The Last Stand Of Niyam Raja

The sacred mountains of Orissa’s Kondhs are about to be pulverised for bauxite, reports ANJALI LAL GUPTA

POSTERS OF Rahul Gandhi greet us on our way to Ijurupa village, where Dongria, Kutia and Jharania Kondhs have gathered to offer prayers to their beloved local deity Niyam Raja. Less than a fortnight back the Congress general secretary had met the indigenous tribes in the same village and promised them support in their struggle to save Niyamgiri, the 40 kilometre long mountain range adjoining Kalahandi and Rayagada districts of Orissa. The Kondhs’ sacred mountains are now under grave threat as mining giant Vedanta Alumina Ltd. is poised to break them open for bauxite

But the Kondhs cannot imagine life outside Niyamgiri. At a makeshift shrine, Kone Majhi, a Behejuni, a Dongria Kondh woman priest, prays, “Niyam Raja, give us strength to protect you and ourselves. Help us help you and ourselves. We promise we will not leave you. Thank you for giving us food and sustaining us. Please continue to look after our children.”

For generations, the tribals of Kalahandi and Rayagada have looked to Niyamgiri forests for fruits, tubers, medicinal herbs and spices. Besides, they grow millets, black pepper, chillies, green and black gram, green leafy vegetables and sesame seeds on the foothills.

Eighteen-year-old Rapna Majhi’s family of Bundel village in Kalahandi sold eight acres of land to Vedanta for Rs 700,000. The company promised Rapna a job at Vedanta’s alumina refinery built at the foot of Niyamgiri in 2003 once he trained at the district Information Technology Institute (ITI). But he has lost faith, since over 100 other tribal youth who passed out of the institute have yet to land a job at the factory. The fertile land lost to Vedanta once used to feed Rapna’s family of five all year round, now they buy food from market. The Rs 4000 they get as interest from the sale money every month do not go far. Twentyyear- old Arjun Majhi’s family is bigger, but the interest they get for giving up their three-acre property is lesser than Rapna’s. “We are already facing acute shortage of food. Earlier we had our own rice and mangoes,” Arjun says. Several tribal families like his remain unemployed. Initially, Vedanta had announced that everyone could get jobs with the company, with salaries in line with their qualifications and abilities. Rapna, who is a graduate, had hoped for a salary of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000. “Young men had bought into that dream and pushed their parents to sell their farmland, not knowing they are signing away their livelihoods and all that is important to the tribal way of life,” says Bratindi Jena, who leads ActionAid’s work with indigenous communities in India.

Several other dreams lie shattered. The company and the local administration had assured clinics, schools, street lights and water facilities. Instead, 60 people including 11 women were put in jail in December 2007 after they sat outside the factory gate demanding clean water supply. Vedanta’s refinery had after all gobbled up the ponds and wells in their erstwhile villages. “I feel frustrated and angry. When a Vedanta vehicle passes our house, I feel like either killing them or myself,” Rapna says.

Frustration is rife in Kalahandi. Twenty-one year-old non-tribal youth Hrudya nand Patra from Lanjigarh block did get a job at the Vedanta refinery. He has a graduate degree in Arts from Biswanathpur College. “There are no jobs in Lanjigarh. So I took a job at the factory running errands for a salary of Rs 5000 per month,” says Hrudyanand. He told us why his job was shortlived. On May 19, 2007 he was asked to collect a sample of caustic soda from the company laboratory. In the lab, liquid caustic soda would fall from a pipe into a pit. When Hrudyanand went to get it, the ground around the pit sank, and took his right leg along with the gum boot, into the chemical swell. For 19 days, Hrudyanand lay in hospital. For four months, he was not able to walk.

A company official promised his parents that their son will get his job once he gets better. Despite repeated reminders, the company has neither offered him a job nor compensation. Hrudyanand’s burnt leg often bleeds and he has to take medicines everyday. His family is finding it difficult to afford his treatment. Lawyer Siddharth Nayak, who chairs Sachetan Nagrik Manch, a local forum of civil society groups and activists, filed a case for Hrudya - nand in the district court. The court has yet to announce any hearing. Hrudyanand knows at least 10 young men who have either lost or damaged limbs at the Vedanta factory.

In November last year, the Supreme Court disqualified Vedanta Alumina from mining the Niyamgiri, but with the provision that the project can be revived if Vedanta’s Indian arm, Sterlite Industries came back with a proposal to preserve the rights of local indigenous people through a special purpose vehicle. A hearing on Sterlite’s proposal is expected soon. Meanwhile, Niyamgiri’s fate hangs in balance.

Anjali Lal Gupta is a development writer with ActionAid

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