- Mining activities are impacting the indigenous people living in Odisha’s Kodingamali region and their climate-friendly traditions.
- Water pollution, air pollution, damage to building structures are some of the issues faced by the residents due to mining activities. Villagers who were promised jobs have had to quit due to non-payment of salaries.
- The residents are migrating from their traditional habitats to other states seeking better livelihood options. A large number of tribal people from south Odisha seasonally migrate to Kerala and Tamil Nadu to work in brick kilns.
The indigenous people (adivasis) living around the Kodingamali hill in Koraput district of the state of Odisha have launched a fresh agitation against the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC). Aggrieved by the damages caused by bauxite mining at Kodingamali, they are demanding that mining in the region be stopped forthwith. These villages, under eight panchayats of three blocks in the district, lie on the fringes of the Kodingamali hill and are affected by the mining activities in the region.
The mining project was started last year. In February 2018, soon after obtaining clearances for the Kodingamali bauxite mine, the government of Odisha introduced a new bauxite linkage policy. The OMC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Indian mining company Vedanta, to supply 70 percent of the bauxite obtained from Kodingamali to Vedanta’s refinery situated about 150 km away at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district. Vedanta had earlier been importing bauxite from countries like Brazil and Guinea as well as neighbouring states like Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh to feed its 2 mtpa (million tons per annum) refinery.

In 2017, OMC received forest clearance for developing a new bauxite mine in 435 hectares of forest land in the Kodingamali hill region. Soon after this, a mining contractor, Mythri Infra, was hired for excavation and mining of bauxite ore at Kodingamali. The company initially employed local villagers as security guards and transportation workers, and many villagers in Dasamantpur block joined Mythri’s mining project. “We were told that mining would usher in infrastructure development in the region, but in reality, Mythri and the OMC have been exploiting us once the company began its operations,” said a local resident Sambar Muduli.
“I was told I would be paid nine thousand rupees per month as salary and additional benefits like provident fund and health insurance, but all I got was five thousand rupees a month and nothing else,” said Sanjit Kumar Khosla, one of the security guards in the company who worked for nine months in the organisation and has now quit his job. Many adivasis like him have stopped working in the company and are demanding a proper salary from the mining infrastructure development company.
Khosla further said, “We approached the district administration, the local member of the legislative assembly (MLA) and the OMC and complained about the ongoing irregularities, but all we got was assurances and nothing else. Now mining here does not benefit us in any way. We want our Mali (hill) back, it belongs to us.”