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The war for Raja Niyampenu's Mines

Mining, Development and Environment in Lanjigad, Orissa

Orissa's ownership to the mineral treasure found atop the hills of Lanjigad is being challenged by the natives. The natives are armed with many a case of argument which have fallen on deaf ears so far. Despite strong protest a Corporate is invading into their territory with the aid of the State. The issue has kicked an angry debate in Bhubaneswar where the sceptre of the Kalinga Nagar massacre still looms large. The Left and the young turks of Congress have reluctantly joined hands in a crusade against the ruling party's generosity to business organizations especially of the mining kind. The length and breadth of the State is dividing itself into two minds over the whole business of mining, development and environment.

Orissa is gearing up for industrial activities spelt in big letters. It has acquired the name of Steel State in the global market and investors are making a beeline. Critics though say Orissa is giving away its mineral wealth cheap apart from overlooking inter-generation equity. The word in the corridors is that the CM has been asked by the PM to look for his own funds. The CM, a man full of surprises has managed to pull the trick of the century by bringing foreign moolah in an unprecedented manner. From the Pohans to the Patnaiks, the who's who of steel and iron have put up camp all over the state. Two new major ports and thirteen minor ones are coming up in Olive Ridley nesting land to support the traffic of ore and finished products. Bhubaneswar the state capital itself is a testimony of the new shape of Orissa with its tree lined narrow paths giving way to steel barricaded four lane expressways. Most of Orissa's surplus power is now reserved for the heavy duty industrial needs of the future while overlooking the majority of its villages that are yet to have a single light.

The wheels of progress are making inroads deep into the wild-lands of Orissa. Man and animal are running helter skelter or else the giant wheels will crush them. Among the many plantations that are destined to meet the electric saw is Niyamgiri Hill of Lanjigad to enable mining of six million tones of bauxite every year. With a surface area of 250 square kilometres rising as high as 4000 feet Niyamgiri is thickly wooded and boasts of an eco-diversity like none other. Plants, animals, insects, birds and reptiles especially of the rare kind are found in plentiful. Among the rare are the rarest like the two different varieties of golden geckos and pit vipers. Orchids grow wild and twenty rare species have been identified so far. Niyamgiri is also home to the Dongriya Kondh tribe who stay in a closely constituted community with a world population of seven thousand.

Dongriya Kondhs are a scheduled tribe specified as a primitive tribal group. Every one of the entire Dongriya community stays on Niyamgiri as they have been doing since time immemorial. Dongriya means hill-dweller and these Kondhs are well known for their hillside farming skills. According to legend their forefather Raja Niyam penu was born atop on the hilltop which the Dongriyas consider to be the sanctum of the spirits of their ancestors and their deity Dharanipenu. Niyamgiri is revered by the people of all villages situated around it. It is nothing less than a miracle to have a hundred perennial streams flowing from it to form two rivers that are lifeline for miles of land. Fruits, vegetables, medicinal plants and a variety of forest products are found round the year on the hill itself. The villagers spend most of their days picking mangoes, jackfruit, pineapple, amla, and sal leaves which are sold or bartered amongst themselves. Some of the produce goes to nearby markets in Muniguda and Thirubali. Muniguda is the best place to get down from a train for long distance travelers.

The main bazaar of Muniguda is split by the highway that connects Rayagada to Lanjigad. The bazaar has all day tea and meals joints and dial up internet catering to a burgeoning market. Many jackfruit cultivators of Niyamgiri come as far as Muniguda for trade by foot. The town is also becoming a good place for the refinery workers, mostly young men, to hang out in the evening over a bottle of beer. Life is changing and an old world is vanishing into thin air as yet another dusty monster truck rolls down the highway carrying yet another complex machinery to put together the refinery at Lanjigad. It seems even the spirits in the jungle atop Niyamgiri are trembling at the sounds of these trucks. A road wide enough for two monster trucks has already made its way right up to the top of the hill. Tree stumps and cleared patches stand out in the otherwise thick foliage of the hill as an indicator of the traffic to come.

