By David Vollrath at Rainforest Rescue
The French company Michelin is planning to cut down a community forest in southern India to construct a tire plant. If that happens, the people living there will lose their livelihood. They have resisted the plans for two years. Next week farmers, workers environmental alliances will rally and protest in front of the Michelin head office in France.
Please support our protest action – so the forest of the Dalits can be conserved. Click here to sign a letter to the Michelin management.
The village of Thervoy Kandigai is located 50 km north of Chennai (formerly Madras) and is surrounded by pastures, forests, paddy fields and lakes. The local people make a living based on the forest where they find medicinal plants and wild fruits and grow vegetables. Especially during droughts rice becomes scarce and the people have to rely on natural resources from the forest. In addition, the forest also serves as a reservoir for the surrounding 13 villages.
The Dalits (so-called "untouchables")are outraged that in order to construct the Michelin plant, the forest and hence their livelihood are going to be destroyed. There were several hunger strikes. Activists were jailed. “They can take our homes but not the forest! Nobody has the right to destroy the forest!” says Anbhazhgan, a former village spokesman.
For two years the people in the village have fought against the construction of the tire plant. Informative meetings have been held as well as hunger strikes. The police regularly resort to violence and frequently arrest protesters. The forest is currently surrounded by a fence. A sign on the fence states: “Michelin – A better way forward“.
The famous French environmental journalist Fabrice Nicolino published on September 14th in the weekly‚ Charlie Hebdo’: “The actions of Michelin are an attack on the human rights of a community and nothing less. As you can imagine, the deforestation in combination with the destruction of pastures and springs will result in the destruction of the livelihood of the village. The construction of the plant is not inevitable and I call on you to protest against Michelin.”
We would also like to remind you of a previous protest action: The American guitar manufacturer Gibson is accused of having taken twelve deliveries of ebony and rosewood illegally imported from India in the course of two years. You can sign a protest action at
https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/mailalert/795/a-guitar-manufacturer-st...
Many thanks and best regards.
