How else can one explain the industrial blockade by some groups of tribal men, women and children, with the support of a section of the ruling Congress party, its allies in the UPA and political extremists such as Naxalite and Maoist organizations? At a stake are several new steel and aluminium projects, in entrepreneurs are restlessly waiting to inject over $50 billion in investment, create lakhs of jobs, pump up industrial production and export and move GDP to a higher scale.

Steel, known universally as the mother metal, and aluminium are regarded as the world’s most strategic products for industrial growth and economic development. Steel comes first. Aluminium is next. India is sitting on recoverable iron ore reserves of 14,602 million tonnes of hematite ore (Fe2O3) and well over 3,400 million tonnes of magnetite ore (Fe3O4), making them among the largest in the world. With the ferrous content of 62-66 per cent, hematite ore is the most sought after input of the steel industry the world over. The ferrous content in magnetite ore varies from 56 to 58 per cent. India also has one of the world’s largest bauxite or alumina ore deposits. Both are strong and versatile metals. Nearly 80 per cent of an aircraft body is made of aluminium alloy. Both are indispensable in industries such as construction, power, automobile, transportation, including aviation, shipping and railways, consumer durables and packaging.

Behind the People’s Republic of China’s massive industrial and GDP growth, is its No. 1 position in both the global steel and aluminium industry. The average daily crude steel production in China is 1.9 million tonnes or over 700 million tonnes per annum. It consumes some 40 per cent of world aluminium. The numbers may appear to be mind-boggling even to most liberal of statisticians. Coal, steel and aluminium are the main drivers of the Chinese economy, its military hardware and gigantic infrastructure. China is also the world’s largest importer of iron ore and biggest exporter of finished steel. This is despite the fact that China is the world’s largest producer of iron ore. Its domestic iron ore output is around 900 million tonnes per annum. Australia comes next with the production of 400 million tonnes of iron ore, followed by Brazil 300 million tones.

India ranks only 4th in the iron ore production at around 250 million tonnes per annum, out of which nearly 100 million tones are meant for export. China is India’s biggest iron ore customer. The spot price of iron ore in the world market is around $180 per tonne. In 2010-11, India produced only 65 million tonnes of crude steel, substantially less than the production of even ArcelorMittal, a company promoted by India-born Laxmi Mittal. Last year, ArcelorMittal produced 90.6 million tonnes of crude steel. India’s aluminium production was a paltry 2.7 million tonnes despite the fact that the country is sitting on a pile of bauxite ore deposits of over three billion tonnes. Like iron ore, alumina forms one of India’s major items of export to help enrich the industries and economies of importing nations. Ironically, India is a major importer of steel and aluminium in all forms – from scrap to finished products. The volume of imports accounts for over 15 per cent of domestic production of both the metals.

At a time, when large business groups, both local and overseas, are ready to invest billions of dollars in India’s steel and aluminium industry a massive societal hurdle is being erected by vested interested groups at the project sites using the local tribal population as a front. Most surprisingly, the movement has the blessings of the ruling Congress party in the UPA government. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi and minister Jairam Ramesh are openly supporting the so-called movement by local tribal resistance groups against new steel and aluminium projects. The agitators would rather live in shanties on income from local saal and kendu tree leaves than accept good rehabilitation offers by both industry and state governments, especially those led by political parties opposed to the Congress and the UPA. The creation of human shields to prevent South Korean industrial giant Pohang Steel and UK-based Vedanta from working at their respective steel and alumina project sites in Orissa exemplifies the dangerous nature of the movement.

Steel can’t be produced without iron ore. Similarly, bauxite ore is indispensible for production of alumina. Geographically, these mineral deposits are invariably under ore hills, which are also natural habitats of poor tribal communities. Till the 1980s, when India struggled with a controlled industrial production and low GDP growth rate, these poor tribal communities never stood in the way of production of coal, iron ore, bauxite and other minerals as they were the immediate benefactors of the industrial activity in these regions. But for their strong willing co-operation and engagement, there would have been no SAIL, Tata Steel, Indian Iron, Indian Aluminium, National Aluminium, Hindalco, Sterlite (Balco) and even Coal India and Neyveli Lignite. These exploiters of mineral deposits belonged to both the public and private sector of industry. Nearly two million people are directly engaged by these companies to run their operations. Coal India alone employs some seven lakh workers, mostly tribals, at their mine sites.

What has changed in the last decade, when India has truly poised for big industrial and economic growth, that no more new steel plant, coal and iron ore mining and bauxite extraction is possible in the country’s mineral reach regions? Armed tribal men, women and children are kidnapping project executives, killing state police personnel and burning public assets to prevent industrialization in their land. What made them get suddenly united to conspire against development? They are not even prepared to negotiate and accept rehabilitation package to ensure a better livelihood, housing, sanitation, healthcare and education. They will not part with their habitation for any reward. If this is not blackmail, what is it?

The nation’s development is being held hostage by these small groups of tribesmen spread in the mineral-rich jungles and hills of Orissa, Jharkhand, West Midnapore, Burdwan and Purulia regions. It is a sponsored blackmail. The country is going to pay a heavy price if the political parities do not eschew their differences to establish order in the hills and ensure that the natural wealth of the country is not forcibly usurped by groups for their narrow ends. The nation must resist the evil design fast. (IPA Service)