Barking deers, big cats, wolves and elephants are often found roaming across Niyamgiri and of course leaving behind their marks to keep local wildlife enthusiasts puzzled. The bats and sloth bears venture out of their caves in the night looking for insects and ripe fruits. These rare animals have now become the object of poaching and the poachers are none other than the foreign delegates residing in the guest house at the foot of the hill. When night falls the valley echoes with gunshots and the drone of SUVs climbing NIyamgiri. A legend says that whoever has tasted the water of the streams of Niyamgiri shall forever bear testimony there can be no sweeter water. At night when human presence is contained to villages the jungle comes alive with most of the four-legged creatures headed for the watering holes. Most of the myth behind the miracles of Niyamgiri have been cracked by now. The hundred streams are apparently because of the sponge like layer of bauxite found on top of the hill. The soil of Niyamgiri may not be a miracle but certainly a blessing for the people of Lanjigad.

Ironically this blessing is being dubbed as a curse, rather a 'resource curse' by the green economists. They fear that many a greedy eye are waiting for the opportune moment to do a fine job of Niyamgiri and Karlapat's bauxite. Vedanta Alumina has already built a massive refinery right at the bottom of the hill in anticipation. The reluctant natives have been made to give up their lands by making use of every tactics available including physical intimidation. The presence of massive refineries in such ecologically sensitive region is always mind baffling. Further queries will tell you that worse things are happening in Lanjigad like the company had built concrete pillars and put up a conveyor belt right up to Niyamgiri Hill without getting permission. The company seems to be all geared up to start their mining operations without getting the necessary environmental clearance. The role of administrative authorities is turning out to be more and more dubious as more and more conflict situations like Lanjigad, Kashipur, Raigarh, Chilika and Kalinga Nagar spiral out of control. The list of places where natives are especially being pushed to give up their lands keeps growing every day in Orissa.

Vedanta Alumina is aggressively persuading villagers to give up land for its operations. Some have given in and been resettled in a village they have to share with other workers. The landscape is witnessing a large scale makeover as villages and fields are giving way to the refinery. Meanwhile the forests are giving way to the company's staff colony, resettlement colony, guest house, ware house and what not. The large scale restructuring has got everyone worried if the forest of Niyamgiri will survive this urban assault by helicopter borne industrialists. The natives are getting together to resist the impact and bring a turn around to the apocalyptic situation. Three of them have already been killed under mysterious circumstances.

The three people have allegedly been killed by the company's hitman but the police dismisses it as just a conspiracy theory. Those who died were protestors against the refinery and mine. The company wasn't given a clearance to mine Niyamgiri but it went ahead with building the refinery. The presence of the refinery is like a slap on the face of kith and kin of the deceased. For concerned citizens a refinery without a nearby mine or permission to mine the deposits on Niyamgiri defies logic. The only reason they can prophesise is that the company plans to dig out Niyamgiri's bauxite at first opportunity. The company's head honcho reportedly has plans of a private helipad atop the sacred hill of the Dongriyas. He has been visiting a few times with friends in politics and media. The man in the line of fire is London based steel tycoon Anil Aggarwal. He had gained some notoriety in the past for his links with master scamster Harshad Mehta but he emerged clean. From a scrap dealer to a savvy global business icon the man has fone a long way. Sadly most sections of mainstream media are playing silent observer to the ordeal of the natives while also missing out on the big links between aluminum and weapons of mass destruction.

The company's strategy to acquire land isn't very novel, it is known to maintain order with an iron fist in a velvet glove. All around the perimeter of the refinery dozens of tough looking men are found bullying the villagers. On closer inspection they are found to be led by an executive acting as the buffer. He goes around in his MUV full of men promising a better life to people if they embrace the company's offers. The people have very little choice with the State machinery playing cohorts to the company. Anyone found with camera around the perimeter of the refinery is immediately whisked by the security. For the lucky who manage to survive this full frontal assault by the company agents they have to deal with spies from then on who chase you back to Muniguda. The police like all other government departments have clearly taken the side of the company using force to evict people out of villages on behalf of the company. Every single person within the ranks of the State who cried foul has been transferred to far off places in the last three years since the mine diggers setup office.

