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Trouble lurks for Vedanta’s alumina project in Orissa

Tuesday, Oct 10, 2006
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London-based Vedanta Resources, which has almost completed its 1.4 million tonne alumina project in Orissa’s Kalahandi district, may be aspiring to commission the project in December 2006, but troubles are not yet over for it.
Tribals in Langigarh, the block in which the $874-million project is coming up, are gearing up to take seige of Niryamgiri hill, the bauxite mines alloted to Vedanta. The tribals are planning to organise rituals to purify the hill, which, according to them, has lost its sanctity due to the entry of Vedanta officials.
 
Last week, the project faced serious opposition from tribals who, attired in their traditional dress and armed with weapons, staged a demostration in Langigarh. They celebrated Dussehra with burning the effigy of the project, which, according to them, symbolised the demon, Ravana. Jibika Banchao Andolan, an NGO fighting for the displaced people, has also sought the intervention of President APJ Abdul Kalam to save the tribals from being displaced.

The resistance movement has gathered momentum with Bhakta Das, former Union railway minister and a prominent Congress leader, taking up cudgels against the project. Das, who has built his political career through mass movements, is considered a potential danger for the project. He catapulted Kalahandi district to global limelight by highlighting poverty and starvation deaths in the early 1980s.

“Mining activities in the Niyamgiri hills will destroy the already fragile ecology of Kalahandi district”, says Das. According to him, destruction of the forest will dry up the water streams and ruin the livelihood of the tribals. To sensitise the people about the exotic flora and fauna of the Niyamgiri hill, the Wildlife Society of Orissa (WSO) recently organised a photo-exhibition in Bhubaneswar. “The purpose is to make people realise that the Niyamgiri, which faces destruction, is a treasure of rich flora and fauna”, says Biswajit Mohanty, secretary, WSO.

Vedanta, through its group company Sterlite Aluminium, signed an agreement in 2004 with the Orissa government to set up an alumina refinery in Kalahandi and an aluminium smelter and power plant in Jharsuguda district. The company entered into an agreement with the Orissa Mining Corporation to jointly operate the Niyamgiri bauxite mines. Notwithstanding local resistance, Vedanta went ahead with its project work and has almost completed the refinery. It has started importing bauxite though Vizag port to start trial productions.

The project has courted one controversy after another ever since it was launched. The Supreme Court-appointed environment empowered committee has strongly recommended against the location of the project. The Court has now directed the Wildlife Institute of India and the Central Mining Planning and Designing Institute, Ranchi, to study the environmental impact of the project. Project officials are facing prosecution for cutting trees in forest land.

Now, with the Green Kalahandi movement under the leadership of Bhakta Das spearheading the resistance movement, the road ahead will be rough for Vedanta. Green Kalahandi has already garnered support from all Opposition political parties, including the Congress. It has also taken along with it splinter groups fighting for tribal rights. Clearly, there’s serious trouble ahead for Vedanta’s alumina project.

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