Hello,
With more than 40 percent of India’s bauxite reserves, Odisha has courted the interests of miners for several decades. It was in 2003 that Vedanta first came to the eastern state to mine the hills of Niyamgiri. In 2010, the then Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh rejected final forest clearance given to this mining project by his own ministry.
Sixteen years later, Vedanta is back again in the hope of opening its first bauxite mine in the state. The mining project is on the cusp of receiving its final green light. What is missing from its application is a haul road to transport bauxite from the mine.
In Part I of my story published on Wednesday, I showed how the Odisha government and the Union government sidestepped wildlife protection laws and redrew the boundaries of an elephant sanctuary to make several bauxite blocks accessible.
In the second part of this tale, Odisha quite literally paved the road for mining with a red carpet. To ensure faster clearance and bypass stricter regulations, it roped in its Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) to apply for forest clearance for the road to Vedanta’s bauxite mine and then transfer it back to the company for all practical purposes.
IDCO claimed this was kosher because the road would connect five cut off villages, supposedly lifting them out of immense hardships. The reality was quite different. One village that was named will be evicted as soon as the mining begins. The Union environment ministry turned a blind eye to this breach of law and rubber-stamped the clearances.
Villagers of Sijimali rose to protest as soon as construction of the road began. The state deployed paramilitary forces to detain dozens who were ordered to clean local police stations to make bail.
This is an all too familiar tale of how forests get cleared for miners and others to make money. In the name of changing the lives of the marginalised people, it is the rich and powerful actors who receive the real blessings.
Read Part II of my story: Odisha’s road for Vedanta’s bauxite mine, in the name of tribals
Read Part I of my story: Odisha Govt Altered a Wildlife Sanctuary’s Map to Open Up Bauxite Mining
Revealing such crony capitalism, the evidence of which remains locked in government files, takes a lot of effort. Chasing documents and sources for months, days of reporting and back and forth, and hours of fact-checking, this is what TRC does with rigour to hold those in power to account.
That only happens because readers like you fund it. Please support The Reporters’ Collective, so stories like this keep getting told.
Warm Regards,
Ayushi Kar
Reporter
The Reporters' Collective