For the last several years Orissa has become a centre of many militant mass struggles against displacement and land grabbing. The heroic sacrifice of 13 tribals at Kalinganagar in 2006 and the subsequent resistance which is still going on against Tata is a pointer to this fact. Apart from Kalinganagar many spontaneous mass movements are going on in different parts of Orissa. The peasant movement against South Korean company PoSCo at Dhinkia in Jagatsinghpur Dist, movement against proposed Vedanta University (10000 acres of land) at Puri-Konark marine drive, the tribal people’s anti-mining movement at Niyamgiri (Kalahandi), peoples movement against Tata power project at Naraj (Cuttack), anti-mining movement against Aditya Birla’s proposed project at Maliparbat (Koraput) and the movement against Arcelor-Mittal’s 40000 crore steel project at Patna of Keonjhar district are some of the important mass movements going on today. These movements are not only resisting the companies in their attempt to take away the land, water, forest and mines but are also giving a serious blow to the ruling class’s pro-imperialist industrialization and development.  Recently after a review meeting with the major industries about the progress of industrialization in the state, the Industries Minister openly admitted that the work in 14 mega projects in the state including Kalinganagar, PoSCo, Mittal, Vedanta is not progressing due to local people’s continuing resistance. Though the Naveen Patnaik Govt, in the name of development and industrialization, signed 79 MOUs with different companies in the field of steel, Aluminium, power, mining, university etc it is facing stiff resistances in many places. The landslide victory of Naveen Patnaik for the third time has no meaning for these movements. Even after wining for the third time in a row, these movements for land and livelihood are giving sleepless nights to the Naveen govt.

In this background the proposed mining project of Vedanta Alumina Ltd in the Niyamagiri hills is also facing stiff resistance from the local Dongaria Kondha tribals. Though the company earlier managed to set up a refinery at Lanjigarh (Kalahandi dist) by forcefully evicting the tribal people, it is unable to carry on the mining activities.

Vedanta Alumina Limited, a subsidiary of M/S Sterlite Industries (India) Limited (SIIL), plans to exploit the huge bauxite reserve located on top of Niyamgiri Hill in the border areas of Kalahandi and Rayagada Districts. This company is going to mine bauxite deposit from the Niyamgiri hills jointly with Orissa Mining Corporation Limited (OMC) as per the lease agreement signed  between VAL (Vedanta Alumina Ltd.) and Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC) in October 2004. The proposed Alumina Complex of Vedant includes 1.0 MTPA Alumina Refinery Plant at Lanjigarh, 3.0 MTPA of bauxite mining and 75 MW Captive Power Plant at Lanjigarh in the district of Kalahandi at an aggregate investment of  Rs.4500/- crore. For this purpose 723.343 ha of land is required by the Vedanta Alumina Ltd. for its refinery. Another 721.323 ha. of land is required for the bauxite mining on top of the Niyamgiri Hill. Most of this land is categorized as Reserved Forest. The mining lease is to be in the name of the “Orissa Mining Corporation Ltd.”, however, for all purposes the mining and the use of bauxite will be done by Vedanta Alumina Ltd. The area proposed for mining is composed of forest and grasslands ecosystems of extremely high value as wildlife habitat, for biodiversity and from the perspective of water availability in this drought prone area.

            For its 4500 cr alumina complex, Vedanta selected Lanjigarh, a remote area in Kalahandi dist only because it is situated at the foothills of Niyamgiri hills which have huge deposit of bauxite. Soon after signing MOU with the state Govt. and getting mining lease at Niyamgiri it started its work towards the end of 2004. It first targeted the 9 villages which were in the proposed refinery area. As usual the Dist. administration with the help of police and company goons terrorised the tribal residents and acquired the lands forcefully. The villagers tried to resist this move by forming Niyamgiri Surakshya Samiti. But the company with their goons and local police carried out heavy repression, arrested many activists and even murdered a tribal activist called Sukru Majhi. Though that movement got outside support from many organizations and individuals, it lacked leadership and the NGO interference in the movement weakened it considerably. Ultimately the movement against the refinery collapsed within three years. The company completed its refinery by 2007. But in the mean time some environmental organizations and activists filed petitions in the Supreme Court challenging the environment clearance given to Vedant’s Refinery at Lanjigarh. The Supreme Court’s central empowered committee sent fact finding team visited various locations from 18 to 23 December 2004. They gave a unanimous report that if the project is allowed it will cause serious damage to the forest and enviornment along with posing grave danger to two important rivers which start from Niyamgiri. But the Supreme Court, instead of accepting the proposals given by it’s own appointed CEC, ignored it and justified the mining lease given to the company. After managing the court on the mining issue Vedanta started its mining activities for the past one and half year. Even without getting final clearance from Ministry of Environment and Forest the company started the construction of conveyer belt and approach road towards the mine. After the statement of Jairam Ramesh in the Parliament that the final environment clearance for mining has not been given to Vedanta, again some individuals made an appeal in the National Appleate Authority of MoEF. The authority expressed its desire for physical verification of the violation by Vedanta. This caused embarrassment to the company and in order to patch up the matter, the company is now dismantling its structures meant for mining.