The natives fail to see why the Government forbade them to cut a single tree for all these years to decide for large scale deforestation one fine day. Most of the natives who gave up their land weren't even sure what was to be done to their land. Seeing hundreds of trees being chopped to make way for red mud ponds, crushing units, power plant, etc. is heartbreaking for most natives. Adding insult to the injury the company has put up signboards for miles around the refinery claiming ownership over the villages. The company is yet to ascertain its real intentions in setting up the refinery there but its implications for Lanjigad and Niyamgiri are clear. When it gets working the clean air of Lanjigad will be much more difficult to breathe. Every day while the construction of the refinery progresses rapidly as the clearance for the mine inches it's way under tables in Bhubaneswar. The company is making a range of promises like welfare activities, infrastructure support and educational varsities as if to undo the damage it has cause and will. The State is mostly maintaining a status quotic poise on the public front but reeks of a clear bias towards the company even violating constitutional articles.

The people who have been employed by the company are mostly from other places. The villagers who have given in to the hard bargain of the company are found feigning a smile over a bottle of 'chilled beer'. The message is quite obvious if one looks beyond the mask people have put on. Blood has already been shed over the matter and the natives fear worse is to come. They feel they have lost their identity amongst their own. Their development seems to be in the hands of a machinery that promotes mining at the cost of an environment which has sustained generations of man and animal. Despite everything the last thing on every native's mind is to give up their ploughs and pick bows and arrows to end this unfair invasion of Raja Niyampenu's territory. They are humble people and will embrace the changes imposed on them in the name of development and the larger benefit of mankind. But a distant war cry declaring rebellion is echoing in the valley of Niyamgiri and it seems to say that murder has happened and the killer is on the loose. There will be two implications if a war happens at all, either the refinery takes over or the refinery is turned into town hall to commemorate the dead. The future of those 80 rare species who call Niyamgiri Hill home will also depend on this war.

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The reluctant natives

In the Vedanta resettlement village at the foot of Niyamgiri hill most of the natives agree with Krushna Majhi (name changed) who says 'its not a matter of whether we want the refinery or not, the truth is we have no other choice.' A tribal protestor of a nearby village comments that 'the company has flooded us with money, what can we do.' All around Vedanta's Lanjigad refinery dissent echoes in the voice of every native. Some have given in to fate reluctantly but there are quite a few people who strongly oppose Vedanta's operations in the area. One such protestor was Belamba village ward member Sukra Majhi. Sukra Majhi was one of the strongest opposers and an active campaigner. He went from village to village disseminating information on Vedanta's operations there. He was single handedly instrumental in motivating villages which still hold ground strongly. He even organized a massive rally in Rayagada.

Early evening on 27.03.05 Sukru Majhi was allegedly ran over by a yet to be verified vehicle near the refinery. His death was unnatural and Vedanta's role in it was questioned. Some claimed it were two Vedanta jeeps which had run over him one after the other in what according to them was a clear case of premeditated murder. The police closed Majhi's files as a hit and run without bothering to verify the real circumstance under which Sukru Majhi really died. So far even the make of the vehicle that crushed Sukra Majhi to death hasn't been ascertained. Sukra Majhi's kith and kin have been devastated ever since.

Sukra Majhi is not the only native whose death has been shrouded by mystery. Dongariya Harijan belonging to Sukra Majhi's village was another strong protestor. Vedanta had issued notices to acquire land from him to construct a road. Harijan contacted advocate Sanjay Naik to safeguard his interest and even wanted to file a case against the company for damaging his land and not compensating him. Before he could do so he was found dead last year in October on the road with injuries on his head and chest. His family alleges he was beaten to death. In another case of alleged murder Gutu Majhi of Nagalgada village, a worker at Vedanta who was found dead right outside the walls of Vedanta 24 hours after he was killed. The police claimed he had died of starvation but the leg injuries Gutu Majhi had sustained couldn't be explained.

