Deulahudi Villagers Map Their Claim Under Forest Rights Act

Deulahudi, a small tribal village in Hrichandanpur Block of Keounjhar District n Odisha, India assembled for a participatory mapping exercise of their Community Forest Resources on 28th April 2013. The gathering was a field exercise carried out in their traditionally protected forest. The village is inhabited by the Kolha (also known as Munda or Ho) Tribe, recognized as one of the 62 Schedule Tribes in Odisha. According to village elders, the village consists of 40 households which are the descendants from 12 original families that settled in the village four generation back. The livelihood of the community is mostly based on gathering forest products.

Damburu Munda, Secretary of Forest Rights Committee of the Village, shared that while 59 individual forest rights claims were filed, only 44 titles were issued to the claimants for cultivation on forest land by district administration. They do not know the reason why the rest of the claims were not recognized.The villagers identified their Traditional Boundary with the prominent land marks and put it in the Sketch Map. They are collecting around 32 different minor forest products such as the mahua flower, mushrooms, char seed, siali and sal leaf (used as leaf plate), bamboo, tendu (fruit and leaf) within their customary boundary. The Forest Protection Committee is named after the village deity, Maa Disauli.

The issue that they now face is from the neighboring villages who trespass into their forest and cut the trees. For that they have posted some bill boards with a warning not to trespass and collect forest products and fuel wood. On 27th April there was a training programme on Forest Rights for the volunteers, members of Forest Rights Committee and Staff Members of KIRDTI who are engaged in facilitating the claim process on ground. The programme was organized by KIRDTI and Sankar Pani of Natural Justice has facilitated the training process. Sricharan Behera shared his experience of CFR claim process in Kondhamal District.

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Petition to Halt Mining on Mountain Range in Odisha

The Mining Zone Peoples' Solidarity Group, an international research group focusing on new economic policy, has drafted a petition directed towards Sonia Gandhi, the Chairperson of the National Advisory Council, about grave concerns and environmental devastation resulting from iron ore mining in the sensitive Khandadhar mountain range in Odisha, India.

The full petition is copied below (unedited) and available for signing here.

To: Sonia Gandhi

Chairperson, National Advisory Council

10, Janpath, New Delhi 110 011

The spiritually, culturally, biologically, and ecologically unique Khandadhar mountain range, source of the fabled Khandadhara waterfalls, is being ravaged by predatory mining. Matters stand to get desperate if the Pohang Steel Company of South Korea (POSCO) and other companies are permitted to source iron ore from close to 150,000 hectares of this densely forested region, as projected. Devastation threatens as jungles are felled; mountaintops are exploded into rocks and red dust; waterfalls and rivulets get polluted or dry up; a rare tribal culture becomes extinct; endangered wildlife, including tigers, elephants and bison are deprived of habitat; and tens of thousands of people are denied water from the Khandadhar watershed and lose their source of livelihood and life.

The Khandadhara waterfall of Sundergarh is 244 meters high (800 feet). The waterfall is Orissa’s tallest and, being of sublime beauty, deserves to be a World Heritage Site. The waterfall, the mountains and forests from which it arises are sacred to the Pauri Bhuiyan, a community listed as a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG). Their deity, Kandh Kumari resides on the mountaintop. Their mythology speaks of the origin of the waterfall, relating it to another high and beautiful waterfall of the same name in Keonjhar district, which is also threatened by mining. Indeed, these mountains, forests and waterfalls are sacred to all the indigenous peoples living around the mountain, who recognize their life-giving value. Local legends say that once a year Kandh Kumari descends from her home in the mountains to visit Bonai, in the plains. Thereby she demonstrates the allegiance of the Pauri Bhuiyan to the Bonai dynasty of rulers, who have been the acknowledged monarchs in the region for 59 dynasties. Even the British declined to exploit these mountains because they were fearful of the popular uprising that would result upon violation of the sacred abode.

The Pauri Bhuiyan have resided on the mountain-tops from time immemorial. They share genetic traits with the Andaman aboriginals, which indicate that they descend from some of the first modern humans in India. Their language is claimed to be the source language of Oriya. As such, the Pauri Bhuiyan are bearers of a unique and irreplaceable human heritage that is intimately tied to the area’s geology and biodiversity. They will become culturally, perhaps physically, extinct if mining continues on the Khandadhar range.

