"Odisha: Dongria Kondh Tribals Take on Corporate Goliaths to Save Forests", 30 September 2023

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The Forest Conservation Act 1980 was amended two months ago with the specific intention of depriving India’s tribal communities [...].  By diluting the term ‘forest’ to exclude deemed forests, no gram sabha consent will be required to commence mining and other `development’ activities in these Scheduled Areas.

A fall-out of this amendment has been that the Narendra Modi government has leased areas in the Sijimali Hills to multinational mining major Vedanta. No attempt has been made to take the religious and environmental concerns of the tribals into consideration. As a result, the community was completely taken aback to see the staff of the Mythri Infotech Company, a sub lessee of Vedanta, felling trees in the Sijimali Hills.

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While one team from the Mythri Infotech Company began tree felling in early August 2023, a second team began conducting a detailed survey of the hills. As per reports, angry villagers immediately surrounded the company staff and stopped them from felling the trees.

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FIRs have been lodged against the tribals here on August 5, 6, 8,12 and 13 with over 150 tribals presently lodged in jail. An MSS team visited this region to interact with the tribals of the Rayagada and Kalahandi districts.  Sethi, who was part of this team, said he was “horrified at the ill treatment” being meted out to the tribals by the Odisha police.

“It seems as though the cops are acting as henchmen of these corporate houses. [...]” said Sethi.

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The mining major wanted to create an open cast mine that would have destroyed the hills and polluted the rivers. The Supreme Court denied them permission to mine the bauxite as this would have destroyed the hill, but the Vedanta Group was given permission to build a refinery in the town of Lanjigarh on condition that they would not destroy the forests. This did not happen on the ground, where 60 hectare areas of forest land were taken over by the group. This also saw the displacement of over 100 tribal families who were living in Kinari village.

The refinery is throwing toxic slurry into the surrounding streams and this waste has also made its way to the Vamsadhara river, say local activists. [...].