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Notice (8): Undefined variable: urlPrefix [APP/Template/Layout/printlayout.ctp, line 8]latest-news-updates/the-earth-is-rumbling-131.html"/> LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The Earth Is Rumbling | Im4change.org
Resource centre on India's rural distress
 
 

The Earth Is Rumbling

The tribespeople of Kalahandi oppose Vedanta’s takeover of a region they hold in reverence

Tradition & Progress

The tribal view

Can there be another Niyamgiri?
What do we do for our livelihood? We can’t live on compensation money.
Why destroy for development?

The Vedanta view

Complying with all environmental rules, compensating tribals well
Have spent $24 mn in rehabilitation
India will become a world leader in aluminium production
***

For the last one year, the Niyamgiri hills in Kalahandi district of southwestern Orissa have been reverberating with protests and demonstrations. The tribals of the area—the Khonds, Kutiyas and Jharaniyas, who worship the hills as living gods—are taking on Vedanta, a UK-based mining major that has acquired a licence from the government to exploit the abundant bauxite reserves in the pristine region.

But matters took a curious turn last month. After hearing a representation made by tribal leaders, the Church of England (CoE), an investor in Vedanta, decided to review the situation arising out of the conflict between the tribals and the company and did not rule out pulling out of Vedanta for ethical considerations. The church’s shareholdings in Vedanta are worth Rs 20 crore, a small stake in a Rs 3,000-crore company. But if the CoE pulls out, the action will carry tremendous symbolic power and will prove a shot in the arm for environmental activists, who have been alleging all along that Vedanta is violating laws and displacing tribals from their traditional habitat. The church will take a final decision after its ethical investment advisory group meets later this month; but by all accounts, a pullout seems likely.

Meanwhile, in Niyamgiri, tensions are running high. Early last month, protesters torched a jeep they believed was on a recce of bauxite reserves in the hills. Skirmishes between Vedanta staff and tribals take place off and on. The tribespeople’s anger is perceptible. “Why aren’t the tribals of Niyamgiri in Orissa being heard? Why is the abode of my gods being mined?” asks Kumti Manjhi, a tribal leader who’d travelled to England to get the church to turn its ears to his people’s complaints. “The hill is my god. Will the government agree to mine mountains in other parts of the country on which other gods are believed to reside? I worship Niyamgiri. It has helped generations of my people survive. Aren’t the religious sentiments of tribals respected in this country? I’ve been to jail thrice fighting for our rights. I fear no one.” Of his forceful presentation before the church, organised with the help of friends, Manjhi says, “I told them: ‘If you destroy my gods, I will destroy yours.’” Rather than the threat itself, what seems to have made the church reconsider the ethics of its investment in Vedanta is Manjhi’s ardour and his concomitant sense of utter helplessness in the face of a state-corporate behemoth.

Conflicts between tribals and the state are nothing new—especially when they are portrayed as a struggle between the modern (read progressive governments and corporates) and the primitive (read tribals). Vedanta, in partnership with the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation, promises to put India on the global map as undisputed leader in production of iron ore, aluminium and zinc. But the tribals are asking if this should be at the cost of destroying their habitat, with which, in their animist traditions, they engage in a sacred covenant.

And environment activists ask if there can ever be another Niyamgiri once the mining starts. A visit there is a trip to paradise—lush greenery, scores of streams crisscrossing the mountains, rich soil, an abundance of wildlife. In fact much of the region is protected under Section 18 of the Indian Wildlife Act, and the Orissa government had declared it an elephant reserve as recently as 2004. But once the mining begins, the ecosystem will be lost.

The controversy broke out following an MoU signed in 2004 between the Orissa government and Vedanta Aluminium Ltd, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources, for establishing a bauxite mine on Niyamgiri hills and an aluminium refinery on the foothills. The company hoped to mine over a million tonnes of bauxite, having obtained the rights to 721.3 hectares, including 672 hectares of forest land. A conveyor belt, not fully assembled yet, stretches downhill. The tribals complain about the detours they have to take around it. Environmentalists fear the approach roads will prove the end of the wealth of flora and fauna in the area.

But how did Vedanta manage to get its mining plans okayed? A careful examination of the various clearances required to start mining in an area that was declared to be rich in biodiversity by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), Dehradun, reveals the role of both the state government and the Union ministry of environment & forests. The ministry gave its clearance on April 26, 2009—just two days after a public hearing was conducted in the region. The earlier warnings were all ignored.

 

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