Democracy in Niyamgiri

SHAGUN JAGGI (NLU-J)

Khambesi, the village of Dongria Kondh tribals, is not easily accessible as it isn’t connected by road or rail networks. It can be reached only by walking through nine kilometers of thick forest and thereafter crossing four streams and a river. But on thirteenth August, several government officials, social workers, research scholars, and journalists headed for Khambesi to witness the proceedings of a Gram Sabha, which was to decide whether the villagers accepted the proposed mining project. Whether the people’s religious sentiments and environmental concerns would take a back seat in favour of economic growth and development, or would such an initiative be rejected. India thus hosted its first Environment referendum.

So what is this furore all about?

In 2003 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and Vedanta for mining in the tribal-dominated Niyamgiri forest areas of the state. But the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MOEF) rejected the Stage-II forest clearance for diversion of forest land to establish Lanjigarh Bauxite Mines in Kalahandi and Rayagada Districts of Orissa for mining of bauxite ore. This led OMC, to approach the Court under the Writ of Certiorari to quash the order passed by MOEF. The Supreme Court passed a landmark judgment, applying Forest Rights Act for the first time. The decision stated that it was up to local communities discretion to decide whether the project should proceed through public consultations and votes in each of the surrounding villages. Thereby a directive was issued to the Orissa Government to gauge the opinion of the villagers on the prospect of bauxite mining in their habitat. The government drew up a list of 12 villages “likely to be affected” (which drew a lot of flak from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, since it limited the number of villagers who would have a say in the matter, when the mining would have affected them as well.)by the proposed mining. However the Niyamgiri tribals living in that area completely rejected the idea of the mining project as it defiled their religion that was embedded in the hill’s pristine ecology. While the Odisha House in New Delhi celebrated the unanimous refusal of the mining project achieved by the tiny Dongria Kondh hamlets in Niyamgiri, in London on the other hand, there were demonstrations at the shareholders assembly of Vedanta Ltd asking this company to quit the Niyamgiri Hill and the Lanjigarh alumina refinery in Odisha.

Tribal Affairs Minister, Kishore Chandra Deo remarked that ” having a MoU with Vedanta itself was wrong because it goes against the letter and spirit of both Article 244(1) and provisions of Schedule V of the Constitution,”Meanwhile, Vedanta has declared the firm was now looking beyond Niyamgiri hills to source raw material for the refinery and was hopeful of securing an alternate mine soon.

It is indeed heartening to see the local Dongria Kondh tribal community, with the backing of the Supreme Court, stand up against a corporate giant and voice their opinion regarding their religious rights over the Niyamgiri hills. The community reveres the Niyamgiri as the abode of their deity Niyam Raja. As a consequence of this overlap of a sacred place with a resource-rich area, the environment is being preserved from a systematic exploitation of its natural resources.

Niyamgiri is fortunate to have the local Gram Sabhas decide its future. However, other similar resource-rich areas have not been so fortunate, as many development projects have been instituted across the country against the wishes of the people. Under the Mahan coal block in Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh, 90 per cent of the allocated coal block is within the Mahan Forest Reserve which is also home to 600 wild animals. Additionally, for the locals, the forest is said to be the abode of the Dih Baba.Similarly, Dhari Devi in Uttarakhand and the Sethusamudram project are some more examples of instances where economic desires of a few have taken forefront overriding the environmental concerns and desires of the masses. Although in India we have multiple development projects on the anvil at any given point of time, there is a complete absence of community participation and their subsequent endorsement of these projects. The end result is that development projects are disconnected from the society and serve the purpose of a select few only. The shareholder survives and the stakeholders are often forgotten. We need to look at the real costs of development. But Economics cannot be the only lens to view development.

In many countries, non-governmental organizations and activist organisations are increasing, playing a vital role in ensuring Government accountability towards the environment. The Environment Support Centre and Conservation Voters of British Columbia in Canada is a not-for-profit society, mainly tracking the ‘environmental performances’ of their elected candidates, working on a progressive policy agenda and supporting ‘environmentally-minded’ candidates for office. This, in turn, causes political parties to accord high priority to environment conservation in their respective manifestos. India could think along the lines of adopting such a model for itself.

Backed by an active judiciary, peoples’ referendum on environmental issues can help change the woeful state of affairs of the environment in India. Assisted by NGOs and activists, the concept of environmental referendum can compel political parties to have a healthy commitment to environment and push the legislature to pass laws that reflect the views of the majority. It will also deliver direct power to the people and, therefore, bypass the otherwise long-winding deliberation process and party politics. However, the challenge would be to balance the need for progress and rational use of a concept such as ‘environmental referendum’ with larger developmental goals.It is only natural that the local community to think of its immediate surroundings and not take into account the broad regional economic development and other allied benefits such as employment and rise in per capita income.

It is ironic to see that all of this happened around the time Indian celebrated its Independence.However it with instances such as these that we realize that it has taken nearly seventy years for the Republic of India to fulfill the promises that it made at the time it gained independence, to the Adivasis. The current exercise at Niyamgiri will set an interesting precedent and be a valuable case study in understanding the balance between religious sentiments, environmental conservation and economic growth.