Activists Celebrate After Punjab Govt Scraps Textile Park at Mattewara Forest and Satluj River

Punjab State government led by the AAP party has scrapped the textile park project near Mattewara forest and Satluj river in Ludhiana. Environmentalists, activists, and local people had been opposing this project for sheer reasons that this project was likely to pollute the Satluj river with effluents released from the proposed textile industries. The chopping of forest trees was another concern of the protestors.  

On Sunday, around ten thousand people from all walks of life such as environmental activists, NGOs, local politicians, villagers, etc congregated at the protest site and reiterated their stance to fight this project tooth and nail. The groups associated with farmers and social media decided to even create a makeshift structure for protestors to stay until the government revoked the project.  However, sensing the urgency of the situation, the Punjab government led by chief minister Bhagwant Singh Mann discussed the issue with eight members of  Public Action Committee (PAC) the next day and announced the revocation of the project.  PAC is the body formed by the protestors. 

Jaskirat Singh, PAC member told News Click, “The way the protest gathered momentum in a short period and, was swiftly spreading out,  it made the government develop cold feet.  They could sense, it can become a bone of contention and, thus decided to scrap it.”

He said it was not the success of a small entity of PAC but of all the people of Punjab who began joining this crusade over social media and, began reaching out on the spot.

Sutlej river has already been classified as an ‘E’ category river having an extremely polluted water stream.

Spread over an area of 2,300 acres, the Mattewara forest range is replete with a diversity of fauna and flora. 

Harmanpreet Singh, a local activist said, “The textile industries would have severely damaged the diversity of flora and fauna of Mattewara forest. The government had also earmarked a large number of trees to be felled for the project.”

He reasoned that people could comprehend the significance of the environment and, clean air and clean water after having battled life and death during COVID-19. 

According to a 2019 report, only 3.67 percent of Punjab's total geographic area is under forests. The state needs to add 29.33 percent more green cover to get the requisite 33 percent cover. 

Vikrant Tongad, the Delhi-based conservation one, and founder, of Social Action For Forest and Environment, told NewsClick, “Punjab and Haryana have small forest areas, therefore they can not afford to lose any forest area. We don’t oppose development or industries, but the site selection for the textile park was not appropriate. More so, because we have already witnessed how industries have ruined the seasonal nullah,  Budha nullah in Ludhiana so we could imagine what could have happened to Satluj due to this big project.“

Mattewara forest also has religious sanctity for the Sikh population of the state. Sikh history corroborates the association of the first and tenth Sikh gurus with this forest area. Guru Gobind Singh Ji took shelter in this forest after he was wounded in the battle of Chamkaur Sahib in 1704. It is here he also composed his famous 'Mittar pyare nu' hymn. Besides this,  Guru Nanak Dev Ji also mentioned this forest as a protector.

Former CM Captain Amrinder Singh's government approved this textile park project two years ago which was to be established on over 955.67 acres of land. Present CM  too endorsed this project during his party’s first budget meeting while assuring about following all the mandatory environment clearances and, not permitting any pollution into the Satluj river on account of this project. However, his government took U-turn now and canceled the project. Mann also blamed  Captain Singh for failing to take stock of environmental damage due to this project.

Captain Singh however rued the scrapping of the Mattewara Textile Park project, terming it as the most regressive and short-sighted decision. “You don’t throw away the baby with the bath water,” he stated.

Of a total 955.67 acres area, 416 acres were forcefully acquired from the Dalit-majority Sekhowal village even though Gram Sabha of the village passed a resolution against it.

“The land which was acquired from our village was common land. The polluting industries would have made our lives miserable. Now we are happy that the government is returning us our land which will be utilized for the welfare of people,” said Tejinder Singh, resident of the village