Crippled by fund crunch, Greenpeace India shuts Delhi office

Over three years after Centre cancelled the registration of Greenpeace India under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, (FCRA) and froze foreign funding, the environmental campaigners shuttered its office in Delhi on Friday owing to a fund crunch. Before closing down their Delhi office, Greenpeace also had let go around 40 staffers and had to close down offices in Patna and Waidhan in Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh. Its campaigns and operations in Mumbai, Pune and Hyderabad were closed down in 2015.

From a peak of over 300 employees, the non-governmental organisation (NGO) environmental watchdog now just has 20 staffers including those working at their headquarters in Bengaluru. Senior personnel of the NGO told DNA that the remaining employees would continue to push campaigns in their capacity as volunteers and operations would not be closed completely. The NGO has been running two major campaigns on air pollution in Delhi-NCR and around coal-fired power plants.

Greenpeace employees told DNA that internal staff meetings were held to apprise them of an imminent office closure in Delhi. "The reality had dawned upon us when people were asked to go. But we have had an inkling about the closure for a while," said an employee who did not wish to be named.

"From 2015 Greenpeace India has borne the brunt of government crackdowns but every time it has fought boldly, continued to speak truth to power and win campaigns. This time is no different. Our accounts were frozen by the Enforcement Directorate in October 2018 and till date, they have not found anything wrong with our financial records," said Diya Deb, campaign director, Greenpeace.

The global NGO, with headquarters in Amsterdam, has had a Delhi office since early 2004-05 according to one of its employee. Soon after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) came to power, an Intelligence Bureau report had termed the NGO's activities as a threat to the country's economic security for their campaigns and protests against coal-fired power plants and nuclear power plants. The government soon cancelled its FCRA license, freezing its foreign funding. The NGO had to then rely solely on domestic donations. However, later, the government also froze its domestic accounts.

In January 2015, immigration officials had also deplaned the NGO's former campaigner Priya Pillai from boarding a flight to London, where she was slated to address British parliamentarians on coal mining in Mahan forest, MP, and its impact on tribal communities. More recently in October 2018, the Enforcement Directorate raided the NGO's Bengaluru to probe alleged forex violations. Both cases, pertaining to FCRA and forex violations, are sub-judice.

Case Against

An Intelligence Bureau report had termed the NGO’s activities as a threat to the country’s economic security for their campaigns and protests against coal-fired power plants etc.