Tribals protest Utkal Alumina mining in Kalahandi hill

The Pioneer, Nov 15, 2012

As the tribal inhabitants were totally against mining in Niyamgiri hill despite the assurance by the State Government for peripheral development, it is now the locals of Thuamul Rampur block who have raised their voice against bauxite mining at Baflamali hill.

Baflamali hill, spread over 1388.74 hectare of land, stretches from Rayagada’s Kasipur to Kalahandi’s Thuamul Rampur.

Utkal Alumina is going to mine bauxite from the hill which will affect hundreds of villagers in three gram panchayats surrounding the hill.

With full of natural resources, the hill is filled with medicinal plants. Around 50 streams are flowing from the hill, whose water is stored at the Indravati reservoir. Thousands of farmers of Kalahandi and Chhatisgarh are getting irrigation facility from the dam. The local adivasis worship their ancestral god Jena Devata on the hill. They think that mining will amount to desecration of the sacred mountain. About hundreds of families of Adri, Gopinathpur and Maligaon gram panchayats under the block are also cultivating Mandia, Gurji, Alsi, Jhudung and Kandul in the hill too. On Sunday last, hundreds of adivasis held a meeting at Adri gram panchayat, where they decided to protest the bauxite mining by Utkal Alumina.  They also floated Swabhimaan Jagaran Manch on that day. The tribal leaders like,  Badrinarayan Pattnaik, Pradip Kumar Naik, Bharat Naik, Biraja Panda, Parameswar Naik, Chakradahara Moharana and Dhanurjaya Naik, among others, decided to organize a samavesh shortly.