Action Briefing Dec 2005 - Jan 2006
	The Newsletter of Birmingham Friends of the Earth

Ecocide of Panjab

The last issue of Action Briefing featured an article by Pardeep Singh on environmental destruction in Panjab area, which is split between India and Pakistan.

Panjab seems to have been an area rich in resources which every government involved in its chequered history - certainly the British, Pakistani and Indian governments - have plundered without any particular regard for either the future needs of the area or the current conditions for local people. A splendid example of environmental injustice.

An awareness-raising seminar, 'Ecocide in Panjab' was hosted on 15th October by the Sikh Community & Youth Service UK (SCYS) and Defenders of the Environment and Ecology of Panjab (DEEP) at the Sikh Community Centre on Soho Road. There were speakers from the Khalsa Wood Project (tree planting) in Nottingham, the Green Party, and Birmingham Friends of the Earth. There were some poetry readings although my lack of familiarity with Punjabi let me down a little on these. There was also a very good short documentary film, produced by DEEP.

The aim of the event was both to alert Panjabis living in Birmingham to environmental issues, but also to alert people in general to the destruction happening in Panjab and its causes. It was certainly an eye-opener for me. The organisers are planning on holding follow-up events and maintaining a network of those interested. We'll aim to publicise these in the diary.

There was also good debate - inevitably political at times, but then environmental issues usually are, even where there isn’t an autonomy issue. Anecdotally I would say it can be seen from most colonial history that colonising countries are rarely as good custodians of a local environment as those who feel they belong there. There is little political incentive for the colonising power to protect rights or quality of life. Unchecked corporate power behaves in the same way; and of course most corporations are based in the 'developed' world, and got their economic advantage from the colonialism of the past...

Similarly, sometimes we can see that we face the same problems across the globe. Pardeep Singh said that farmers with land less than 20 acres were becoming increasingly commercially unviable under the trade models being enforced onto them, and so are forced off the land. The words he spoke were uncannily similar to those I heard from a farming friend in Pembrokeshire and a smallholder in Devon a few weeks before.

As usual, the economic benefits we're told come from environmental and cultural destruction are dubious - for example in the case of the encouragement of rice as the main crop in a land that is naturally semi-arid, with consequent water shortages and depletion. And with vultures poisoned by antibiotics given to cattle: it may be hard to feel sentimental about a poisoned vulture but they play an important role in carcass disposal. Without them, dog packs and rats cause greater problems.

There are grassroots activists in Panjab fighting these various environmental battles, supported by DEEP in the UK; but currently they have few links with national and international networks such as Friends of the Earth. FoE International works as a network, so that groups can affiliate to a single mission statement without losing their autonomy. Perhaps there is a role for FoE International in the Panjabi states within India and Pakistan . . .

For more information on the Panjab and the work of DEEP, e-mail panjabdeep@yahoo.co.uk

Karen Leach