Mass Media and the Construction of the Environment: A Discourse Analysis of Environmental News in Orissa s Newspapers

Transcription

1 Mass Media and the Construction of the Environment: A Discourse Analysis of Environmental News in Orissa s Newspapers Maitreyee Mishra Assistant Professor, Manipal Institute of Communication, Manipal University, Manipal , Karnataka, INDIA maitreyee.mishra@manipal.edu 21 th AMIC Annual Conference on Forty Years of Media and Communication in Asia: Retrospect, Introspect and Prospects. 11 th -14 th July 2012, Shah Alam, Malaysia. Abstract The East Indian state of Orissa (Odisha) has witnessed several changes to its environment in the last few decades, with frequented natural disasters such as droughts, cyclones and floods, widespread agricultural decline, coastal erosion and rising temperatures. While the government s policies have been bent on opening the state s rich natural resources to national and international industrial houses, the state s natural environment continues to deteriorate as a result of rapid industrial development, resulting in massive deforestation, destruction of the traditional homes of its tribal people, contamination of water bodies and other forms of ecological destruction. The mainstream and entertainment media are the most important sources of information on the environment (Cox, 2006). The mass media play a pivotal role in the creation of our understanding of the natural world and the environment through their representations of ecological change, environmental risks and disasters. Studies by Mishra (2010) show a general lack of interest in environmental reporting in Orissa s newspapers, and mass media leanings towards government policies on industrial development. Given on-going environmental challenges in the state, the media have a greater responsibility in spreading awareness and shaping public opinion towards environmental issues. There are 41 known newspapers published in Orissa in the Oriya language (Mahapatra, 2004) (this figure is likely to have gone up as of 2012), one Orissa-based English newspaper and four national dailies with an Orissa edition. This paper analyses the construction of Orissa s environment in two national dailies, Times of India and New Indian Express in order to understand how the mass media create notions of nature (construct/reconstruct the natural environment) and how they deal with ecological destruction, environmental risk and disasters. Times of India is the most-read English newspaper in the country with a readership of 7.47 million (Indian Readership Survey, 2011). Both the Orissa editions of New Indian Express and Times of India each dedicate four pages to news and features from Orissa. This paper uses discourse analytic methods to explore how nature, the environment, in specific Orissa s environment and ecological changes are represented in the above mentioned newspapers, thus looking to provide a deeper understanding of India s and Orissa s relationship with its environment. The paper thus analyses and looks at the creation, construction and representation of nature, ecological spaces and socio-political identities of those who are dependent on a given natural environment, while also looking at the depiction of ecological change, including climatic change, in the state s newspapers and national dailies. Keywords: environmental change, discourse analysis, mass media in Odisha/Orissa, indigenous people,

2 Introduction The East Indian state of Odisha (Orissa) is endowed with rich natural resources, a long coastline and abundant forests. Apart from its mainstream culture and traditions, the interior and western parts of the state are inhabited by hundreds of tribal peoples, each with their own gods, culture, traditions, practices and beliefs. The adivasis, or the tribal people have always been the other, forming the periphery and for a large part of the post-independence era it has been expected that their alien customs be integrated into mainstream society. The post-liberalisation era has seen further changes, with political ideologies vested in increased private investment and privatisation. Orissa, which is one of India s poorest states, has been under increased pressure to develop rapidly, resulting in the state government opening up Orissa s rich natural resources to national and international industrial houses. Most of the state s natural resources are to be found in areas occupied by Orissa s tribal peoples whose needs have been largely brushed aside, and historically many communities have been displaced, such as in the case of the Hirakud Dam. Much like the indigenous peoples across the world, tribes of Orissa have an innate connectedness with their environment, worshipping the elements of nature and cohabiting with all creatures, believing that the hills, forests and rivers are their gods, siblings and parents. The very essence of their existence is in connection to these elements of nature. As Wong (2008) observes, for indigenous peoples, land has a sacred quality, is revered and respected and is inalienable. The opening up of Orissa s natural resources has both ecological and social implications. The various industrial plants spread across the state have polluted rivers, streams and wells that are

