The recent saxena committee report on bauxite minning from the Niyamgiri hills raps the Govt of Orissa and Vedanta Alumina for alleged violation of the Forest rights Acts and Forest conservation acts. The report exposed the company's mendacious claims of environmental compliance with the malicious collusion with the officials of Govt Of orissa. The company illegally took possession of Govt land and expanded the capacity of the greenfield projcet by six fold without environmental clearance. The Niyamgiri hills is home to one of India's primitive tribes, the Dongria kondh will face extinction as their only source of livelihood, the forest produce commodities will dry out due to open cast mining in the hill which will deny them the access to their livelihood. Also the source of the river Vanshdhara river which is considerd as the life line for the local tribes will be seriously disturbed by the mining project.The company managed to flout every possible laws with impunity but caught red handed by the committe. The question is how the state government gave the clearance to Vedanta Alumina despite the vigorous protests by the local tribes and repeated allegegation of violation of the Forest rights act. Is the state govt is putting an blind eye for the industrialisation of the state compormising the environmental concerns? If that is so, then we are heading towards an Environmntal catastrophe. Industrialisation is necessery for our economic growth but environmental concerns should not be overlooked rather be addressed. We are a multicultural democratic society where difference of opinion should be respected rather than suppressed. The state govt should seriously look into the environmental issue and the issue of the Primitive tribes before giving any clearance for Minning in the Hill. The practice of giving blind environmental clearance without addressing the ecological concerns for the sake of industrialisation will lead the state to an enviromental catastrophe.
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