Maa Mati Mali Surakhya Mancha has expressed outrage at the criminal and unlawful attempt of the Vedanta company officials and district administration to hold fake Gram Sabhas to garner consent for diversion of forest lands for mining purposes. It has demanded immediate cancellation of the bauxite mining leases over Tijimali, Kutrumali and Majhingmali hills in Odisha. 

Groundxero | October 28, 2024

The Odisha government signed MoU with Vedanta Ltd to mine bauxite in Tijimali (@Sijimali in govt records) without the consent of the people living around Tijimali hills.  On March 1, 2023, Vedanta was declared as preferred bidder and allocated Sijimali block with an estimated reserves of 311 million tonnes of bauxite. Vedanta has proposed mining of 9 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of bauxite in 1549.02 hectare in Sijimali.

The Sijimali mining project is likely to displace 100 families from 18 villages and also affect the livelihoods of an additional 500 families. Apart from environmental clearance for the project, Vedanta will have to secure forest clearance too since the mining lease area includes 699.7 hectares of forest land. Also, there are two villages affected by the project that fall within the notified eco-sensitive zone of the Karlapat Wildlife Sanctuary.

Since the mining area is spread over villages in districts classified under Schedule V in the Constitution due to the preponderance of the Adivasi population, the consent of the entire adult population of these villages through Gram Sabhas is mandatory before exploiting their natural resources. The people of Tijimali have organised themselves under the banner of Maa Mati Mali Surakhya Mancha, and are protesting the imposition of the mining project on their sacred hills of Tijimali.  Since the last one and half years, the people have faced brutal police oppression, fake criminal charges being slapped against them and regular intimidation from the police and company hired goons. Several community leaders have faced imprisonment for questioning the environmental impacts of Vedanta’s mining project on farm lands, forests and streams.

In December 2023, Vedanta’s mines developing agency Maitree infrastructure, in collusion with police officials attempted to hold Gram Sabhas to garner consent for diversion of forest lands for mining purposes. However, the company was unable to get people’s consent and so they used heavy deployment of police and paramilitary personnel to coerce people to give their signatures. In a few villages, they forced people into signing resolutions stating they have consented to give away their lands and forest areas for the mining project.

Maa Mati Mali Surakhya Mancha, in a press statement said: 

We are completely outraged by this clandestine attempt of the company officials and district administration to coerce Gram Sabhas in stealing our lands, forests and sacred Tijimali hills. We got to know of this criminal and unlawful attempt to trample our rights through Right to Information applications. This is a violation of the Forest Rights Act, 2006 as well as PESA Act, 1996. We have been demanding that the police in Kashipur and Thuamul Rampur register cases against the concerned officials who were involved in such unlawful conduct under the ST & SC Prevention of Atrocities Act as this is a grave violating our rights as Adivasi and Dalit communities vested in us by the Constitution of India. 

To assert their constitutional rights, the Gram Sabhas of ten villages have passed resolutions that the meetings in December, 2023 were false and coerced Gram Sabhas done without giving notice to the people and forging hundreds of signatures. All the Gram Sabhas have passed unanimous resolutions demanding an independent inquiry into the fake Gram Sabhas and for registering criminal cases against government officers and company staff who were involved in the process.

The company officials are filing fabricated criminal charges against all those of us who are at the frontline of the struggle to save Tijimali hills. Kartika Naik, one of the young leaders of Maa Mati Mali Surakhya Mancha was picked up and sent to Rayagada jail on false criminal charges.  

Maa Mati Mali Surakhya Mancha has demanded:

• Immediate cancellation of the bauxite mining leases over Tijimali, Kutrumali and Majhingmali 

• Proper implementation of the resolutions passed in our Gram Sabhas conducted from August 30th to September 4th, 2024.

• Immediate release of Kartika Naik by dropping all fabricated charges against him and all our community leaders who face similar charges.

• As per the bonafide Gram Sabha resolutions, the police of Kashipur and Thuamum Rampur should immediately register FIRs based on the complaints submitted to them and initiate investigation into the criminal act of conducting forced Gram Sabhas and forging peoples’ signatures.

The pdf of the Press Release by Maa Mati Mali Surakhya Mancha, dated 25.10.2024, is attached below.

PRESS RELEASE_Tijmali_25th October (1)