3 the lifeblood of tribal peoples who have depended on these sources of water for generations. The setting up of industrial plants in these regions has also led to displacement of tribal peoples. Displacement itself comes with both visible and invisible costs; the visible costs can be addressed perhaps with monetary factors (Mishra, 2010). The invisible factors, however, which include emotional, cultural, social and spiritual dislocation, are complex, incalculable and cannot be repaired with any material replacement (Mishra, 2010). Since the 1990s, with the increase of mining and industrial activities across these tribal belts, many communities have been displaced. With the intensive liberalisation of Orissa s economy and the extensive inflows of investment, there has been groundswell of resistance against such displacement by several adivasi communities, grassroots organisations and an interwoven network of national, international support organisations and human rights groups. Over the last few decades, the state has witnessed several changes to its climate and environment with frequented natural disasters such as droughts, cyclones and floods, widespread agricultural decline, coastal erosion and rising temperatures. While the government s policies have been bent on opening the state s rich natural resources to national and international industrial houses, the state s natural environment continues to deteriorate, resulting in massive deforestation, destruction of the traditional homes of its tribal people, contamination of water bodies and other forms of ecological destruction. In this rapidly deteriorating ecological climate and the state government s continuing industrialisation bias, communication has a major role to play, in conveying the needs of the natural world and of those dependent on it, providing a channel for expression, discussion and

4 action (Mishra, 2011), while also shaping our understanding and perceptions of the environment and thus defining how we behave towards it (Milstein, 2009). This paper draws from research and past studies, and a discourse analysis of two Indian newspapers with Orissa editions to explore how nature is represented in the media and how images of Orissa s natural environment and its tribal people dependent on that environment are constructed in the media. The two newspapers selected for this study are two national dailies, Times of India and The Indian Express, both of which have Orissa editions. The Times of India is the most-read English newspaper in the country with a readership of 7.47 million (Indian Readership Survey, 2011). Both the Orissa editions of New Indian Express and Times of India each dedicate four pages to news and features from Orissa. This paper also seeks to understand how the mass media create notions of nature (construct/reconstruct the natural environment) and how they deal with ecological destruction, environmental risk and disasters. The paper first explores environmental change in Orissa, and then goes on to discuss representations of nature in the mass media; mass media in Orissa; and the case of the Niyamgiri-Vedanta conflict, before moving on to the various themes of discourse studied in this paper. Environmental change in Orissa Orissa s climate has seen huge changes over the last few decades. The weather is no longer predictable and spring and winter have almost altogether disappeared (Mishra, 2010). Summers have now become long and excruciating and monsoons erratic. The state has seen years of

5 alternating droughts and floods, cyclones and heat waves. Furthermore, in coastal areas such as Puri extensive coastal erosion is very evident. 52 percent of the land in Orissa is faced with erosion due to deforestation (Mahapatra, 2006) The districts that are now drought-prone have seen a drastic increase- from three drought-prone districts in 1950, now 11 million people have been affected in 25 (out of 30) districts (Living Farms, n.d.). In 1998, over 1500 people were killed due to a heat wave (Agarwal, Sharma and Narain, 2001). The frequency of cyclones have also increased; 1998 saw two successive cyclones (Living Farms, n.d.). In 1999, the state witnessed the super cyclone, one of the worst in hundreds of years, lasting for three days and causing the deaths of over 20,000 people, destroying 1.83 million houses and uprooting 80 percent of coconut trees (Shiva, 2002). In 2001, the state was faced with a severe drought, followed by floods that affected 7 to 11 million people (Shiva, 2002; Agarwal et al., 2001). The same cycle of droughts and floods have been repeated with 2008 witnessing floods that affected over 600,000 people. Droughts were also seen in 2010, due to rainfall deficit, causing paddy crop loss (Patnaik, 2010; NDTV, 2010), followed by flash floods in August 2010 affecting 85,000 people in southern Orissa (Outlook India, 2010). Orissa has also seen large-scale agricultural decline, with loss of traditional farming systems; a contributing factor may be the use of fertilisers and pesticides during the Green Revolution (Mishra, 2010). The State government s Climate Change Action Plan (2010) recognises that mining projects are threatening forests, livelihood of people dependent on forest based economy, and has a high carbon footprint (Government of Orissa, 2010). The same report, however, states that the Orissa government wishes to ensure that climate change does not undermine the economic

