Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
On the environment, Ramesh took on powerful corporate interests who fought back
(with the help of parts of the media, especially
The Indian Express
) and accused him of be-
ing anti-growth and of blocking so many projects that investment was being driven abroad.
The attacks sharpened after he halted construction for a year at Lavasa, a 25,000-acre rural
city project in the undeveloped rolling hills of Maharashtra where there were allegations
of illegal land acquisition and violation of environmental regulations. Built by Hindustan
Construction, this project had backers with strong political links, including the family of
Sharad Pawar, the state's most powerful politician and minister of agriculture in India's
2004-14 UPA governments.
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A few months after being appointed, Ramesh said he would not allow two coal mines
linked to power projects planned by the Gujarat-based Adani Group near Maharashtra's
Tadoba Andhari tiger reserve. Run by Gautam Adani, the group rivals Reliance's Ambani
family for political punch in its chosen areas that include coal imports, which it dominates,
as well as infrastructure projects. The government was split over what Ramesh was doing
and his opponents included Praful Patel, a suave business-oriented politician close to Pawar
and (at the time) a controversial aviation minister. The project was in Patel's hometown of
Gondia. 'We are not going to compromise ecological security in the name of development..
The ministry of environment and forests is going to be quite fundamentalist on these is-
sues,' said Ramesh,
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knowing that he had the backing of Sonia Gandhi, who had earlier
opposed the mines.
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He gradually lost Manmohan Singh's support however, when he blocked other important
developments including a $12bn steel project planned in Orissa by Posco of South Korea,
which the prime minister was personally favouring. He halted more coal mines by introdu-
cing a 'no go' concept for just under half of the 600 areas involved, based on the density of
their forest locations - 21 per cent of India's total land mass is covered by forests, including
2 per cent dense forest (which is thick with trees and a closed overhead canopy) and 10 per
cent moderately dense. This sharpened an existing crisis in India's power sector by curbing
the growth of urgently needed coal supplies. Also on Ramesh's list was an internationally
controversial bauxite mining and alumina project being developed in a tribal-dominated
area in Odisha by Vedanta, a London-based Indian metals and mining company. Others hit
included a politically infl uential branch of the Jindal steel and mining family (later invest-
igated for coal mining bribes) which was accused of ignoring environmental requirements
on another Odisha steelworks.
Probably his most popular move was to ban the introduction of a genetically modified
version of a popular vegetable, known as BT brinjal, which had been developed by
Mahyco, a subsidiary of the multinational company Monsanto. Mass production of the
modified aubergine had been approved by an environment ministry committee in October
2009, but Ramesh responded to an intensive campaign, partly led by Greenpeace, the en-
