Le malheur d’habiter une terre riche en bauxite

Un mois après la fin de Janadesh, le combat des populations tribales pour le droit à occuper leurs terres ancestrales continue. Illustration en Orissa,  grâce à un article de l’Hindustan Times. L’Orissa se trouve dans l’Est du pays ; c’est un Etat dont le sous-sol est très riche en matières premières mais dont la population est très déshéritée. Extraits :

“Thousands of miles from Goa, in Orissa’s Kalahandi district, the Dongaria Kondh tribals are fighting to keep their sacred Niyamgiri hills away from the prying eyes of UK-based Vedanta Resources Plc. The company wants to mine the bauxite-rich region and has set up a refinery at Lanjigarh. 

On Friday, the Supreme Court barred the company from mining at Niyamgiri hills, but said if the state wants to go ahead, it will have to form a special purpose vehicle which would include the Orissa Mining Corporation and Sterlite — Vedanta’s Indian arm. […]

The company has been facing protests from the beginning of the project in 2002. This region is one of the few in the state that still has primary forest cover of about 90 per cent. The tribals say mining would affect at least 35 waterfalls and two rivers. “If they displace us, then it will lead to a bloodbath in western Orissa,” Jitu Jakeseka, a tribal, told a news agency”.