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Anil Aggarwal: The industrialist who met a ghost

He won't tell you how he will ultimately manage to emerge unscathed out of the battle for Niyamgiri's mines. In an interview to Rediff.com the man at the helm of affairs at Vedanta Alumina makes a candid confession that looking foolish is ok. No point in being 'too smart' he says. He also admits that he admires fellow Miller High school student Lalu Prasad Yadav's sense of humour. Anil Aggarwal should know that well, assuming he never looked more foolish than now. Although surrounded by controversy since his Tutticorin dreams, Anil's foray into tribal land Orissa has put him in an awkward situation. The Vedanta alumina refinery at Lanjigad that will cost him a whopping Rs. 4,500 crore will have to come to halt if the natives have their say. Anil has already been denied access to his object of desire, the bauxite atop the sacred hill for which he set-up the factory that will fetch him 1.4 million tonne of alumina.

It's hard to determine if Anil will emerge unscathed this time like he has managed in earlier situations. Anil's is a story stuff is made from. He is like the Amitabh Bachchan of metals in India. He was a scrap dealer's son who walked this far relying only on sheer ambition. He has admitted that he has gone to far lengths to acquire anything he desired. His grand ideas like getting a readymade factory shipped from Illinois have made him a favorite topic at cocktails and b-school classrooms. From a scrap dealer to the owner of a 2 billion dollar business he has come a long way. He inherited the scrap business from his father and a nobody really like anyone of us, a small town boy enamoured by the gloss of Mumbai. He didn't go to college but his street smart ways landed him in the plush environs of The Taj, Mumbai, which he used as his official address for months till he got one of his own. Today he boasts of helicopters, flashy cars worth crores, mansions in London worth millions of pounds and even things he never dreamt of himself.

His rags to riches story was not written by luck but by his desires. Some credit also goes to his presence of mind, as he never lost an opportunity to expand and grow his business. When there was a demand for copper he sold copper. When he had to influence people with words and gifts he did that too. When he had to cut costs he did it like no one ever could. He setup the first venture of Sterlite Industries in the late eighties at five times lesser than the normal cost. He wasn't shy of using second hand equipment or taking over failed businesses if it curtailed expenses. The Tutticorin project was a disaster and Indal never really happened but he was happy with acquisition of Madras Alumina and then Bharat and Hindustan Zinc. His expansion of business is spread not only over India but in far away nations too. Apart from owning mines in Australia and Zambia his company Vedanta Resources Plc. is listed in the London Stock Exchange. Shareholders in London are more than awestruck by his boisterous ways.

The mood in the business pubs seems to be 'Mittal take a backseat the new Indian Prince of metals has arrived'. Anil himself boasts that he knows how to tackle the India situation better than Mittal and has therefore been able to match up. Anil didn't really let anything come in his way and if it did he always had a backup plan. Right now he is busy implying back-up plans in Orissa where every investment he has made has caused more damage than profit. The genocide that occurred in Kashipur is directly connected to him and the offenders haven't been nailed yet. The smelter in Jharsuguda is being built despite stiff opposition from the natives there. His very presence is the state is raising more questions than anyone else. His dare devil antics like landing his chopper in reserve forest areas to impress friends in politics and media hasn't helped either. At the same time charges are being raised he is taking undue advantage of his connections in the right places. His offices in Bhubaneswar are shabby, disorganized and scattered around the city. That is probably because of the amount of dirty work which mainly includes activities of an over active Public Relations department.

