Platinum jewellery for ‘you’, misery for ‘many’ !!

Year 1979, I was only six years old but I very distinctly remember my visit to Chendipada block in today’s Angul district of Odisha. My grandfather Late Devendra Satpathy had taken me there. He was then the Member of Parliament from Dhenkanal and this place was a part of his constituency. I remember the rows of palm trees, the water bodies, the beautiful natural green landscape and a very happy group of people who used to live there. Compared to today  those days scaled a much higher value in terms of happiness & contentment amongst the people of that area. I remember going with Bapa (that is my grandfather),he had to inaugurate an irrigation project which benefited the farmers. The glee on the faces of the farmers and their families which I had seen on that day is very sharply imprinted in my memory. The water project inauguration was a festival for that zone that day.

In the third quarter of 2011, I had been invited for help & support by the locals of Chendipada block who have been vehemently fighting to save their land and livelihood from the cruel hands of a few very powerful /  manipulative capitalists. I was very disheartened to witness that the said irrigation project is almost dead or rather it has been murdered. The lush green agricultural lands of yester years are all barren or huge factory chimneys have been built on them. The misery of this belt all started when in the year 2001 coal was found underneath the land of the people of this area. Today you visit the place, it looks like a helpless meek woman who has been repeatedly raped, strangulated, left wrapped in one dirty old kanjivaram silk sari on her own to die with and the vultures are hovering to feed on her. 

   

If no thought is put in now, I fear the same might be in store for Kamakhya Nagar in the next few years from year 2012. Geological Survey of India (GSI) claims to have found Platinum in the Chandar-Tangiria of Kamakhaya Nagar in Dhenkanal district.

The GIS  in year 2001 had found the deposit of chromites in this area. Geographical mapping reveals a number of small patches where new elements have been found.

I have information that the GSI has found Platinum Group Elements ( PGE) which comprise of  platinum, palladium, iridium, rhodium, osmium and ruthenium. PGE is a rear commodity and have very high economic value, its demand is extremely high for jewelry, pharmaceutical, telecommunication, hi-tech application in Nuclear energy production etc.

The GIS claims to have found the presence of platinum and palladium in Kamakya Nagar. It is said that platinum will be found after excavating around 30 meters deep into the ground.  At present the Baula-Nuasahi ultramafic complex is the only proven PGE deposit  and it is estimated that 14.2 million tones of reserves are there.

Sitting out, being the non effected party, it all seems like a dream come true when one learns that Platinum has been found in our back yard. The sky view vision displays a very rosy picture but as we come closer to the ground the ugliness of the miseries of the people, who would get displaced in the garb of this finding and the conventional practice of ugly defacing of the mining zone, runs a shiver down my spine. Before one uses a piece of any metal, I suggest  one must  take a serious account of the areas and  the implications on the lives of the people of that area from where these metals like Platinum, Gold, Silver, Steel, Aluminum etc are excavated from. Also have you ever had a thought as to why only the companies engaged in natural resource business are the highest profit making vehicles in the world? Think.