Decision on Vedanta may impact Mapithel project in Manipur

The ripple effect of the Supreme Court verdict in the Vedanta mining case is being felt in faraway Manipur. The Mapithel multi-purpose project, which began in Manipur in 1980 and is yet to be completed, now faces the same test as Vedanta’s bauxite mining project in Odisha did — has it come up respecting tribal rights or not?

The project was sanctioned by the Planning Commission in 1980 at a cost of Rs. 45 crore then. Thirty-three years down the line, the project is yet to be completed — it will cost the country a whopping Rs. 1,147 crore now. An amount of Rs. 1,184 crore has already been claimed to be spent on it. It has been built over the past eight years in violation of green laws.

Dragged to the National Green Tribunal, the project has been put on hold till the court decides if it violated not just the forest regulations but also the Forest Rights Act which the UPA government operationalised in 2008.

The project, if completed, will submerge 1,215 hectares of land in Senapati and Ukhrul district. Nearly half of it is forest. The lands belong to people from Tangkhul and Kuki tribes. The project is meant to provide water to the capital Imphal, water for irrigation to the villages and generate 7 MW of electricity.

Work on the dam began in the 80s by when the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 was passed to regulate use of forestlands for development projects. In 1986, the Environment Protection Act too was passed requiring all such projects to seek mandatory environmental clearances. In 1988, the State government applied for the clearance. The Environment Ministry discussed it in 1993, approving the project conceptually asking the State to meet certain conditions, including environmental clearance. When the State did not respond even after three years, the Centre shut the file.

In 2006, the Environment Ministry sent a notice to the State warning that the project was going on without clearances but the Manipur authorities did not respond.

In 2009, the State came back saying that an environmental clearance was not legally required for the project, and the case for granting forest clearance was reopened yet again. But the conditions remained unmet while work continued. When asked for clarifications on its proposal, the State went quiet yet again.

By now the Forest Rights Act too had been promulgated. Petitioners from the affected area came to the National Green Tribunal propelling the State authorities to again wake up claiming it had met all conditions and should be granted the clearance. But by now, the FRA and the established rights of the tribals under the new law became a new tool for them to demand a better settlement.

The Manipur government claims that as the land was procured long back under a direct agreement with the affected parties, the FRA does not apply. The petitioners said that only private lands were acquired by the State and the rights over community lands remain unresolved. After the Vedanta judgment, the fate of common forestlands lies purely in the hands of the tribal village councils. The ball is now in the court of the Tribal Affairs Ministry.