BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha government hasn't quite relinquished its right to mine the controversial Niyamgiri bauxite deposit, originally identified to supply ore to Vedanta Resources' nearby alumina refinery. State-owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC), which was granted mining rights for 30 years in 2004, has written to the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF), seeking "guidance on how to proceed" with the matter.
Two years ago, a dozen villages in southern Odisha invoked their right to worship the Niyamgiri hilltop, warding off government plans to open a bauxite mine in their neighbourhood.
The historic and exceptional referendum ordered by the Supreme Court was cited in January of 2014 by the then Congress-led union government to refuse final forest clearance to the proposed mine, critical to Vedanta's refinery at Lanjigarh - about 4 km from the 72-million-tonne deposit.
Environmentalists world over celebrated the victory of the Dongariah and Jarnia Kondhs primitive tribal groups from one of least developed corners of the country, in the "David versus Goliath" battle against London-listed Vedanta.
Vedanta recently said it cannot continue running the loss-making plant for much longer in the face of low global aluminium prices and lack of cheap bauxite.
While OMC's letter to the MoEF remains unanswered, the state plans to write again to the Centre, placing the ball in its court. "We would like the Government of India to clarify on whether the stage I clearance holds, we start all over again or the verdict (based on the referendum) is binding forever," said Odisha Chief SecretaryGokul Chandra Pati.
Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javdekar didn't respond to an email seeking comment. Jairam Ramesh, who was the environment minister when early clearances granted to the project were withdrawn, said the decision based on the referendum was final. "It is foolish on Odisha government's part to try again after the SC verdict," Ramesh said.
Environment lawyer Ritwick Datta was also surprised over the state's move. "But, neither OMC nor the state has filed an appeal against the SC order. Nor have they moved the National Green Tribunal against MoEF's decision to deny them final, stage II clearance," he said. If OMC, despite the SC order, seeks so desperately to revive the Niyamgiri project, it must seek again not just forest clearance but also environmental clearance from scratch, Datta said. The order that allowed the Kondhs a say in 2013 though was "exceptional", guided by the fact that it was both a Fifth Schedule area (an area populated by tribes), attracting Panchayats (Extension of the Scheduled Areas) Act provisions, and inhabited by primitive tribal groups, like the Dongariah Kondhs, he said.
Curiously, the Niyamgiri case hasn't been called upon as a precedent in any matter, while rights provided under the Forest Rights Act continue to be ignored in many subsequent cases, said Datta.
The Modi government has been accused by green and tribal activists of diluting such provisions. The MoEF, according to media reports, was stopped in its tracks from waiving off the requirement of gram sabha consents even in tribal dominated areas for certain projects only by the tribal affairs ministry.
The latter was strongly opposed to any move to change the 2009 guidelines that made it compulsory for all projects requiring diversion of forest to obtain consent of affected village councils.
In July last year, Niyamgiri's inhabitants reiterated their objections to mining of the deposits, during a public hearing to complete a sixfold expansion of the Lanjigarh refinery. Vedanta, which had embarked on the expansion in 2009, has in its submissions to the state pollution control board cited a deposit 3.7 km from the plant as the source of raw material. Company executives have on record said that they wouldn't make any move on Niyamgiri without local consent.
Niyamgiri is one among the many bauxite deposits scattered over these parts of the Eastern Ghats that account for 60 per cent of the country's known reserves.
For investors such as Vedanta and Aditya Birla Group who ventured to set up plants here, the added proximity to coal - aluminium being a power intensive business - promised to change the world order of aluminium producers.
Now, with aluminium makers battling falling global prices, Vedanta suffers also from the disadvantage where bauxite is concerned.
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