History of anti-Vedant movement

       As mentioned earlier the resistance against Vedant Alumina’s Lanjigarh project was started by local people with the help of some NGOs. When the movement gained some ground the NGOs tried to make the movement as projects. From the beginning NGOs like Ekata Parisad, Survival International and Action Aid are trying their best to intervene in the movement. Though they are not having any mass base they are trying to control the movement by giving some financial and material help like cameras, handicoms, laptops to some leading activists. They have also taken some activists to different places like Delhi, London by making them showpieces. For them the local movement does not matter, their aim is to make the movement a lucrative project. Till now Survival International and Action Aid are active in marketing Niyamgiri movement. Recently Action Aid has taken one Sitaram Majhi, who is unknown in the movement to London to demonstrate in front of Vedant’s annual general body of shareholders. After returning from London that fellow became a company agent. After the collapse of anti-Vedant resistance towards 2005 and when the company was dragged into legal battle in the Supreme Court, Bhakta Das, a former central minister and influential congress leader of Kalahandi came into the picture. Departing from his earlier pro Vedanta position he openly took a stand against the company and formed an organization called Green Kalahandi to spearhead anti Vedanta agitation. Though his involvement created anti-Vedant feelings among the people of Kalahandi, it was not able to stop the company’s activities. Green Kalahandi, instead of organizing resistance at the grassroot level, limited its activities to organizing some meetings only. For the last one year its activities have come to a halt. But due to his anti-Vedanta propaganda he was able to win the parliamentary seat after three consecutive defeats. Even his supporters were able to win five seats in Assembly elections from the district. After elections he and his supporters remained totally silent on this issue. On October 15 he again held a meeting where he demanded from the govt. a package of Rs. 2000 crore for the development of tribals in exchange for bauxite mining. He also held out that other hills should first be considered for mining, and only is that is not feasible, mining in Niyamgiri could be permitted. Tribals participating in the meeting opposed his suggestion for permitting mining in the area.

Role of CPI(ML)-New Democracy

       From the beginning, our party has been supporting the tribal people’s struggle against Vedanta company. We were participating in the movement and even mobilized our people from nearby area to different programmes of Niyamgiri Surakshya Samiti. When all political forces followed the Green Kalahandi in the name of opposing Vedanta, we distanced ourselves from that move. In the foothills of Niyamgiri in Muniguda area of Rayagada district anti-feudal land struggle is going on for the last six years under our leadership. Basing on our strong land movement and when the company tried to enter Niyamgiri for mining and there was no resistance , we decided to intervene in this issue. We actively organised the Dongaria Kandha people in the hills. There are 112 small hamlets of Dongaria Kandhas in the Niyamgiri hill range which are spread across three blocks i.e Muniguda, Bissamcuttack, Kalyansingpur of Rayagada dist and Lanjigarh block of Kalahandi district. This tribe is declared as a primitive tribe in the state. The bauxite mining will devastate the entire valley and the life and livilihood of these twelve thousand odd Dangaria and Jharania Kandha tribals. It will also destroy the 37 perennial water streams coming out of Niyamgiri on which thousands of people in the plains depend. Most importantly it will kill the two important rivers of South Orissa and AP i.e. Vansadhara and Nagabali which originates from Niyamagiri. This was admitted in the CEC fact finding report submitted to the Supreme court.

Our active involvement encouraged the Niyamgiri people and they responded positively. The Niyamagiri Surakhya Samiti was revived. Under its banner many meetings were organised. In this period the hill people started resisting the company’s move for mining.. They dug the approach road constructed by Vedanta in many places. Two months back the hill people burned down a vehicle of the company. Earlier also they damaged some machinery of the company coming for clearing the forest.

Mass Meeting on October 5, 2009

Despite heavy rains and an ongoing bus strike over 5000 people assembled at Muniguda, to protest Vedanta’s proposal to mine Niyamgiri. Thousands of Jharania and Dongaria Kondhs braved the rains to join the rally with their traditional arms. The rally started at 10 am from Rajulguda village near Dahikhal and reached Muniguda petrol pump where tribals and other protesters had converged from four different corners of the region shouting slogans such as “Niyamgiri is ours”; “We will never give up Niyamgiri till we are alive”. The main support of the programme came from CPI( ML) New Democracy.

This rally also marked the culmination of a ‘Padayatra’ organized by the ‘Niyamgiri Surakhya Samity (NSS)’ which had started from Idrupa village of Lanjigarh block in Kalahandi district on September 29. It was aimed at creating public awareness against the mining project VAL. Representatives from villages to be affected by the bauxite mining of VAL in Niyamgiri hill range in Kalahandi and Rayagada districts attended this demonstration.

The tribal activists took out a rally with their traditional arms in hand at Muniguda. This rally was led by a tribal cultural troupe from Bandhugaon block of Koraput district. This troupe had come to show  its solidarity to the anti-mining movement in Niyamgiri area. The demonstrators held a public meeting near the Muniguda block office. Leaders of tribal organisation Lok Sangram Manch (LSM), CPI-ML (New Democracy), members of anti-alumina project agitation in Kashipur block of Rayagada district also attended the rally

Leader of Kashipur anti-alumina agitation, Bhagaban Majhi, State president of the LSM, Buddha Gamang, CPI-ML (New Democracy) leader, Bhala Chandra Sarangi and leader of NSS, Dadhi Pusika addressed the public meeting. The NSS leader deplored the propaganda against their agitation through a pamphlet distributed in the area. As per the pamphlet their agitation was being financed by some NGOs. Irked by this allegation, the tribals attending the rally chased away some activists of an NGO who had come over to the place of public meeting.