Midnight raids and mining rights: Odisha tribes take on Vedanta again

By Deepmala Patel* 

Tribal communities in Odisha's Rayagada district are locked in an intensifying confrontation with mining giant Vedanta Limited over a proposed bauxite extraction project in the Sijimali hills — a conflict that erupted into violence in early April when police stormed a village in the dead of night and left dozens injured.

At around 3 AM on April 7, armed police entered Kantamal village, allegedly breaking down doors while residents slept. Villagers, including women, were beaten. When residents began pelting stones in response, police resorted to baton charges, fired shots into the air, and deployed tear gas. Around 70 people were reported injured. Even a cow was shot dead. The incident drew immediate condemnation from rights groups, who described it as a disproportionate response to peaceful resistance.

The immediate trigger was road construction. The Rayagada district administration had begun building a 3-kilometer road from Purulang to the Sagabari valley to provide access to the Sijimali mining site, which the state government allocated to Vedanta Limited under a 50-year lease in March 2023. Tribal communities — primarily the Kui and Katia Kondh — have been opposing the project since it was announced, fearing it will destroy their farmland, forests, water sources, and way of life. For these communities, the Sijimali hills are also a site of religious and cultural significance, believed to be the abode of their deity "Niyam Raja."

The Sijimali project covers 1,549 hectares, of which 699 hectares are forest land. It is estimated to displace 100 families across 18 villages and affect the livelihoods of an additional 500 families. Vedanta intends to use the mine to supply raw material for its five-million-tonne alumina refinery in nearby Lanjigarh. The company has announced plans to begin mining operations before the 2026 monsoon, and in 2025 declared an investment of approximately ₹1 lakh crore in Rayagada district, with ₹1,200 crore earmarked for developing the Lanjigarh and Sijimali regions.

At the heart of the dispute is a contested claim about consent. Under the Forest Rights Act of 2006 and the PESA Act of 1996, tribal communities in Scheduled Areas must give their approval through Gram Sabhas — assemblies of all adult villagers — before forest land can be diverted for mining. The Rayagada district administration says such meetings were held in December 2023 across all eight affected villages, and that villagers gave unanimous consent. Vedanta says it has received Stage-I forest clearance from the central government on the basis of this process.

Villagers tell a different story. They allege that the Gram Sabha meetings were conducted fraudulently and that their signatures were forged. Many say they never consented to the project and have been protesting against it continuously since 2023. The allegations of forged consent are being investigated by rights organizations, and legal challenges are underway.

The controversy carries echoes of Vedanta's earlier attempt to mine bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills, inhabited by the Dongria Kondh tribe — one of the most celebrated environmental justice cases in Indian history. That project was blocked after the Union Government refused Stage-II forest clearance in 2010 on grounds of tribal rights and ecological concerns. When the Supreme Court in 2013 ordered that the decision be put to Gram Sabhas, all 12 voted unanimously to reject it. The Sijimali project has revived fears that a similar process is being circumvented this time.

Odisha holds enormous stakes in India's bauxite economy. According to the Indian Bureau of Mines' 2022 Yearbook, the state accounts for around 41% of the country's total bauxite reserves and contributed nearly 73% of national production in 2021-22. The Sijimali hills alone are estimated to hold 311 million tonnes of bauxite. The state government has positioned mining as central to industrial development, but critics argue that the costs of this model fall disproportionately on tribal communities who receive little of the economic benefit.

Environmental concerns compound the rights questions. The Sijimali region is ecologically sensitive, home to dense forests, wildlife corridors used by elephants, and water sources on which farming communities depend. Activists warn that mining will cause extensive deforestation, accelerate soil erosion, and deplete local water supplies — impacts they say are routinely omitted from official cost-benefit analyses.

Questions have also been raised about Vedanta's financial health. The company carries outstanding debt running into the hundreds of thousands of crores of rupees owed to banks and financial institutions including Bank of India, ICICI Bank, and Power Finance Corporation. Its parent, Vedanta Resources, has repeatedly required debt restructuring. Critics argue that heavy public lending to a company with a contested environmental and human rights record demands closer scrutiny.

The Sijimali standoff reflects a broader tension in India's development politics. The government and company frame the project as necessary for industrial self-reliance and employment. Those resisting it argue they are not opposed to development but to a model that displaces the poorest and most vulnerable while privatizing the gains. With Vedanta pressing to begin operations and communities vowing continued resistance, the conflict is far from resolved.

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*Researcher at the Centre for Financial Accountability