[Reader-list] Public Screening at IIC: The Land of Vanishing Lakes

[rohitrellan at aol.in]

Toxics Link’s Environment & Health Public Lecture Series



The most popular lakes of NCR have disappeared. The 2 billion year old 
water bodies of the Aravallis – Surajkund, Badkhal and Damdama, have 
all dried up.

This film looks at the nexus between the corrupt bureaucracy with the 
construction and the mining mafia. With exclusive bytes from Retired 
Forest officers, Environmentalists and Scientists, we piece together 
the whole story behind the current mess. This film opens with a few 
short interviews, which talk about what led to the disappearance of the 
lakes due to illegal & irresponsible mining and construction of farm 
houses in the notified forest area of the Aravallis. We talk to experts 
on the principle of sustainable mining and through their comments, the 
land-mafia-admin-police-miner nexus comes out, and the utter 
helplessness of the situation gets revealed.

The latter part of the film explores the realm of PILs filed by 
Magsaysay award winner Advocate M. C. Mehta that led to the court 
banning all mining operations in the area. The Haryana government, 
apparently oblivious, to the ruling went ahead with inviting bids for 
mining leases for Sirohi and Khori Jamalpur mines.

The climax questions the Haryana Government’s claim of bringing back 
water to its lakes before the Commonwealth Games without any concrete 
plans for the same. The residents of the area — who have seen the 
tourist flow getting reduced to a trickle over the years — complain 
that no effort was ever made to maintain the water flow to the 
historical Surajkund which is now a fleeting shadow of its past.

An alarm had been sounded in the hydrological report submitted by the 
Ministry of Environment in its affidavit before the forest bench of 
Supreme Court in August last year. It had mentioned that these used 
mining pits were found ‘‘filled with water’’ leading to ‘‘massive 
evaporation of groundwater’’ — about 8.86 lakh ccm of fresh water.

The film ends with a ray of hope in spite of apparent ecological 
disaster and offers a way-ahead in devastated areas.

Speakers:

    * Ms. Ishani K Dutta – Director, The Land Of Vanishing Lakes
     * Mr. R. K. Srinivasan – Senior Research Officer, Centre for 
Science and Environment
    * Mr. R. P. Balwan – Retd. Forest Officer, Haryana Govt.


Date: 23rd October 2009, Friday

Time: 6:30 p.m.

Venue: Conference Room I, India International Centre, Lodhi Road, New 
Delhi

(In collaboration with India International Centre)

For further information and RSVP, please contact:
Pragya Majumder – pragya at toxicslink.org
Tel: 24320711, 24328006
Email: info at toxicslink.org