The iron ore rich Bellary district in Karnataka has produced several mining magnates but continues to suffer from extreme poverty, putting it in the category of sub-Saharan African in terms of human development. |
There are no visible signs of the enormous wealth trickling down. According to the Karnataka government's Human development report (1999) the infant mortality rate in Bellary is the highest among all districts in the state and life expectancy at birth is the lowest. |
The boom created by the rise in global iron ore prices came after 1999 but a decline in poverty has not been witnessed. An intensive tour of the district indicates that visual signs of poverty are the same as they were five years ago. |
The state's human development report puts the district's literacy rate at 51 per cent, much below that of sub-Saharan African countries (59.7 per cent). |
The human development index for the state puts Bellary at the third last place among 27 districts. It remains in the position in the gender related development index, while the results for the health and education index is even worse. |
Also, 97 per cent of the households in rural areas and 85 per cent in urban areas do not have access to toilets and sanitation. Approximately, 67 per cent of rural households and 39 per cent of urban ones do not have electricity supply. |
The rumbling iron ore laden trucks have seriously damaged most of the roads in the district. On an average, 7,500 trucks pass through Bellary every day towards the ports on the west and east coasts. |
In July 2005, the district administration recorded the movement of 5,000-plus trucks in a day through Bellary, prompting a ban on their entry into the city during the day. |
Perhaps most seriously, unregulated mining has taken a toll on the environment. Once known for pristine sandal wood forests, the Sandur jungles have become a beehive of mining activity. |
A Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment of mining in the Bellary-Hospet region, conducted by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Nagpur, in 2003, states that heavy metals in water and dust-related particulate matter in air exceeded national health standards. |
The report also discovered significant loss of forest cover. According to the report, the state of the region's wildlife, which once included a robust population of sloth bear, leopard, monitor lizard and white stork "" all threatened or endangered species "" "is observed to be very poor". |
The most pervasive environmental threat comes from mining dust, a suffocating rust-coloured cloud (hematite content in iron ore) that covers everything in and around the mining area. |
According to the NEERI report, this dust is responsible for "public health problems, reduction of agricultural productivity and has its impact on wildlife". |
The mining traffic has also become a huge inconvenience to tourists from all over the country and the world who come to visit the nearby historical ruins of Hampi, designated a world heritage site by UNESCO. |