Kitayun (Katy) Rustom

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Katy co-founded the Centre for Environmental Research and Education (CERE) with  Rashneh Pardiwala in December 2002. She is also an Ashoka Fellow – a ‘Social Entrepreneur for Change’. When I asked her to describe her life journey, she replied: “I have no record of my earliest tryst with environmental and justice related issues. I would need to think that out but looks like a lot of it is to do with being linked to the land as a farmer’s daughter. I have strong memories of wanting Dahanu to remain the way it did with its farmlands and its life and culture intact. Will give this some more thought ……….”

Even so she missed a lot out. I remember hearing several accounts and prompted her about helping local balloon workers and she answered: “My goodness I still remember fighting the corporators, being chased by the mafia and arrested by the cops for going to the Dahanu Municipal Council. Gosh its so bizarre the law keepers are themselves law breakers. Sometimes it just makes me feel low …”

She does not want to write ‘in a personalised way, because it would have been too long a contribution. Many others were involved in Dahanu and she does not want to appear to claim credit for it, so has given chronological sequence of events:

My Beginnings in Environmentalism ………….

Taking a Cue from the Nurturing Land – From Farmer to Environmental Activist

My earliest awareness of environmental issues were embedded in my childhood. Sometimes in life you want to freeze the past and your childhood  – you want to freeze the landscape that nurtured you and gave you so much joy. For me it was my farmland and my hometown Dahanu. I did not want to lose that Dahanu  – it had given me too much, I did not want to lose it to urbanisation and development.

I could slowly see similar rural areas fall prey to the same type of development and could not bear to see Dahanu go that way. Dahanu for me was happiness unlimited where we loved working on the farm and then reaped the fruits and ate them.  Afternoons were spent having lunch with the farm labourers who were the Warlis ( a tribal indigenous community). I was always so curious about their life and ways, this curiosity could never be satiated – everything seemed different about them – but I won’t go on – needless to say that childhood is about being wild and we went wild in Dahanu – it had a lot of wilderness – we swam in rivers, cycled in small lanes, tried to tame chameleons, chased crabs on the shores, sat in bullock carts, rode horses and herded chickens into coops. A million such adventures awaited us each day.

So …… I was in love with Dahanu and wanted to keep it the way it was – frozen in time. That was the very beginning of my stirrings of environmentalism and wanting selfishly to fight for this land that was wild and had given me so much happiness. So when we heard about the coming of a coal based thermal power plant we took them on.

Some Facts about Dahanu:

• Located 120 kms. North of Mumbai. Size – 960 sq. km (95,991 hectares)
• 70 percent population consists of indigenous communities.
• 49 percent forest cover
• Pristine wetlands, mangroves, and beaches.
• Primarily resource dependent communities of fisherfolk, farmers and orchard owners.
• 66,261 hectares of the Taluka are under teak, mixed deciduous forests and mangroves.
• 9000 hectares in the taluka is under wetlands and mudflats. Approximate 43,000 hectares under  agriculture. Out of this 19,000 hectares of land under rice cultivation.
• In a short duration of 45 days in Summer, 58 species of birds were identified in the coastal region itself.
  

Short Summary of the Dahanu Movement

The BSES coal based Thermal Power Plant got its clearance in July 1988 from the State Government and thereafter in 1989 from the Central Government Ministry of Environment and Forests. This clearance permission was subject to some conditions main ones being a) that they would try to use gas in preference to coal and b) that they would install a Flue Gas Desulphurisation plant with 90% efficiency and c) No further expansion of the plant would be permitted.

We, the local people of Dahanu ( mainly farmers) formed an organisation called the Dahanu Taluka Environment Welfare Association ( DTEWA ) and filed a PIL against the BSES and the Government in the High Court. The HC relied on Government Affidavits and was satisfied that the government had taken into account all the environmental regulations necessary for the area of Dahanu and passed an order allowing the Power Plant to start constructing. Thereafter DTEWA made an appeal in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court agreed with the HC findings. Barely, one month after all the commitments that the BSES and the the Ministry of Env. & Forests (MoEF) had given to the SC, the Ministry of Env. & Forests shamelessly deferred the Flue Gas Desulphurisation Condition.

In June 1991 the MoEF declared Dahanu as an Eco-fragile area vide a Notification. Isn’t it surprising that in 1989 it clears a highly polluting coal based power plant, in April 1991 it defers the power plant from setting up an FGD and then it declares it eco-fragile! What a way to protect an eco-fragile area.

Anyway declaring Dahanu as an ecofragile area was itself a stupendous effort and was done with a tremendous amount of lobbying at the central government level by DTEWA and INTACH Chapter Dahanu. The Notification helped protect Dahanu from future assaults since this time we had legal teeth to fight the battles.

Industrialization was restricted to only 500 Acres. Land use change of certain types for eg of forest land, tribal land and other green areas was prohibited and only Green Industries were allowed to be set up in Dahanu. It also mandated the setting up of a Regional Plan for the taluka.

From 1991-1994 DTEWA grappled with rampant non compliance of Dahanu Notification – permission for polluting industries were being given continuously, BSES ( now Reliance Power ) was violating clearance conditions, the Regional Plan was not drawn up and the Town Plan was in clear violation of the Dahanu Eco-fragile Notification.

Once again DTEWA approached the Supreme Court seeking redressal. In 1994 a comprehensive Writ Petition was filed. The SC appointed NEERI to check violations and in 1996 DTEWA obtained a Landmark Supreme Court Order. The order compelled the BSES power plant to fulfil all its clearance conditions, it applied the polluter pays principle and the precautionary principle to Dahanu, rejected the Town Plan and asked the High Court to set up a Green Bench but what the order did that was beyond all expectations was that it mandated the setting up of a special Authority for Dahanu called the The Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Authority (DTEPA) headed by a retired HC Judge – Justice Dharmadhikari with 11 experts is an example of democratic governance.

The DTEPA is a unique prototype of a democratic institution set up to protect the ecology and economy of an area. It has to implement the Precautionary Principle and Polluter Pays principle, and the NEERI recommendations and the 2 notifications, and the SC Order of October 1996. Due to the setting up of the DTEPA the proposal to set up an all weather multi-billion dollar port in Dahanu Taluka by P& O was rejected.

Thereafter, this Authority got the Power Plant to set up the Flue Gas Desulphuriser. The DTEPA has evolved a concept of pre-habilitation and pre-afforestation which as the words suggest are to be complied with if any project needs to displace tribals or cut forests.

Somewhere during the course of this work I met Rashneh Pardiwala a young Ph.D student who was visiting India doing an internship and she was undertaking some Marine Studies at Dahanu. After long discussions we both decided that Environmental Awareness needed to be worked on in a big way and thus was founded the Centre for Environmental Research and Education.