6 development which is now underway, stressing on the importance of economic growth and increased emphasis on power, mining, energy intensive industries and infrastructure (Government of Orissa/Odisha, 2010). Despite the impeding ecological crisis in Orissa, often deemed to be the Indian state worst affected by climate change, also termed climate s first orphan, the state government has been bent on economic growth based on mineral resource extraction. Over the last several years, the Orissa government has signed over 43 Memoranda of Understandings (MoU) with national and international industrial houses in order to set up industrial plants across the state (Pandey, 2008; Amnesty USA, 2007). Orissa has rich bauxite reserves (60% of India s bauxite reserves), and large reserves of iron ore, chromite and coal (Government of Orissa, 2005). The state s forest cover is percent (Forest Survey of India, 2009). Most of the mines are located in the forest areas, which are themselves inhabited by numerous tribes, who are at the risk of being displaced from their ancestral lands (Mishra, 2010). Some of the industrial houses have already started their operations, and this has inherently resulted in the displacement of the indigenous people from their traditional homes, and has also led to the contamination of water bodies, deforestation and innumerable ecological destruction (Mishra, 2011). The mass media: Representations of nature and the environment Given Orissa s environmental condition and the adamant political climate based on the paradigm quick industrialisation, the mass media have an important to play in informing and helping shape

7 opinions. Indeed our perceptions and attitudes towards nature and environmental problems are mediated by various sources which include news shows, scientific reports, films and college courses (Cox, 2006). News media are crucial in educating the public about environmental problems (Cox, 2006) as news is a key site for information, analysis and debate on public issues (Lester, 2010). Furthermore, we derive a great deal of our social and political knowledge and beliefs about the world from news reports read every day (van Dijk, 1991). Nature is constructed culturally and historically as our perceptions are inextricably bound up with particular models of society that are dominant at any period of time (Anderson, 1997). Different cultures have different views of nature and the media need to reflect these differences (Glenn, 2008). Anderson (1997) believes that the media who are at the heart of processes of political negotiation provide us with the frames with which to assimilate and structure information about several issues. Journalists hardly ever use the simple method of communicating fact; environmental media coverage, is however, built using narrative structures (Shanahan and McComas, 1999 quoted in Cox, 2006). How extensive and accurate the coverage of the environment and how the media s representation of environmental issues affect public perception, attitudes and behaviour (Cox, 2006) are important questions. Cox (2006) sees a general decline in mainstream media s interest in environmental themes by 1990s. He observes that the media s portrayal of nature is hardly uniform and nature itself can be rhetorically...presented, assuming four themes- hideous and desolate wilderness, pristine, the place where we live, work, play and learn and natural resource for human use (Cox, 2006).

8 Meisner (2004) reported that the most prominent representation of nature in the media could be classified into (1) nature as victim, (2) nature as a sick patient, (3) nature as a problem- threat, annoyance, etc., and (4) nature as resource, therefore sustaining what Meisner terms an anthropocentric-resourcist ideology and therefore justifying its control and domination by humans (quoted in Cox, 2006). Some environmental issues, as Cox (2006) observes are unobtrusive events; issues that are less dramatic and go unnoticed for years or decades as they are far from one s personal experience. Anderson (1997) suggests the environmental reporting thrive(s) on dramatic events involving goodies and baddies. Lack of immediate impact may, therefore make an environmental problem a nonissue for government officials and the media (Cox, 2006). In contrast to popular ideas of the liberal nature of the news media, mainstream media by and large are conservative institutions, following the lead of prominent social actors and supporting what media perceive to be dominant values and practices (Corbett, 2006). The mass media in Orissa Orissa has a considerable media presence with several newspapers, television and radio channels and a long history of cinema dating back to There are 41 known newspapers published in Orissa in the Oriya language (Mahapatra, 2004) (this figure is likely to have gone up as of 2012), one Orissa-based English newspaper and four national dailies with an Orissa edition.