In the 1990s, many families of Pauri Bhuiyan were forced to come off the mountaintops and settle in the plains on the pretext that their shifting cultivation damaged the forests. In fact, the Pauri Bhuiyan’s methods of cultivation regenerate the forest instead of damaging it—in obvious contrast to mining. There is an abundance of fruit trees in the mountains, planted by the Pauri Bhuiyan over generations. Despite their symbiotic and nurturing relationship with the forest, the Pauri Bhuiyan are routinely, and viciously, persecuted by the local administration. On April 15, 2012, the forest department burned down all the huts, clothes, food and other belongings of 20 Pauri Bhuiyan families who had shifted to near Derula village, part of their ancestral homeland.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples precludes forced displacement of indigenous peoples, specifically prohibiting “(a) Any action which has the aim or effect of depriving them of their integrity as distinct peoples, or of their cultural values or ethnic identities; (b) Any action which has the aim or effect of dispossessing them of their lands, territories or resources; (c) Any form of forced population transfer which has the aim or effect of violating or undermining any of their rights; (d) Any form of forced assimilation or integration.” Furthermore, this is a Fifth Schedule area and is entitled to have the Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act as well as the Forest Rights Act implemented in letter and spirit. Neither act has been implemented to date.

The densely forested Khandadhar mountains shelter abundant wildlife and form part of a vital elephant corridor. They are home to rare species such as the limbless lizard, which seems to exist only here, and indicates the richness of the forest’s biodiversity. The sloth bear, leopard, Indian bison, wild dog, python and even the tiger are to be found in this jungle. In January 2012, a tigress was sighted by Phuljhar village, near the foot of the Khandadhara waterfall. As you are well aware, these creatures are not only highly endangered but also entitled to the highest legal protections.

Last but not least, the Khandadhar watershed provides water to fields all around the mountains in at least 20 villages, and even to the Brahmani River. The forested mountain range also serves as a barrier to monsoon clouds and causes local precipitation, providing water to southern Sundergarh and western Keonjhar. Mining will destroy the mountain range and its forest cover, and therefore the water source of tens of thousands of people living in the valleys drained by the Brahmani and the Baitarini.

It is said that future wars will be fought over water, the single most precious resource on earth. This major water source deserves to be cherished and protected for current and future generations, rather than devastated by mining.

Extant Mining

Deep inside the forest, invisible from normal roads, rises a horrific sight—the blood-red carcass of a mountain that has been stripped of its skin of trees and topsoil. At least 1,000 trucks per day are loading iron ore here. Trees for miles around are coated with thick red dust, and another hill nearby has been shaved of trees in preparation for mining. The dead mountain is Kurmitar, a 133-hectare iron ore mine currently being operated by Kalinga Commercial Corporation Limited under lease from Orissa Mining Corporation. KCCL boasts on its website of exporting iron ore to China and manganese ore to an unnamed Korean company, and of having exceeded its production target by more than 500 percent. Production is projected to increase four-fold once a new conveyor belt becomes operational. For reasons unknown to us, the Shah Commission, which was charged by the Supreme Court to investigate illegalities in iron ore mining, visited Orissa twice but did not survey the Kurmitar Mine.

KCCL is removing water from one of the source springs of the Khandadhara for its mining operations, and the destruction of Kurmitar mountain has dried up other water sources as well. Khandadhara’s water flow has sharply reduced in recent years, and if mining continues the waterfall could dry up completely. At least one canal downstream, where villagers (including resettled Pauri Bhuiyan) used to fish, bathe, water their livestock and draw water for irrigation, has become bone-dry, causing immense distress. Other rivulets are running red with mining dust and polluting fields. The water in the falls is crystal clear in normal times, but when it rains the waterfall now bleeds red.

When a 133-hectare mine has such a devastating effect, the havoc to be wreaked by subjecting a projected 2,500 hectares of this exquisite ecology to mining by POSCO is beyond imagination. Even more alarming, in Keonjhar district mining leases on a staggering 143,900 hectares of Khandadhar mountain and forests have been granted to a variety of companies. These will destroy 52 villages of Pauri Bhuiyan and another indigenous group, the Juang.

The bizarrely low royalty rates that the government charges for iron ore mining are widely known. The truth is, however, that no price can compensate for the wanton destruction of Khandadhar’s geological, biological and cultural heritage, as well as of the livelihoods of tens of thousands of people threatened by mining in this mountain range. One of the most bounteous gifts of nature is being turned into something worse than a desert. Furthermore, this concerted assault on the home territory of an endangered and vulnerable tribe amounts to ethnocide.