What can be a back-up to the Niyamgiri situation? Not only will the refinery be the reason for destruction of the forest but also dry up two rivers. The people living in the area have been silenced in different ways but the conflict is more than apparent to the naked eye. People are accusing him of things that even imply murder. The people say his 4,500 crore rupee worth alumina refinery is a bad idea and needs to go. Every trick in the book has failed and he better come up with a back up plan. The biggest eyewash he has been able to come up with so far is the Vedanta educational institution that has only impressed Bhubaneswar out of the whole of Orissa. That is the game-plan of Anil, to clasp the hands that hold the reins of power in a firm yet friendly handshake. Bhubaneswar though might be playing Shakespeare's Brutus by giving him the eye-wash he never imagined himself. All's not well with Lanjigad like the picture is being made out to be and it isn't just activists fuelling the fire. Anyone who has seen Lanjigad before and after Vedanta will agree it is like an atomic explosion in extremely slow motion in progress. Anil's goodwill with Bhubaneswar might not work anymore because the explosion is going to create a very loud bang sooner or later. The charges are serious and history might just do to him what it did to late friend Harshad Mehta. Between the ghost of Mehta and the ghosts of Niyamgiri Anil might just end up being a very desperate man.
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Orissa Vision 2006: Universities in regions of affluence and forceful eviction of the poor?

The question is not just why Vedanta University is going further away from Lanjigad. The question is development. What is development? Is my development your development? Is the BDA's plans of cleansing the temple city by getting rid of the slum-scum justified? Is forceful eviction of people to clear land for factories and ports the path to progress? What about the deforestation and loss of natural habitat? Who will bear the cost of the damage incurred by activities that have short-term benefits? Has commercialism finally gone out of hand?

The flip side of development is that it has a flip side. The flip side is development is a business of money. In Orissa the business of money is still an enigma to a major section. There are tribals who do barter. There are farmers who eat what they grow. There are a lot of people who don't really need a lot of money. Of course they do need a hospital and a knowledge center. But that costs money even if the Government provides for it. The Government has to be in the business of making money to be able to do the needful. In the bargain the Government has ended up doing business that was no business for its poor. The money changed hands but within the cities like Cuttack and Bhubaneswar. Money got the people in the cities what hard work got people in the villages. But money is the easier way out.

There are probably more lights in Bhubaneswar than the rest of the state put together. Its night skyline lies forever illuminated with massive buildings catering to the growing demands of trade in Orissa. They are the temples of the new millennium. India's largest ever FDI happens to be in our state, which is supposedly the poorest. Even with its rich heritage and culture that dates thousands of years. To revive the ancient maritime trade glory Orissa is poised to host a dozen odd ports. What no one is ready to accept is that the proposed ports and industries will bring about irreversible damage to the natural habitat of the region. As if the changes of climatic condition weren't scary enough; we well meaning citizens of the world have embraced a plan to just go ahead and change some more climate. But the proposed ports will bring in more money and then everything will be alright. The poor will have to give up their home, hearth and habit but they will get money to get busy. Along with education and health they will have to buy water in plastic pouches. The money the poor shall earn by laboring in industry will be well spent once the shopping centers open in every nook and corner of Orissa

The shopping centers and the corporates are like the watering holes of the concrete jungle. Food, clothing and shelter is assured here and the price is that desires become the need. Education is defined as being able to understand foreign languages and culture. Outsourcing is the key word to success and all commercially exploitable services and products is being outsourced to the global network. Bhubaneswar is at the forefront in promoting the new global lifestyle of man. The city has shed its temple culture and the mutation process has begun. Very soon it will be hard to distinguish the city from a Bombay or a Bangalore. The buildings and the people now wear the same colors as the big cities of India.

Behind the gloss of Bombay is its underbelly where the most morbid of things happen. Bombay is the capital of a State where farmers hate living. Maybe one day Bhubaneswar will be a city with silicon implants like Bangalore. Maybe human beings will be able to digest e-waste someday. Then if development could be imagined we all should have been on a space odyssey by 2001. Development should not be confused with science fiction or even pulp fiction for that matter. Chopping trees and producing more and more steel will not feed empty stomachs for sure. But it will feed the wars over land, water, air, and oil being fought now and those to be fought in the future. The lush valleys of Orissa are turning into wrapping material and guns in the name of development. Poor tribal people are being forced to comply with business houses. We have bungled up by running behind money, but will we own up and stop before its too late?