9 There is a general lack of environmental reporting in Oriya and English dailies as well as television and radio programmes, possibly attributed to lack of interest and perhaps even lack of expertise (Mishra, 2008 cited in Mishra, 2011). State newspapers do not generally have a section on environment, so environmental stories are issue or event-dependent (Mishra, 2011). Official sources in Orissa s case too, enjoy advantaged access to the media and become primary definers of the issue in question (Anderson, 1997). Studies have showed a heavy reliance on government sources of information by the mainstream media in Orissa- print and television, largely due to their political lineages, and hence little alternative information is available on environmental damage (Mishra, 2008; Mishra, 2010). Studies done on the mass media in Orissa and patterns of communication show some trends: 1) Authority bias- the (news) media are dependent on authority for sole source of information. Authority includes the state institutions and research organisations, hospitals and doctors; multinational corporations and a general bias towards news from the western media (Mishra, 2011). 2) Local in not in - the indigenous and the local has never solely been a source of reliable information, leading to a lack of informational pluralism. Indigenous peoples struggles are seen through the lens of modernism and development (Mishra, 2011). 3) Natural environment as commodity- there is widespread representation of the natural environment as commodity (Mishra, 2011). 4) Unquestioning media- the media are receptive to representations of the environment as perceived by the status quo (Mishra, 2011).

10 The case of Niyamgiri Vedanta Resources, a UK-based mining company signed an MoU with the Government of Orissa in 2003 to construct an alumina refinery and coal thermal plant at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district. The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) gave environmental clearance to the company to mine on the basis that it will not use forest land. The company built a refinery at Lanjigarh in 2006, causing the displacement of over a hundred families (Survival International, 2010a). Lanjigarh is located at the foot of Niyamgiri hills, inhabited by the Dongria Kondh tribe. Vedanta wanted to set up an open cast mine in the Niyamgiri hills by blasting the top of the mountain to extract several million tonnes of bauxite. The Government of Orissa, who saw this as an opportunity for economic growth, supported Vedanta s activities. For the Dongria Kondh tribe, the Niyamgiri hills are Gods. These tribals collect bananas, roots, vegetables, palm juice, etc., from this mountain. The tribals rose to defend Niyamgiri from Vedanta by blocking roads. Members of the tribe appealed against Vedanta Resources to prevent the mining company from destroying their sacred mountain and forests. Their voices were carried across by grassroots organisations such as Niyamgiri Suraskha Samiti and international organisations such as Survival International, Action Aid and Amnesty International. Celebrities stepped in too. The work of these organisations and the information that flowed about the community s struggles helped draw attention worldwide with local, national and international media being drawn into the discourse. Amnesty International blamed Vedanta for violating human rights to water and health as a result of poor waste management and pollution from Vedanta s refinery (Amnesty International, 2010). The sources of water were also mixed with bauxite dust (Survival International, 2010a).

11 In August 2010, the tribe won a victory against Vedanta when the Indian government declared that Vedanta will not be allowed to mine in the Niyamgiri hills (Survival International, 2010b; Rehman, 2010). In October 2010 the Indian government blocked Vedanta from expanding its alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, at the foot of the Niyamgiri hills for violating the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification (Times of India, 2010 cited in Mishra, 2010). The general international coverage to the Niyamgiri issue was positive, where the Dongria Kondh s struggles were highlighted; their self-sufficiency, dependency and resolve to protect their revered mountain are discussed; their struggles are said to be representative of similar indigenous peoples struggles. They were perceived as pure and untouched, unaffected by modern society, and modernisation (in the form of Vedanta) was gnashing itself at this people. A few online discourses by Survival International drew parallels between the Na vi tribe in the James Cameron film, Avatar to the Dongria Kondh. Avatar is an allegory for colonisation; and the RDA corporation in the film was a fitting comparison to Vedanta. This paper focuses on media discourses around Niyamgiri-Vedanta issue. This issue was chosen because not only did it draw a lot of media attention but also because of the issue s significance interweaving the discourses on the natural environment, tribal representation and rights, and industrialisation. Media discourses- nature, identity and community This paper takes a discourse analytic approach to study the representations of nature, Orissa s environment and representations of the tribal people dependent on that environment in two

