The 65-year-old activist and lawyer, Prafulla Samantara, who campaigned for 12 years to protect Odisha’s Dongria Kondh community from losing their home in Niyamgiri Hills to mining, was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for 2017 last week. Excerpts from an interview:
When did Niyamgiri become an issue for you, and what led you to take on Vedanta?
The destruction of ecology in the name of development has been a major area of concern for me for the last 30 years. In the 1990s, I had opposed the steady destruction of the fragile ecosystem of the Gopalpur coast when the Tatas were planning their steel plant there.
You see the same scenario playing out all over Odisha and I feel happy to have been involved with most of these cases. When I first saw Niyamgiri, I was speechless. Nowhere else in the State will you find such a beautiful place. Humans, wild animals, trees, streams—they co-exist. No sane being would want to destroy it and that too for profit. I made a resolve to fight to save it.
Your battle to stop mining in Niyamgiri Hills was long-drawn...
While travelling through the villages I realised that several forest and environmental laws had been violated. Campaigners like Lingaraj Azad had been victimised. These issues had not been picked up by the media. The State government had actively cooperated with the mining company in every violation that had taken place.
I approached the Central Empowered Committee of the Forest Bench of the Supreme Court and the truth came to light. There have been several ups and downs in this battle. It was because of the great support we got from lawyers such as Ritwick Dutta and Sanjay Parikh that the legal battle could continue.
Do you feel the struggle of the tribals to save Niyamgiri has come to an end?
Logically, it should have ended on August 19, 2013, when the last Gram Sabha unanimously rejected mining following the Supreme Court order. But it did not. The pro-Vedanta State government approached the apex court to convene Gram Sabhas again on flimsy grounds. Apparently, the new government at the Centre created some hope for Vedanta. I again intervened and finally the court rejected the petition.
But the company has been allowed to expand without even a mine being allotted to it to source bauxite ore. All laws pertaining to forest and environment have been buried in Lanjigarh, where Vedanta has set up an alumina refinery. People are suffering from terrible skin diseases, but no one cares. Deaths are not reported. As long as the illegal alumina plant is there, we can’t declare that the war on our people has ended.
A Home Ministry report says that Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (NSS) is a front for Maoists...
The allegation is not new. Both Vedanta and the government have used this technique to crush this powerful movement of the Dongrias. The Ministry can only brand protesters as Maoists or anti-nationals. This report’s so-called findings have been challenged by the Samiti in a peaceful yet powerful protest on April 25. The NSS has never resorted to violence. Rather, innocent tribals have been targeted by the police in the name of combing operations. People have been killed in fake encounters.
Are you now hopeful that people’s opposition can also save other biodiversity hotspots such as Khandadhar hills from mining?
You are right. If the opposition is organised well, if there is scientific documentation of all that we are losing or gaining, if we record minutely all legal violations of forestry and people’s rights, if we mobilise solidarity at all levels starting from the village to the globe, I am sure that not only Khandadhar but all other biodiversity hotspots in the country can be saved. As for Khandadhar, the damage is already done by the Odisha Mining Corporation. Even if POSCO does not come, it is a challenge now to save Khandadhar. The waterfalls and streams are drying up and the forests are disappearing. We at Lok Shakti Abhiyan are trying to use all means to support Khandadhar Suraksha Sangarm Samiti, but it needs much more support.
prafullakumar.d@thehindu.co.in
