Thaindian News

Kolkata, Nov 4 (IANS) Anthropologist and author Felix Padel Friday said unscientific and rampant mining was causing a polarisation in Indian society which in turn was fuelling Maoism.

“The Maoists’ war is basically a war over resources. Unscrupulous and rampant mining continues to ruin the lives of the Adivasis (tribals) and widen the economic disparity. This is continuously polarising the society and lending strength to the Maoists,” said Padel, a great-great-grandson of evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin.

“I do not and cannot support Maoists. For me, (Chinese Communist leader) Mao Zedong was the biggest industrialist the world has seen,” said Padel to queries if he supported the Left-wing ultras.

Padel was in the city to participate in an interactive session on “mining, communities and ecosystems” at the Oxford Bookstore here. He has written two books which deal with the displacement and exploitations of tribals by the mining industry.

“The mining engineers and technicians are grossly unaware about the impact of mining on the communities and the ecosystem. Their focus remains only on extracting minerals from the mines,” Padel said.

“For the corporates, the mountain is a den of money but for the adivasis, it is their father and mother which has nurtured and nourished them. The utter disdain of the industrialist towards nature and the ecosystem has compelled them to stand and protest against industrial projects,” said Padel.

He also said the concept of “sustainable development” was flawed. “Sustainable development rests on three pillars - economics, society and the ecosystem. But it is only economics which gets all the attention. The concept will remain faulty so long as the other two pillars are ignored.”