money. This is a perverse private public partnership wherein Public sector invests and Private sector profits. This is already creating a lot of anger in people and might turn NREGA into EN-RAGE. The UPA needs to be acutely beware of this consequence.

In view of all the above we strongly urge you and your ministry in particular and the GOM and UPA government in general to

• Immediately make public the draft bio-diesel policy before making it final in March, 2008
  
  
• Facilitate a people’s debate on the subject of energy sovereignty by organizing a peoples summit on Energy Policy and “bio”fuels around March-April, 2008
  
  
• Put a stay on fuel blending targets until such debates are over and a citizen-led national consensus emerges
  
  

In anticipation.

Sincerely,

ECONET, Pune.

Attached:   Pastapur Statement of the National Consultation on “Bio”fuels, December 2007

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