12 newspapers, namely the Times of India and The Indian Express. Discourse analysis emphasizes the obvious, but as yet not fully explored fact that media messages are specific types of text and talk (van Dijk, 1991). It is the study of the rhetorical organization of texts, investigating how constructions of the world are designed so they appear as stable facts and how alternatives are undermined (Farbotko, 2005). I searched through the online archives of Times of India and The Indian Express using Niyamgiri hills as the search term. The search period was a period of two years, from 1 st January 2010 to 1 st January The search yielded 71 results in the Times of India portal and 77 results in The Indian Express 1 portal, respectively. Each article was then manually accessed for relevance to the study and for its coverage of either the Niyamgiri hills or of the Dongria Kondh to determine the social construct of the environment and of nature in general in the newspapers. Authority, politicians and idols In several articles in the Times of India, the Indian political leader, Rahul Gandhi 2 is mentioned in the context of the Niyamgiri conflict, and the metaphor is one of the saviour, seen as the leader who stood up against the Niyamgiri bauxite mines (Sethi, 2012) and the one who saved Niyamgiri tribals when nobody listened to them (Ghildiyal, 2011). Another article, from July 27 th titled Maoist kill contractor in Kalahandi, reports the killing of a young named contractor by Maoists in their maiden attempt to terrorise people against supporting Vedanta Alumina Limited, and while mentioning the village where the victim was staying, the writer adds (the 1 Although the paper intended to study The New Indian Express, I could not access its archives through a search term. Upon typing Niyamgiri hills New Indian Express on google.com I could only get articles on The Indian Express website. 2 Rahul Gandhi is the son of ex-prime Minister the late Rajiv Gandhi and the current Congress party President, Sonia Gandhi. He is also the grandson of the late Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

13 village was) where Rahul Gandhi had addressed the Dongria Kondh last year (Times of India, 2011). The insertion of Rahul Gandhi s saviour status was seen in several texts, also found in The Indian Express. Ironically, no other players and stakeholders were mentioned in the articles. What one assumes from reading them is that the Niyamgiri tribals win over Vedanta was largely attributed to Rahul Gandhi s involvement. However, Gandhi himself came into the picture in August 2010, almost three years after the representatives of the Dongria Kondh travelled to New Delhi to meet with government officials in order to ensure that Vedanta Resources is not given permission to mine in the Niyamgiri hills. The Dongria Kondh, themselves, in these articles, as a result of the continuous media discourses do not appear to be empowered. In an article titled Sonia flags environment as prime national concern, Sonia Gandhi is quoted as saying destroying forests and habitats through indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources does not necessarily bring (tribals) out of the abject poverty in which they are languishing (Times of India, 2010 Nov). The article says that Sonia Gandhi gave unprecedented space to green concerns (Times of India, 2010 Nov). The adjective unprecedented seems to suggest that Sonia Gandhi is one of the first to highlight environmental concerns. Eco-sensitive and primitive Several other articles are there on Orissa government s challenge of the Centre s cancellation of the environmental clearance given to Vedanta s Niyamgiri mining project. Another article talks

