UPDATE

Award for Arundhati Roy

BOOKER PRIZE winner Arundhati Roy has won the prestigious Grand Prize award given by the Paris-based Universal Academy of Cultures, also called the World Academy of Culture. The announcement, made on November 8, said she was being honoured for her "work as a writer and her commitment to human rights in her country". The Grand Prize, the second French honour for Roy this year, has a money component of 76,220 euros ($68,500). She is the second recipient of the award after Czech President Vaclav Havel.

In April Arundhati Roy was conferred the award of "Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters" (Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres) by the Ministry of Culture and Communications of the French government (Frontline, April 27, 2001). Recipients of this award, instituted in 1957, are persons who have distinguished themselves in the fields of art, culture and literature or contributed to the promotion of arts in France and elsewhere in the world.

Arundhati Roy has been at the forefront of campaigns for people's rights, especially those of the marginalised sections of society. Her consistent commitment to democratic principles and people's movements has led her to criticise several policies of the Indian government, including its nuclear policy. She has been also vocal in denouncing the current war-mongering and the accompanied bellicosity of some developed nations. Her essays have always reflected a latent political activism. Her article "The Greater Common Good" (Frontline, June 4, 1999) took a critical look at the Narmada dams project and the fate of the families, mostly tribal, it would displace. In the wake of the Pokhran nuclear tests, she came out with "The End of Imagination" (Frontline, August 14, 1998). She also responded to the events in Afghanistan by writing articles and joining in peace and protest rallies.

The Universal Academy of Cultures was set up in 1992 under the presidentship of Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel. The Academy is under the patronage of the President of the French republic and conducts its activities with the support of the Prime Minister and the Ministries of Culture, Education and Foreign Affairs. Composed of personalities who have excelled in the fields of literature, science and the arts, the long and distinguished list of Academy members includes Italian philosopher, novelist and semiotics theorist Umberto Eco; internationally renowned Canadian poet and critic Margaret Atwood; poet, essayist and founder of the Swedish committee against anti-Semitism Per Ahlmark; and Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow. The late Italian film-maker Federico Fellini was a member of the Academy.

The stated aim of the Academy and its members is to consider the future of the world from an ethical point of view, to suggest methods to fight intolerance, xenophobia, racism, anti-Semitism, discrimination against women, poverty and ignorance. The members therefore represent a broad cross-section of intellectuals who have a firm commitment to democratic principles. n

T.K. Rajalakshmi

The Kudremukh imbroglio

FROM being forced to shut down operations for 11 days in July to being told that it could, subject to clearance from the Karnataka government and Supreme Court directives, get a 20-year extension on its mining lease, Kudremukh Iron Ore Company limited (KIOCL) has certainly come a long way. But for KIOCL, which has been mining for iron ore on 1,545.60 hectares of forest land in the Kudremukh ranges (110 km east of Mangalore) for over 20 years, the battle is far from over.

The biggest hurdle before KIOCL is the fact that the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) and the Karnataka government have altered their positions dramatically. While in 1999 the then government in Karnataka had recommended that KIOCL be given a 20-year lease, the present government, headed by S.M. Krishna, decided in October 2001 to give it only a five-year lease. On the other hand, the MoEF, which was aghast at Karnataka's stand in 1999, now recommends a 20-year lease. The Supreme Court is yet to give its directions in a case in this connection.

The operations of the Rs.1,200-crore KIOCL, a profit-making public sector undertaking, have angered sections of the population living downstream, environmentalists, conservation scientists and wildlife conservationists. Their complaint is that the mining is damaging the ecologically sensitive region (it is one of the 18 'hotspots' of global biodiversity), threatening its flora and fauna, and polluting fresh water streams that originate from the mining area. Further, the waters downstream are being contaminated because of siltation. Despite protests, KIOCL has been able to convince the Union and State governments to extend its lease on four occasions after the original mining lease expired in July 1999.

A non-governmental organisation that is active in wildlife conservation, 'Wildlife First!' filed an interlocutory application (I.A.) in the Supreme Court in May 2001 seeking a ban on mining in the area. The I.A. claimed that the mining was illegal and violated the court's earlier orders banning non-forestry activity in forests on a writ petition and prohibiting the removal of dead and dying trees and grasses from national parks and sanctuaries (on an I.A. in 2000). After hearing the I.A. the court, on May 10, ordered the three respondents, the Union government, the government of Karnataka and KIOCL, to file affidavits within eight weeks. The latest hearing on the matter by a three-member Supreme Court Bench has been posted for November 23, 2001.

The latest boost to KIOCL's efforts to extend its lease came in the form of an additional affidavit filed before the Supreme Court on October 18, 2001, by the MoEF. The affidavit in part states that "after careful examination of (the) pros and cons, government of India is considering to approve" a renewal of KIOCL's mining lease for a period of 20 years. This stand is quite different from what the MoEF said in an additional affidavit filed on July 26, 2001. That affidavit, in part, stated that the Ministry "was considering to allow KIOCL to continue mining operations over the already broken-up forest area" for up to a maximum of five years.

Frontline investigations indicated that the change of stance came about after a meeting of Secretaries chaired by the Cabinet Secretary ended inconclusively with the Secretaries to the Steel and Forest Departments differing on the issue of extending the lease. The decision was then left to the Cabinet Sub-Committee on Economic Affairs, which met under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Ravi Sharma