Odisha: Adivasis brace for another long battle as mining fears loom over sacred forest, hills

There is an uneasy calm in Kuradiphasa village at the foothills of the Gandhamardhan Hills. “It is the calm before the storm,” says Himanjali Das, who belongs to the indigenous Kondh tribe.

Wearing a t-shirt and trousers, a watch strapped to her wrist, the youth leader in her 20s leans on her steel-blue two-wheeler on which she rides to the various villages of the Paikamal block in Odisha’s Bargarh district.

Das is a young woman with a cause. “If our sacred Gandhamardhan Hills have to be protected from mining, then youth from local Adivasi communities have to come forward. I am one such youth and there are hundreds like me from villages that depend on Gandhamardhan for their livelihoods,” she told IndiaSpend.

“There are reports that mining is likely to return to our hills, and we are preparing for yet another long battle.”

The acquisition of over 45 hectares of land last year in villages surrounding the hills, by Mahanadi Mines and Minerals Ltd, a subsidiary of the Adani Group, has rekindled fears of bauxite mining in the area.

The Gandhamardhan Hills have rich reserves of bauxite, which is used to make aluminium. Although the company claims that the purchased land is meant for “compensatory afforestation”, local communities are suspicious: once bitten, twice shy, they...

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