14 of the Orissa government s contemplation of a fresh case with the apex court questioning the Central government s version that it violated forest laws (Sandeep Mishra, 2011, April). In the same article, the Niyamgiri hills are referred to as eco-sensitive and as home to the primitive Dongria Kondh (Mishra, 2011, April). The eco-sensitive imagery appeals to the pristine and untouched nature of the Niyamgiri Hills. Few texts actually used rich nature imagery in describing the hills. The primitive imagery appears in several texts analysed and is an interesting one because it does carry with it a negative connotation. The use of the word, without any supporting or additional statements, reduces the tribe to the condition of one that needs to be integrated with the mainstream modern society, which the discourses of the dominant paradigm saw as essential to growth and development. Modernisation discourses belittled the traditional, the religious and inherently also the primitive, who must be advanced and made to fit into modernity. Whether this imagery changes perceptions of tribal people is uncertain, but definitely it does reduce them to a status below the mainstream. Perhaps the media themselves have not been able to escape from these dominant discourses and therefore the constant use of the negative nature of the term primitive. Dongria lives are intimately connected with mountains, forests and forest produce (Satapathy, 2010 Mar). This text uses positive imagery of the Dongria Kondh and their relationship to their natural environment, a rarity in the texts analysed. The Dongria Kondh case is paralleled to the East Khasi Hills in Meghalaya 3 by Dhananjay Mahapatra in his article Concern for Kondhs, but not Khasis (Mahapatra, 2010 Aug). Mahapatra s article, is full of rare positive imagery of both the Khasis and the Dongria Kondhs, who he states, remain unaware of the rapid industrial stride the country has taken. He describes the places inhabited by the two tribes as the finest 3 A north-eastern state of India.

15 addresses for nature lovers, while also adds that peace and serenity of both places have been shattered suggesting the French multinational Lafarge in the Khasi hills and Vedanta in Niyamgiri are responsible. In a Times of India article from March, 2011, Sandeep Mishra writes about Kumuti Majhi, who is at the forefront of the Vedanta agitation, being concerned about the future of tribals who have not benefited from the government s development initiatives (Mishra, 2011 Mar). Majhi is quoted as saying that the Indravati irrigation project did not help tribals who were displaced and turned into beggars (Mishra, 2011 Mar). The writer also calls the Vedanta Alumina Limited (VAL) refinery as controversial and established despite protests by locals. He also points out that the Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput area has enjoyed an enviable reputation as several VVIPs visit it, making grand promises. Mishra (2011) also speaks of the Gandhi family tradition of visiting the place; the latest visit by Rahul Gandhi, who had stated that he would be a soldier for Kalahandi tribals at New Delhi. This is a rare article featuring a discussion with a tribal leader. Another article, titled Who will save our Na vis? from August 2010 written by Manoj Mitta criticises Justice S. H. Kapadia s description of the Dongria Kondh as living on grass. Mitta draws from the [N C] Saxena committee report stating that the Dongria Kondh, unlike Justice Kapadia s justification of the economic formula, are instead known to be skilled horticulturists (Mitta, 2010 Aug). The title is most likely inspired by Survival Internationalist s use of the colonisation allegory from James Cameron s film Avatar to describe the Dongria Kondh. In an article titled Not a blade of grass has moved in Niyamgiri containing the interview of Anil Agarwal, the owner of Vedanta Resources, Agarwal is asked to respond to the perception

16 that his company does not care for tribals. Agarwal is quoted as responding thus- we are also for tribals we built 13 bridges, an airport, power plant and hence have provided jobs (Times of India, 2010 Oct). The choice of using a quote from Agarwal s interview in the title seems to suggest a not-so-negative image of Vedanta. The interviewer asks few difficult questions to Agarwal, who, in other spaces has clearly been criticised for his handling of the Niyamgiri matter. Political realms This environmental discourse is taken into the political realm in many texts. Nitin Sethi in his article titled Eco-Sensitive: Jairam has come at the right time for Congress calls Jairam Ramesh (the previous Union Environment and Forests Minister) the iconic face of the debates that rage in seminar halls and drawing rooms of the rich and powerful. Sethi provides the rather rare imagery of the tribals armed with bows, arrows, sticks and stones in order to protect their lands from the project developer, providing an alternative image to the tribals who were caught up between dominant discourses of the conflict between Vedanta, the Orissa government and the Central government. He further states that the middle class understanding of environment is the green fig leaf for a grimy and dirty battle over who owns the resources (Sethi, 2010 Aug). The Indian Express s online portal search engine gave 77 results for Niyamgiri hills. All articles were manually checked for relevance to the physical/natural environment and the depiction of the tribal peoples. Many of these articles were political in nature- either discussing Rahul Gandhi and his visit to Niyamgiri (mentioned in at least three articles), or discussing the

