Vedanta’s Bauxite Mining Plans Run Into Tribal Roadblock

Looks like the Vedanta Group chairman Anil Agarwal is oscillating between hope and despair. Reason: his group’s acquisition of 1,549 acres of Sijimali bauxite mines on a 50-year lease in Odisha’s Koraput district is facing trouble. The operations have been halted due to alleged tribal rights violations. In early April this year violent clashes broke out between local tribal and police over the construction of a 3 km approach road to the mines which was being constructed by Vedanta. The tribal multiple gram sabhas say their consent signatures submitted supporting the Vedanta mining project were forged; the gram sabhas have also rejected Vedanta’s claim of mines. Opposition leaders and civil society groups have expressed strong disapproval of the situation accusing the state government of coercion and using force against the tribal communities. Political observers define this new development as a litmus test — whether a small marginalised tribe located in remote Sijimalli hills can stand up to Vedanta’s might with an army of lobbyists, PR firms and ears of Mohan Charan Majhi’s government in Odisha. Majhi has a little playroom here. He has to not only attract investments into the state but provide an enabling environment to ensure investment stays within the state and not move out as happened in the case of LN Mittal who moved to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. Plus, Odisha too has a role to play, if India has to become $ 30 trillion economy by 2047.