Vedanta Seeks to Revive Niyamgiri Bauxite Mining: The Gram Sabha Precedent and Tribal Rights Explained
The Vedanta Group has asked the Odisha government to reopen the Niyamgiri Hills for bauxite mining. This comes nearly 13 years after the project was shelved in 2013.
The project was stopped after the Dongria Kondh, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG), rejected mining through Gram Sabha (village assembly) resolutions. These were held after a 2013 Supreme Court ruling that let the affected communities decide whether mining would harm their religious, cultural and community rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006. The process was widely called India's first environmental referendum.
The Niyamgiri Hills are estimated to hold 72 to 88 million tonnes of bauxite, the ore used to make alumina and aluminium.
Vedanta already runs an alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, at the foot of Niyamgiri, which relies mostly on imported bauxite. The company has also won bids for the Sijimali bauxite mine (Rayagada district) and the Karlapat mine (Kalahandi district).
The group also announced a plan to invest ₹1 lakh crore in Odisha in aluminium smelters, refineries and power plants, including new alumina refineries in Dhenkanal and Rayagada. It said the projects could be finished in two and a half to three years.
Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006
The Forest Rights Act, 2006 is a law that gives legal ownership and use rights over forest land and forest resources to the tribal people and other communities who have lived in and depended on forests for generations. Its full name is The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006. The key word is "recognition": the law does not give new land, it officially accepts rights that these communities already had in practice. It also gives the Gram Sabha, the assembly of all adult villagers, a central role in deciding and protecting these rights.
Vedanta's push to reopen Niyamgiri runs into the legal precedent set under the FRA in 2013. Then, the Supreme Court gave the Gram Sabhas the power to decide, and all 12 said no. Any new attempt to mine Niyamgiri would have to deal with the community's recognised rights and the need for Gram Sabha consent.
Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs)
Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) are the most disadvantaged communities among India's Scheduled Tribes. They usually live in remote places, use very simple farming or hunting-gathering methods, have very low literacy, and their population is small, stagnant or falling. The Government of India lists 75 PVTGs across 18 states and 1 Union Territory (the Andaman and Nicobar Islands). They get special attention in government schemes because general tribal programmes often fail to reach them.
The Niyamgiri Hills are the home and sacred land of the Dongria Kondh, a PVTG. In 2013, the risk to this small and vulnerable community's survival and culture was central to why their Gram Sabhas rejected mining. The new push to reopen the hills raises the same question of how to protect a PVTG's habitat alongside mineral development.
- Niyamgiri bauxite reserves: estimated 72 to 88 million tonnes
- Mining plan shelved: 2013, after all 12 Gram Sabhas rejected it (India's first environmental referendum)
- Supreme Court judgment: April 18, 2013, Orissa Mining Corporation v. Ministry of Environment and Forest
- Ministry rejected Stage II clearance: August 24, 2010; final rejection: January 2014
- Vedanta's Lanjigarh refinery relies mostly on imported bauxite; won Sijimali (Rayagada) and Karlapat (Kalahandi) mines
- Proposed investment in Odisha: ₹1 lakh crore; new refineries in Dhenkanal and Rayagada; 2.5 to 3 years to complete
- Dongria Kondh: a PVTG; Odisha has 13 of India's 75 PVTGs