17 covering the court appeals, the conflicting states between the Orissa government, Vedanta Resources, and the central government. This was also common in Times of India. An article by the columnist Tavleen Singh titled A primitive approach almost rhetorically likens poor to primitive. Singh states that the main cause of environmental degradation is extreme poverty which she says, reduces people like the Dongria Kondhs of Niyamgiri to living conditions that are not much better than the hunter-gatherer times (Singh, 2010). She provides a very dominant paradigmatic approach to the environment and tribal peoples, even going on to state that if the Kondhs knew how rich the bauxite under their sacred mountain would have made them, they might not have wanted Vedanta to leave. The text suggests the link between poverty and the hunter-gatherer image, indiscreetly suggesting that the Dongria Kondh are living a backward life and that they should have allowed Vedanta to mine their hills as that would have improved their status, and made them rich. This is a contrasting discourse to the ones provided in many international forums on the Niyamgiri-Vedanta issue. A similar proposition is made in Soubhik Chakrabarty s article written a few days before Singh s, written in a rather sarcastic tone, arguing that although the Niyamgiri hills have been declared to be abundant in fauna, it is not easily spotted (Chakrabarty, 2010). Chakrabarty asks will bauxite become the unobtainium of Orissa? He goes on to say that the Niyamgiri is not as simple as in the film Avatar and there are seven twists. One of these twists is on local tribal custom, of which he says that some locals say that the hilltop becoming sacred is a recent change. His second twist asks what do tribal groups want to which he says that the tribals are not opposing the building of social and physical infrastructure in an area that s staggeringly underdeveloped even by Indian standards.

18 The study of both the newspapers, Times of India and The Indian Express lead to certain conclusions. Both newspapers criticised the Orissa government to a great extent, more for political reasons than purely surrounding the cause of the Dongria Kondh. It was nonetheless unclear what stand each newspaper had with regard to tribal rights. For one, there were hardly any interviews with members of the Dongria Kondh tribe (just one was seen); secondly environmental/nature imagery was rare in both newspapers. No photographs were seen online, apart from a few on The Indian Express but those were limited to the Niyamgiri hills landscape. This can be contrasted to Survival International s efforts at portraying the Dongria Kondh in a highly positive light, with colourful photographs that showed a young man or woman smiling happily. Within those discourses, the Dongria Kondh became a metaphor for the natural (untouched) world, fighting against the rape of modernity (Mishra, 2011). Unlike other discourses online (in the form of documentaries on the tribe or articles on Survival International s portal), in the Indian print (news) media, the Dongria Kondh s action of blockades of their sacred hills, their symbolic gatherings and ritualistic singing did not find any mention, at least within the texts studied in this paper. Furthermore, grassroots organisations such as Friends Association for Rural Reconstruction (FARR) that had played a major role in helping the Dongria Kondh understand their rights did not find any mention in the texts studied. Furthermore, within the texts studied, many stories had been skewed and woven around a political figure. The Niyamgiri discourse provided some understanding of the news media s representation of the environment and the tribals dependent on it. Other discourses, in further studies, would enhance the scope of the study enormously, and provide a greater understanding of the Indian media s constructions of the environment.

19 Conclusion: towards pluralism A modernisation bias seems to still affect discourses of tribal people in the mainstream media, as this study of Times of India and The Indian Express suggests. I had expected greater descriptions of the Niyamgiri hills, perspectives and descriptive accounts of the Dongria Kondh and more records of their way of life in the newspapers discourse, images which were highlighted in many international spaces but did not find much mention here. What the study shows is that environmental reporting, in most cases, lacks an in-depth, contemplative and exploratory nature. The dearth of interviews with the tribal people concerned (in this case, the Dongria Kondh) shows a leaning toward dominant structures and narratives. There was focus on primarily the political dimensions of each discourse, largely ignoring the social and environmental aspects. This seems to suggest that greater expertise is required for environmental reporting, and given the rapidly changing natural environment across India, a greater introspection of development philosophy, greater questioning of the status quo and deeper, bottoms-up approach in environmental thinking and reporting. Environmental reporting, as discussed earlier, is crucial to providing information on a given issue, and also helping shape perceptions of the natural environment and environmental change and conflict. This paper suggests that within the media a pluralistic approach is required. This pluralism means a greater understanding and respect of life in all its forms, respect of people and their rights, respect of diversity and multiplicity of cultures and ways of living. This concept of pluralism entails that the needs of tribal communities be recognised and that mainstream political, economic and social motives are not imposed upon them.

