Hello,
Odisha has been trying to mine its bauxite reserves for years. The road hasn’t been easy. Much of the identified blocks fall close to a wildlife sanctuary. Forests, wildlife laws, and court orders kept getting in their way.
So the state found another route, it simply redrew the map of the sanctuary.
Today we’re publishing the first of two investigations by our reporter Ayushi about how Odisha stripped parts of the Karlapat wildlife sanctuary of its protections to open up bauxite-rich land for mining. What makes this more than a story about one state government bending rules is about who helped them do it. The National Board for Wildlife, the apex body headed by the prime minister, whose job is to keep industry out of protected areas, acted like a consultant, advising Odisha government on how to redesign its application to protect future mining operations. All in the name of reducing environmental impact on the sanctuary. It then cleared the application.
The second story, coming out this Sunday, tracks what happens when even those redrawn maps weren’t enough to satiate this hunger for bauxite. Odisha, which wanted a faster access, helped a private company to quickly start mining. How did they achieve that? Wait for the Part II to find that out.
Both parts tell a story about the same thing. For its love for bauxite, a state decided mining a forest area is more valuable than its forests, or its citizens living there, and a system that has decided to agree.
Read Part I here Odisha Govt Altered a Wildlife Sanctuary’s Map to Open Up Bauxite Mining
Understanding the state’s design behind clearance of forests require a lot. 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.
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With Regards,
Furquan Ameen
Editor
The Reporters' Collective