Natural Resources

Questions on her, poem by Chaoba Phuritsabam in Tattoed with Taboos: An Anthology of Poetry by Three Women from Northeast India

With a water spread of 289 square kilometres, Loktak lake is rich in biological diversity and plays an important role in the ecological and economic security of the region. It was accorded the status of a Ramsar site of international importance in 1990, which shows the significant ecological services of the wetland to humanity and the natural environment. However, the Loktat hydel project commissioned in the early 1980s disturbed the entire lake ecosystem, resulting in extensive loss to biodiversity and displacing massive human population and the wildlife. In the past five decades, the natural ecosystem has degraded considerably. The Loktak Development Authority, which came up in 1987 for taking steps to conserve and protect the lake ecosystem, has not made much headway simply for the reasons that it has not involved the community living in and around in its project designs and plans.

Nature nurtures the mankind. However, when mankind tries to fiddle with nature, it faces the wrath of the latter. Loktak Lake in the state of Manipur is a glaring example of how human intervention can damage a natural setting and also adversely affect those depending on it. Loktak, measuring about 235 square kilometres, is the largest freshwater lake in Northeast India. This article is an attempt to capture the lives of the fisherwomen of Loktak and their continuous struggle for survival amidst the wave of aggressive lopsided developmental projects.

On 24 March 2020, the central government declared a nationwide lockdown to deal with the spread of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which caused the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in India. The lockdown, implemented without the necessary social and economic support by the state, represented a harsh ‘tradeoff’ in favour of public health. The country’s already sluggish economy took a massive hit due to the global pandemic and the near complete closure of international and domestic trade of goods and commodities. However, when the government began its unlocking efforts, it relied on incentivising highly environmentally damaging extractive projects to stimulate the economy. This article analyses the environmental and mining sector reforms and the key legal amendments proposed by the government as part of its post-COVID-19 economic recovery plans. The process, timing and content of these legal changes show that the government used the COVID-19 lockdown as an opportunity to push through undemocratic legal changes that would result in more long term environmental and social costs to society.