Mines Minerals & People

The problem of mining is manifold. The destruction of the preexisting habitat for the mining industry undermines the possibility of any other use of the other resources of the area. The Mining Industry is wide spread and severe adverse impacts are visible from small scale rat hole mining and stone quarrying to large open cast and deep underground mines. The social and political implications of mining assumes far reaching implications when this principle mineral wealth lies in the most forested regions and those homelands traditionally inhabited by Dalit and Indigenous Peoples. In the wake of the current globalization and liberalization programs dictated to us by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in the form of Structural Adjustment Programs large new tracts of land are proposed to be acquired for mining with MNC's Mineral extraction today is dictated by the market forces and cartels controlling the price according to the profitability rather than for the benefit of society or a community. Thus a good number of minerals go to the war industry or to enhance the powers of the powerful through strategic control. Besides this natural resources of the poorer countries are being over used with rampant environmental destruction while the same resources of the rich countries are being safely preserved for their future generations