The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Tribals fear displacement

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Wednesday, Dec 27, 2006
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Others

Tribals fear displacement

Santosh Patnaik

Supply of bauxite ore from agency for Jindal project

UNCERTAIN FUTURE: The scene at a typical tribal hamlet at Beespuram. — Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam

BEESUPURAM (VISAKHAPATNAM DT.) "Are you from Jindal company," asks Korra Rambha when anyone comes from the maidan (plain) area.

With uncertainty writ large on her face, she does not want to trust the visitors. Even mediapersons frequenting this village located on the foothills of Galikonda are being looked with suspicion.

Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation will supply bauxite ore from Galikonda hills as per a memorandum of understanding signed by it with Jindal South West Aluminium Limited (JSWAL) on July 1, 2005 to set up aluminium complex comprising a 1.4 million tonne alumina plant, 0.25 million tonne aluminium smelter and a 600 mw captive power plant at an estimated cost of Rs.9,000 crores.

Rich deposits

The hills located at a height of 3,795 ft. above sea level, a few km from Araku valley, has rich deposits of bauxite. With several teams from the Government, media, social action groups, survey teams and political parties making a beeline to their villages, the tribals question whosever visits their area on their credentials.

An element of fear and uncertainty stalks not only Beesupuram but also Yegerasobha, Giribandha, Balaiguda, Battivalasa and other villages. "We don't trust anyone. How will we know who is from Jindal and who is not? People come and go with questions like whether we will surrender our lands for the Jindal project," Rambha, mother of five daughters and a son, says.

Tribals fear that the project will displace them denying their seasonal source of income from collecting firewood, tamarind, gooseberry, adda leaf, `karakkaya', broomstick and other minor forest produce.

Coffee estates

However, Jindal management rules out displacement and says that environmental and forest clearances have to be obtained by APMDC for mining and supply it for its refinery coming up in the district. The mining lease area will occur at an altitude of 1,170 metres to 1,444 metres above mean sea level.

Notwithstanding stout denial by officials, the tribals fear that the coffee estates in their area will be destroyed if bauxite mining is taken up on a large scale by APMDC for the alumina refinery. "I am able to get two square meal a day by working in the coffee estates. I also grind millets and sell it to sahukars. What will happen to me if the estates are closed," she wonders. Coffee beans are produced in plenty in Ananthagiri, Araku and nine more agency mandals forming part of the Eastern Ghats. "Owing to deployment of heavy machinery for extracting bauxite ore in Galikonda hills, most of the hillstreams supplying water to rivers in the plain areas will dry up. The coffee plantations will also be worst hit due to laying of new roads and movement of heavy vehicles," Dr. Sridhar, geologist fighting for tribal rights in mine affected areas, remarks.

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