20 The Dongria Kondh, as other indigenous people across the world, have their notions of their environment and as they live in it, they respect and treat the rivers, hills, mountains and the various creatures that live in it with respect and reverence. These tribal people who may not possess all the things we do, however, know more about the Earth: how to take just what is needed from the Earth s resources; how to protect and respect the trees and rivers for the future, and so on. That is what we can learn from them- by letting them choose what kind of life they would like to live.

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22 Living Farms (n.d.). Climate change and agriculture in Orissa. Available at < Accessed on 20 th March Mahapatra, R. (2006). Disaster dossier: the impact of climate change on Orissa. Infochange. Available at: < The-impact-of-climate-change-on-Orissa.html> Accessed on 15 th April Mishra, M. (2008). How have the media addressed rice-fish farming in coastal Orissa, India? Reading: University of Reading (MSc Dissertation). Mishra, M. (2010, December). Communicating the True Ecological Cost of Development: Addressing Development and Environment in Orissa, India. Paper presented at CSSC International Conference on Future Imperatives of Communication and Information for Development and Social Change, Bangkok, Thailand. Mishra, S. (2011, Mar). Poverty-hit Kalahandi s cup of worries runneth over. Times of India. Available at: < Accessed on 15 th April Mishra, S. (2011, April). Apex court admits OMC petition. Times of India. Available at: < Accessed on 15 th April Mitta, M. (2010, Aug). Who will save our Navis. Times of India. Available at: < Navis/articleshow/ cms> Accessed on 16 th March NDTV (2010, Oct 13 th ). Govt identifies over 10,000 villages as drought-hit in Orissa. Available at: < Accessed on 16 th March Outlook India (2010). 85,000 People Affected in Orissa Floods. Available at: < Accessed on14 th March Panda, M. (2008). Economic Development in Orissa: Growth Without Inclusion? Mumbai, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research. Available at: < Accessed on 13 th March, Pandey, B. (2008). The Kalinganagar tragedy: Development goal or development malaise. Social Change, 38 (4), Patnaik, N. (2010, July 22 nd ). Drought year stares Orissa as monsoon plays truant. The Economic Times. Available at: < Accessed on 16 th March 2012.

23 Rehman, M. (2010). India blocks Vedanta mine on Dongria-Kondh tribe s sacred hill. The Guardian. August 24. Available at: Accessed on 5 th April Sethi, N. (2010, Aug). Eco sensitive: Jairam has come at the right time for Congress. Times of India. Available at: 28/india/ _1_jairam-ramesh-environment-conversation/4> Accessed on 15 th March Sethi, N. (2012, Apr). Natarajan stops fresh Vedanta bid to mine Niyamgiri hills. The Times of India. Available at: < Accessed on 27 th April Shiva, V. (2002). Water wars: privatization, pollution and profit. Cambridge MA: South End Press. Singh, T. (2010, Sep). A primitive approach. The Indian Express. Available at: < Accessed on 5 th April Survival International (2010a). Troubled Vedanta loses appeal for controversial refinery 21 October. Available at: Accessed on 10 th March Survival International (2010b). Vedanta s India mine slammed in devastating government report 16 August. Available at: < Accessed on 10 th March The Times of India (2010, Oct). Not a blade of grass has moved in Niyamgiri. Available at: < Niyamgiri/articleshow/ cms> Accessed on 15 th April, The Times of India (2010, Nov). Sonia flags environment as prime national concern. Available at: < Accessed on 15 th April The Times of India (2011, July). Maoists kill contractor in Kalahandi. Available at: < Kalahandi/articleshow/ cms> Accessed on 15 th April Van Dijk, T. A. (1991). Media Contents: The interdisciplinary study of news as discourse. In Jensen, K. B. (ed). A Handbook of Qualitative Methodologies for Mass Communication Research. London, New York: Routledge.

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