Bhubaneswar, Aug. 16: In a setback to Vedanta Aluminium Ltd, the Central government appointed committee recommended against allowing bauxite mining in the forest land on Niyamgiri hills without the consent of local communities.
The London-based Veda-nta was setting up a one-million-tonne refinery at Lanjigarh in Orissa’s Kalahandi district with an investment of Rs 4,500-crore.
A four-member panel of the committee, which visited the project site in July, however, found the violation of the Forest Rights Act and environmental norms by the London-based company. “The refinery project was given clearance under Environment Impact Assessment on the condition that no forest land would be used for the refinery. But now it is established that 26.123 hectares forest land was used in the refinery boundary with active collusion of government officials. Hence, the environment clearance giv-en to the company for setting up the refinery is invalid and be set aside,” the committee said.
“The committee is of the firm view that allowing mining in the proposed mining lease area by depriving two primitive tribal groups — Kutia and Dongaria Kondh — of their rights over the proposed mining site in order to benefit a private firm (Vedanta) would shake the faith of tribal people in the laws of the land,” the report added.