Shared by Shri Dillip Kumar Das
Times of India
A new report by a government committee has slammed the plans of UK-listed mining company Vedanta Resources to mine the Niyamgiri Hills in the south eastern Indian state of Orissa. Run by Indian mining billionaire Anil Agarwal, Vedanta has been trying for years to mine bauxite from the Niyamgiri Hills to produce aluminum. But that plan endangers the Dongria Kondh, an indigenous tribe of 8,000 that has been has been living off the bounty of the thick forests for generations. The committee, which was set up by India’s Environment Minister, says Vedanta has acted with ‘total contempt for the law;’ that local officials have ‘colluded’ in the company’s illegal activity; that ‘it is established beyond any doubt that the [mining] area is the cultural, religious and economic habitat of the Dongria Kondh’ and that to allow Vedanta’s mine would be ‘illegal,’ campaign group Survival International reports. “The findings are unequivocal–mining will destroy the Dongria Kondh and should not be allowed. Let’s hope this is the final nail in the coffin for Vedanta’s plans,” it says.
I visited Niyamgiri earlier this year for a story I was reporting on Maoists in India. The nearly three-hour journey to reach the forest was on a dusty, skinny road, filled with potholes. I lost count of the number of trucks I passed that bore the company’s name. Yet the company had no interest in paving the road. On the way to Niyamgiri I passed gorgeous bungalow-style buildings with white walls and red roofs, almost in the lap of the lush forests. That was where Vedanta housed its execs.
The day I visited, a Tuesday, there was a weekly market in the heart of the forest. Members of the Dongria Kondh had come to sell their produce and had displayed their goods on either side of a narrow path: lentils, rice, dried fish, tobacco, potatoes, ginger, turmeric, bananas. Some of the men agreed to talk to me while most of the women turned their backs if I tried to talk to them or take a photograph. I took the hint.
I met Ranga Majhi who had wrapped up his sales and was standing there, chatting with 3-4 others, an axe casually resting on his shoulders. “Other than salt I get everything from these hills,” he told me. “We will kill with this,” he said gripping the axe, “but we will not let the company come in here.” His sentiment was echoed by another in the crowd–Sona Majhi. “We won’t give up Niyamgiri,” he said. “Our forefathers have been living here. You expect us to leave and do what? We don’t want anything from Vedanta–no schools, no hospitals. When I fall sick I take medicines from the trees and plants and get okay.” (I saw the Hollywood blockbuster “Avatar” after I came back to New York from this reporting trip and the resemblance between reality and fiction was unbelievable. It was suddenly so easy to explain to my editor what I had seen in Niyamgiri. The company’s COO told me that the comparison was an insult.)
At the base of the hill is an area called Lanjigarh where Vedanta has a refinery for its bauxite. Across the street from it live villagers who’ve lost their land to the refinery. In another village nearby called Rengopalli, nine people died last year of tuberculosis and bronchitis. Vedanta has a red mud pond for the waste disposal from its refinery next to this village with a second pond under way. As I walked around the village I saw that “Vedanta” was stamped everywhere–on electricity poles, across the walls of a rundown, one-room clinic. The residents of Rengopalli told me that once the company had taken over most of their land, it enrolled about 115 young men in a vocational school in a town nearby so they could train to become plumbers and electricians and also paid for their room and board. When the men came back to the village and asked for jobs, a manager at the refinery told them, “You tribals were living like monkeys, we sent you on this training so you could learn how to dress like a person and wear pants and a shirt. Now go look for a job on your own.” But Vedanta told me that it had told them to apply for jobs in its subsidiaries as there were no openings on that site.
As I was leaving the forest I remember thinking who would win this battle between tribals and this powerful and giant corporation. But as I was was getting into my car a man in plainclothes came up to me and asked me my name and what I was doing there. When I told him I was a journalist he said he was from the Intelligence Bureau, warned me to not roam in the area, and certainly not in the forest, unprotected. Reason: Maoist activity had picked up in the area.
No comments:
Post a Comment