In 2003, mining conglomerate Vedanta signed a memorandum of understanding with the Odisha government to set up a million tonne per annum alumina refinery in Niyamgiri’s foothills at Lanjigarh.
The same year, the Dongria Kondh tribals, who live in 112 hamlets in the Niyamgiri Hills, formed the Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti (NSS) to protest the mining project. By now, Vedanta had laid the foundation stone for its refinery and started felling trees to lay a road going to the hilltop.
Social activists such as Prafulla Samantara and Lingaraj Azad filed petitions challenging the legality of the mining project that threatened 1,660 acres of forest land.
The company then announced plans for a phase-wise expansion of the refinery. The agitation continued, with the tribals staging protests and forming human chains to save their ancestral land and source of livelihood.
Several committees set up by the Environment Ministry and the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by the Supreme Court found blatant violations of environmental laws.
But in 2008, the Supreme Court gave the mining company a green signal. In 2010, the Stage-II environment clearance given to Vedanta was rejected by the Environment Ministry. The rejection order was challenged.
In 2013, the Supreme Court passed an order directing the Odisha government to convene Gram Sabhas to ascertain if mining would indeed affect the religious and cultural rights of the tribal community.
This was, in part, due to Samantara’s crucial intervention: he had reminded the court about the provisions of the Forest Rights Act that demands the consent of Gram Sabhas if a project threatens the religious and cultural rights of tribals.
In the country’s first-ever environmental referendum, all 12 Gram Sabhas asserted their community rights over Niyamgiri. Men and women stood up and spoke of their love for their hills, their worship of Niyam Raja, and their attachment to the forests they consider home. They asserted their legal rights over the Niyamgiri hills. The referendum forced Vedanta to suspend operations. But the Odisha Mining Corporation again filed a petition challenging the 2013 resolution of the gram sabhas. Last year, the Supreme Court scrapped this petition too.
The Dongrias, however, feel their struggle is not over yet, as the company is still running its refinery at Lanjigarh using bauxite ore brought from elsewhere.
