hiren-gohain | SabrangIndia

More on Assam’s Ecological Disaster, retd scientist Saikia speaks of Govt ignoring scientific advice against drilling at Tinsukhia

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 04:53:51 +0000

Image: PTI

A local TV channel ‘Asomiya Pratidin’ yesterday interviewed an eminent retired scientist of OIL with experience of work in several countries,Pradip Saikia,who came out with some remarkable revelations.He does not question the decision to drill for oil and gas in the ecologically rich region given his orientation.But he is openly critical of the slackness and bungling not only at the lower technical levels (in handling the on-going ecological disaster at OIL, Tinsukhia) but at higher levels of management.Further, though reticent,he has expressed unhappiness about the role of a ‘political hierarchy’ in the chain of action that has led to this enormous disaster.That, in my opinion, should uphold misgivings in my first article about the general presence of such political interest in various mishaps overtaking this country.

Saikia says he was the first specialist in the field to have discovered gas in subterranean strata at the Baghjan site,way back in 2005.His report which he says is still available in the library of OIL INDIA Ltd had been based on advanced MRI(NRI?) technology and the report had clearly stated that Baghjan site was not a reservoir of hydrocarbon gas but of gas condensate which is composed of heavier molecules.Hence, once drilled its upward thrust would be much greater than that of gas and demanded ‘extraordinary precautions’ in order to prevent fatal mishaps.But he regretted that his cautionary remarks were somehow overlooked and he felt sure that this negligence had led to this disaster.

If that is so and there is no reason to doubt his words,this agrees with the general impression gaining ground all around of a certain kind of wilful recklessness in the country about decisions of the most serious import affecting lives of thousands if not millions of people.Expert opinion is blithely disregarded if it does not suit the interest and attitude of decision-makers at the highest level.Common people in the Northeast fear that, several mega hydel projects under construction, in the northern sub-montane regions, are going to be like time bombs poised on their heads.Now, the gas fire will take more than a month to bring under control and by that time it will have ruined livelihoods of thousands of people and have inflicted severe permanent damage on the region’s ecology. The state government tasked with holding the baby has thrown around empty promises and assurances, which hardly compensate for the enormous damage.

Note:The Telehgraghreports that the NDRF recovered two bodies of fire-fighters die in gas well blowout blaze in Assam. Fifteen days after the blowout, the fire is still raging at the Baghjan oil field.Two fire-fighters of public sector major OIL were found dead in a wetland abutting the site of a major blaze at its Baghjan well, which has been “uncontrollably” spewing gas for the last 15 days in Assam’s Tinsukia district, officials said on Wednesday.The two fire-fighters had gone missing after the well caught fire and their bodies were recovered by an NDRF team Wednesday morning, Oil India Ltd (OIL) spokesperson Tridiv Hazarika told PTI.

“Their bodies were recovered from a wetland near the site. Prima facie, it looks like that they jumped into the water and got drowned, as there is no mark of burn injury. The exact cause will be ascertained only after a post-mortem,” he said.

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The post More on Assam’s Ecological Disaster, retd scientist Saikia speaks of Govt ignoring scientific advice against drilling at Tinsukhia appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The price of profit, OIL’s misadventure threatens Tinsukhia’s reserve forests & wild life sanctuaries: Assam

Wed, 10 Jun 2020 06:08:30 +0000

It has not escaped the notice of conscious and concerned citizens that under the banner of ‘war on Covid 19’ some most deplorable decisions imperilling lives and livelihoods of the people have been taken.This flurry of decisions and measures taken to control the pandemic, have been used to conceal from public scrutiny, the unwise and enormously damaging acts by public authorities in positions of responsibility.

It is no longer under wraps that the National Board of Wild Life seized the opacity of the Lockdown 1 period to rush through a series of environmental clearances of certain questionable projects.One such clearance related to drilling for petroleum by OIL in a region of Tinisukia district of Eastern Assam, a region dotted with reserve forests,wild life sanctuaries,protected water bodies and other eco-sensitive areas.Indeed the entire region had been formally declared to be a ‘tropical rainforest’ ruling out mining and similar bio-hazardous activities.But the present government’s bias towards unregulated exploitation of nature,especially if it is expected to produce “wealth”has long begrudged such environmental restraints.Hence the PSU,OIL was allowed to carry out oil prospecting in this sensitive region. There is strong presumption that necessary precautions accompanying such oil prospecting had been waived aside or most slackly applied.That includes preventive measures customarily put in place to forestall a blowout of oil and gas that remain under high pressure in the depths of the earth.

