The Dongria Kondh tribe of Niyamgiri Hills are among the best conservationists in the world. Known for the spirited defence of their forested habitat against short-sighted industrialisation, they have through millennia evolved a lifestyle that is in perfect harmony with nature. Across India, there are scores of indigenous people who …
Padayatra will cover many villages in Kalahandi and Rayagada districts before culminating at Muniguda on May 22. Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (NSS), an organisation spearheading the agitation against Vedanta's alumina project at Lanjigarh in Kalhandi district, has started a five-day padayatra beginning Friday to spread awareness among the locals on the …
The villages of Dongriya Kondh tribals around Odisha's Niyamgiri hills are set to become a flash point again, with the Centre and the state government along with civil society groups planning to converge on the site of the proposed Vedanta bauxite mine. Emboldened by the Supreme Court order, the villagers …
With the clock ticking, the tribal affairs ministry has set the ball rolling for village assemblies or gram sabhas to decide on allowing Vedanta to source bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills, considered sacred by the local Dongria Kondh population. The ministry has issued detailed instructions to the Odisha government to …
Union ministry of tribal affairs has asked Odisha state government to raise awareness on this Supreme Court order dated 18 April 2013 that continued the ban on bauxite mining by Vedanta Aluminium in the Niyamgiri Hills. Read text of this order. Supreme Court judgement dated 18/04/2013 in W.P.(C) No.180/2011 Orissa …
AnRak Aluminium is moving ahead with the bauxite mining project in Makavarapalem in Visakhapatnam district despite the local opposition warns this analysis in the Economic and Political Weekly with focus on social and environment impact of the project. A bauxite/aluminium project very similar to the Vedanta project in Odisha is …
Sharing the concerns of the Dongria Kondh tribe of Niyamgiri in Kalahandi district whose protests had put a halt to Vedanta’s bauxite mining plan two years ago, over hundreds of tribals, under the banner of Mali Parbat Surakhya Samiti and Koraputia Jana Surakshya Sangha, gathered at the foothills of Mali …
Vedanta Resources plc is a UK-registered mining company that has come under growing national and international scrutiny owing to allegations of human rights abuses associated with its activities, especially in India where most of its operations are based. India’s regulatory bodies have intervened in many cases where the operations of …
Amnesty International (AI) has urged the Indian authorities to order the immediate clean-up of an alumina refinery in Orissa, following a high court decision to reject plans for its expansion by a subsidiary of the UK-based Vedanta Resources. The High Court of Orissa upheld the Indian government’s decision made in …
In a state such as Odisha in which Dalit and tribal groups comprise about 40 per cent of the total population, the issue of ‘access’ to land and resources has apparently been central to all conflicts. For traditional communities, ‘access’ is directly linked to civilizational paradigms and cultural ethos, which …
When patdehri (chief priest) Halu Thanapati, 68, gets possessed, he hastily dives into the badan khaal—the yoni of Goddess Duarseni, the supreme deity of his tribe—as though to suck the rare wisdom that ensures ‘existence’ on earth. The yoni is actually the mouth of a natural tunnel, which is independent …
AKSHAYA KUMAR SAHOO BHUBANESWAR The Orissa gov ernment denied presence of any revenue villages and tribals in the reserved forest on the contentious Niyamgiri hills. Replying to a query by ruling BJD member Anant Das, industry minister Raghunath Mohanty said that the there existed no human habitations in the hill …
Few committees have been as forthright as the N C Saxena Committee on the violation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) by the very authorities which are charged with upholding them—the state governments. In its report on the controversial project to mine for bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills, the four …
N N Sachitanand The ruling on Vedanta raises questions about the path of development the country should take in future Mining minerals will clearly necessitate clearing some of the forested areas, initially digging up the land and reducing it to waste, displacing those who live in these regions and upsetting …
Can a mining company dig up a hill that tribals worship as sacred? ERVELL E MENEZES outlines the issues When the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) last week rejected the Vedanta bauxite mining proposal in the Niyamgiri Hills, Orissa, it most certainly struck a blow for ecological consciousness. Not …
The rejection of forest clearance for mining Niyamgiri is indeed a historic decision. It has vindicated the historical injustice done, in this case to Dongaria and Kutia Kondh tribal communities, due to the non-recognition of their forest rights on ancestral lands and their habitat in the consolidation of state forests …
