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Niyamgiri tribals’ plea to apex court

BHUBANESWAR: Tribals living in Niyamgiri hills have appealed to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to hear their grievances before the apex court took any decision on the question of mining of Niyamgiri hills for extraction of bauxite to be used in the alumina refinery of Vedanta Aluminum Limited at Lanjigarh in Kalahandi district.

Addressing a press conference here on Wednesday, members of Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti said they had sent an appeal to the Supreme Court Chief Justice on Tuesday saying that the court should here them on the issue as they would be affected if any company was granted permission to mine Niyamgiri hills.

They said that the case pertaining to the issue was likely to come up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Friday.

Jitu Jakesika and Dodi Pusika, who addressed the press conference, said that mining of bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills, which is worshipped as God by the tribals belonging to the primitive tribes such as the Dongria Kondh and Jharnia Kondh, would destroy the region’s ecology.

Reiterating their opposition to the proposed mining in Niyamgiri hills, they said that mining of the hills would have disastrous effect on the life and livelihood sources of thousands of tribals living in the area.

The water sources in the region would also be affected in the region if the Niyamgiri hills were mined for bauxite, they added.

The Suraksha Samiti members had also handed over a memorandum to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi when he addressed a tribal youth conference in Cuttack city on Tuesday.

In the on-page memorandum, they urged Mr. Gandhi to intervene in the matter at the level of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests to save the unique biodiversity of the Niyamgiri mountains.

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