
Digging in their heels to protect Tij Raja’s abode against Vedanta’s next bauxite mining venture in Odisha

“Our fight, today, is against the same Vedanta that our brothers and sisters from Niyamgiri had rejected, to save the destruction of their jal, jangal, zameen [water, forest and land] and to preserve the way we prefer to live, work, and conduct our affairs,” Lāi Mājhi said. As Lai addressed an impromptu gathering outside his modest home, where we arrived close to sunset, after an exhilarating motorcycle ride through Karlāpāt Wildlife sanctuary, we were soon joined by around forty others—men and women sauntering out from the huts and hamlets nearby. “It is a right we get from the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, and the PESA of 1996. We cannot be displaced until the majority of our individual and community claims to titles over forest lands, under the Forest Rights Act of 2006, are settled.” Lai is the vice president of Maa, Maati, Maali Surakhya Manch, a front for the…
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