The result has been a tremendous disaster.Since May 27, 2020 – 13 days ago– when a sound like a shattering thunderclap awoke the villagers of Baghjan village near the Dihing-Patkai wild life sanctuary where OIL had started oil prospecting.At daybreak villagers saw, with alarm, a huge and continuous stream of gas and oil erupting from the drilling site and soon their homes,fields were covered with a film of some sticky substance. Their household animals seemed to behave strangely and were choking. There was a strong smell of carbon in the air and they hurriedly left their homes and belongings to take shelter at a school building at some distance. Officials of OIL turned up after a few days and assured them that the disaster would be brought under control.

Two foreign experts,one from Canada and the other one from Australia,

were brought in from a Singapore-based company.But in spite of repeated reassurances by officials, the column of oil and gas has shown no sign of tapering off 13 days after it had emerged. Worse,today it has caught fire and is threatening to put vast forests and surrounding human habitations on fire.Dread and despair are writ large on faces of hapless villagers. The damage to forests and wild life is incalculable.

Since the clearance was hurried through without proper scrutiny of reports by expert bodies,and OIL was in haste to carry the prospecting out while the public was busy facing out Covid 19,the entire exercise had been a serious misadventure driven by thoughtless greed. Such are the results of the liberal turn in our economic thinking.Putting a cap on the eruption and controlling the fire are not the only concerns.There must be a thorough independent enquiry into causes of the mishap and just assignment of responsibility.And of course both OIL and GOI must bear the expense of rehabilitation and reparation.A few years back, British Petroleum had been fined £25 billion and the costs of environmental restoration by the Obama administration in the United States when its careless offshore drilling caused a massive oil-spill in coastal waters of America.

(All the facts mentioned here are gathered from reports from the site by local TV channels.)

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Glaring loose ends: Is all fair in the Ayodhya verdict?

Mon, 11 Nov 2019 07:24:54 +0000

Hiren Gohain

While there is little doubt that their Lordships at the Supreme Court applied their minds to untangling one of the knottiest problems to face the Indian judiciary, this correspondent is one among the many who are not happy with the verdict. Their Lordships seem to have rested their crucial award in the title-suit on one point: while there is evidence that Hindus have been worshipping a presence of Ram in the inner courtyard from behind a railing, there is no evidence that Muslims had worshipped there during three centuries after its construction.

This assumption is puzzling. Having followed the trial in print and online I have never come across any member of the bench sitting on the issue, asking the Muslim plaintiffs to provide evidence with regards to this. Hence, the Muslim plaintiffs had no reason to do so or they too would have been ready with their evidence and witnesses.

Their Lordships seem to assume that after Mir Baqi built this mosque, he just abandoned it and it lay uncared for until presumably Muslims, just for the ‘heck of it’ challenged the Hindus’ right to pray there in the 19th century.This is an extraordinary assumption.

The Hindu side has relied on testimony of the people who now claim to have seen during their childhood people praying from behind a railing which prevented their entry into the interior of the mosque. A colonial gazetteer also apparently mentions a railing being put up at some distance from the interior in order to prevent any trespassing of Hindu worshippers into the mosque. A foreign traveller in the 18th century also mentions having seen Hindus worshipping there. Obviously because Hindus praying in a mosque,though not inside it, was a curiosity.

Their lordships have decided not to speculate on matters about which history is silent. But history’s silence on namaz being offered in a mosque is hardly a mystery. Things that are too obvious are not mentioned – like powerful emperors washing and dining. Silence on namaz at Babri masjid is most likely just one more of such obvious things.

A last caveat. Why was a railing put up to prevent the trespassing of Hindu worshippers? If the mosque was abandoned and never used by Muslims, there was no needs for such a barrier.

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