Orissa: Despite efforts to stymie participation in a public hearing at Kashipur against Vendanta, villagers attend

Despite what is being reported as concerted efforts by the state police to prevent active participation in the public hearing scheduled for today, October 17 at the Sunger High School premises in Kashipur Block of Rayagada district, Odisha, it was held, local reports have stated.

On the night of October 15, Sunday, local reports have stated that armed police and paramilitary personnel began positioning themselves at the main roads leading to villages known to oppose the mining project. Roads were monitored by company-sponsored persons and a few local village youths. They seemed to have a list of names of media persons and political persons whom they should “selectively allow” into the villages for the hearing. There were also reportedly attempts to send back others and even using intimidatory language.

On the morning of October 16, women from Banteji village were reportedly beaten up by police on the way to the public hearing. They protested. Friends and supporters of the movement tweeted to the Chief Minister, Navin Patnaik, to stop the violence.

People walked into the hearing raising slogans, holding banners and placards. Strategically, they occupied the space in front of the podium and did not allow a single pro-company deposition to happen. More than 20 community members, including women, spoke loud and clear about their opposition to the proposed bauxite mining and cited reasons for this opposition.

Addressing members of the Odisha State Pollution Control Board (OSPCB), district administration, police administration and Vedanta officials, people raised their voices against the ongoing police repression and the criminal role played by company-sponsored goons and agents. They narrated incidents of abuse, beating, forced entry into their houses, theft of cash, and harassment of women and girls both in their houses and in public at the local markets. They asserted that the repression was being carried out by company-sponsored goons at the forefront with the tacit support of the local police and paramilitary personnel. Leaders and community members demanded answers from the government about this state-corporate-police nexus but those organising the public hearing had no answers!

As directed by the High Court, two activists – Dibakar Sahu and Jitender Majhi  -were escorted by police from the Raygada jail. They deposed at the public hearing against the proposed project. About the draft Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report submitted by Vedanta, the chief concern expressed was that the report has deliberately hidden several facts about the ecological diversity and ecosystem of Sijimali. Villagers pointed out that Vedanta’s report does not mention the sacred abode of the supreme deity of the Kandha and Damba communities, Tiji Raja, and the annual rituals and festivals the local people perform at Sijimali hilltop in December every year. They also pointed out that the report has no mention of the 200-odd perennial streams that emerge from Sijimali or the dense forests on the hilltop that have diverse tree species like sal, tamarind, piya sal, aamla, harida, bahada and that the collection of siali leaves and honey is the major source of local peoples’ NTFP income. They also pointed out that there is no mention of several sacred caves on Sijimali which are worshipped as abodes of animals whom the local people worship and hold rituals inside the caves to invoke the animal spirits every year. Some of the most important caves are Parapar and Baghpar.

All those who deposed clearly mentioned that the EIA report does not mention about the local peoples’ cultural heritage and generations-old relationship with nature and the traditional community forest governance principles that they all practice to conserve the forests, lands, and mountains in Sijimali. The statements were vocal about the unconditional ban on mining at Sijimali and that Vedanta should go back.

There was, it is reported, also a share of media misinformation that has been systematic since early August, some local media TV channels and reporters began to spread misinformation about the procedures and testimonies at the public hearing. Such reports even stated that the public hearing was cancelled due to law-and-order problems.  Many even tried to create a narrative that several villagers demanded that Vedanta must open a local refinery if it wanted to start bauxite mining in Sijimali.

However, quite to the contrary, the additional district magistrate (ADM), Rayagada and ASP, Rayagada addressed the media stating that the public hearing was “completed peacefully” (with no mention of the protests after and efforts to prevent participation before!) and with discipline; the ADM added that the process was successfully carried out and the report on the proceedings of the public hearing will be submitted to OSPCB soon.

The next public hearing for theThuamul Rampur block is scheduled at Kerpai High School premises on October 18. (The Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project spreads over both Thuamul Rampur block in Kalahandi District and Kashipur block in Rayagada District)

On the eve of the hearing, yesterday, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) had issued a statement cautioning that the situation at Singer Village, Kashipur, Rayagada, Odisha was volatile and pointed to the reports coming in from early Monday, October 16, that stated that women from Banteji village are being prevented by police and not being allowed to proceed to public hearing for Vedanta’s Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project @ Sunger Vill, Kashipur, Rayagada, Odisha.

The public hearings are a part of the legal and statutory, environment impact assessment (EIA) procedure for bauxite mining in order to establish if the locals are in favour or against the Sijimali bauxite mining project.  Such an exercise is supposed to evaluate if there will be any ecological damage to botanical and zoological species which might be significant from an economical, medicinal , nutritional and larger ecosystem services point of view for the local people as well as from the point of view of conservation of the local ecology.

On August 30, Sabrangindia had interviewed and reported on how noted environmentalist and human rights defender Prafulla Samantara had been abducted from a hotel room in Rayagada a day before of August 29, just as he was about to address a press conference on the same issue. He was taken by unidentified men and later released at Behrampur after a storm of protest broke out. Winner of the international Green Nobel Prize, the Goldman International prize then filed an FIR.

Related:

Noted rights defender and environmental rights activist, Prafulla Samantara abducted from hotel room in Rayagada, later found in Berhampur: Orissa