We are writing to demand that mining in the Khandadhar range be immediately halted—forever; that any promises made to POSCO and other companies be revoked; that extant violations of environmental and other laws by mining companies be vigorously investigated and severely punished; that forest and other officials be punished for their atrocities on the Pauri Bhuiyan; and that the Pauri Bhuiyan be permitted to resume living on the hilltops and assume their traditional role of guardians of the forests, the mountains, and the waterfalls.

Further information and the petition are available here.

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Meeting on the Scope of BCPs in Bhubaneswar

Natural Justice and Vasundhara jointly organised a meeting on 22 February 2013 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha District, to discuss the scope of Biocultural Community Protocols (BCPs) in asserting community rights. The meeting was facilitated by Sankar Pani (Natural Justice) and was attended by representatives from various civil society organisations working in Odisha. 

Mr Y Giri Rao (Vasundhara) welcomed participants and presented the keynote address. Kabir Bavikatte (Natural Justice) detailed the jurisprudence of BCPs and how they have been used by various communities across the globe in articulating and asserting their stewardship rights. Pratap Mohanty (Vasundhara) spoke on how BCPs can be used as tools in claiming habitat rights for particularly vulnerable tribal communities such as the Juang, Paudibhuyan and Chuktia Bhunjia. 

Bhajaman Mahant (Jivan Vikas) presented on the impact of extractive industries on Paudibhuyan Communities and how the community is further alienated by the compensatory afforestation programmes on community land. Sricharan Behera emphasised how BCPs can be used to preserve community knowledge. He also asked how the traditional knowledge related to the production of organic turmeric in Kondhamal can be protected and patented. 

Sambandh, a local organization working with traditional healers, presented on the biocultural practices of traditional healers around the sustainable use and conservation of medicinal plants. Priyabrat Satpathy (Action Aid), lawyer and activist Chandranath Dani, Dillip Das (Antoday), Pravat Mishra (RCDC) also participated in the discussions.

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Paudibhuyan Community Meeting on Extractives - Odisha

In a meeting of the Paudibhuyan Community held in Kuanar Village, Keonjhar District, Odisha, India on 11 January 2012, community members raised serious concerns about mining and its impact on the environment and Indigenous communities in neighbouring areas. The government has begun to allot land in the area for prospecting and participants especially expressed concern that the sacred Khandadhar Mountain would be threatened. A company has begun erecting pillars in the area without any community consultation and without sharing information on the potential impact of mining on the local environment, community livelihoods and culture. Keonjhar Integrated Rural Development and Training Institute (KIRDTI), a local NGO, and Sankar Pani of Natural Justice participated in the meeting and suggested steps for how the community can utilise various legal instruments to protect community resources, including: 

• Determining which companies have been allotted permits and clearances for mining in the region; 
• Seeking the declaration of Khandadhar Mountain as a Heritage Site under the Biodiversity Act; 
• Seeking the declaration of the region as Eco-Sensitive Area under the Environment Protection Act; 
• Pursuing the recognition of community rights and habitat rights for the community as Indigenous Communities under the Forest Rights Act.

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Paudibhuyan Community of Odisha to Draft BCP

The traditional leaders of the Paudibhuyan community of the Khandadhar region of Sundergarh District in Odisha gathered on 24 December 2012 to prepare a strategy to protect their territory and culture. The meeting was facilitated by Jivan Vikas, a local NGO, and Sankar Pani of Natural Justice. Paudibhuyan is one of the thirteen Primarily Vulnerable Tribal Groups of Odisha, and its population is sharply declining due to various reasons. The community is concentrated in small pockets in the Sundergarh, Keounjhar, Deogaarh and Dhenkanal Districts. At the meeting, the elders of the community shared their rich cultural heritage and traditional knowledge which they have fostered for generations and encouraged their successors to preserve and protect their traditional knowledge. They also raised concerns about various threats to common resources, especially emphasising the impact of mining on local bodies of water. 

The community leaders resolved to draft a biocultural community protocol to record their traditional rights and resources. They demanded recognition of their habitat rights and community rights under Forest Rights Act. They recalled their traditional herbal medicines and recited their traditional folk songs and emphasised the need to preserve them for future generations.

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