Sujatha Sundaran, 25, sits on a rickety bench and points to a rubber nursery that was a helipad about a decade ago in Mundakkai colony in the heart of Kerala’s northern district of Kasargod. Local children used to watch with awe as the choppers flew overhead and sprayed the insecticide endosulfan on the cashew groves of the Plantation Corp. of Kerala Ltd, a state government undertaking. She was eight when she...

A RESEARCHER WORKING on the State of Panchayats Report (SOPR) 2008-09 met Mahangu Madiya in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district, a dangerous place for gathering data. Madiya’s story was startling. In January, he was given Rs 55 lakh compensation for his land, but the amount is sitting in his bank account. He does not even own a mobile phone. “I am concerned with farming. My land is important to me. What will I...

Vedanta Aluminium has violated forest conservation guidelines and failed to follow the Forest Rights Act in letter and in spirit at a proposed bauxite mine project in the Niyamgiri Hills of Orissa, according to a report submitted by a three-member team to the Union Environment and Forests Ministry. Following allegations about the project earlier this year, the Ministry constituted the team — with a forestry official, a former government wildlife official...

The road to Khardung La begins in the Indian town of Leh on the northwestern fringe of the Himalayas. Exhaust-spewing army trucks rattle up the side of dry rock, past Buddhist monasteries clinging to the craggy mountainside and alongside small farms barely scraping fertility from the earth. Khardung La, the highest motorable mountain pass in the world, is more than 18,000 ft. above sea level, the air so thin that...

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...