Bauxite mining near Karalapat Sanctuary opposed

Close on the heels of the State government’s move to arrange dedicate supply to bauxite to Vedanta Alumina Limited’s Lanjigarh refinery near Karlapat sanctuary, activists have registered strong protest saying rich biodiversity of the place would be lost if mining is allowed there.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, president of Loka Shakti Abhiyan (LSA) Prafulla Samantra said, “a number of perennial streams and nallahs flow across the area and feed into river Tel, a major tributary of the river Mahanadi. High plateau and waterfalls attract tourists to study and enjoy the nature. The vegetation of the Karlapat sanctuary along with its perennial water sources influences the microclimate of the area.”

“Karlapat boasts for its elephant population and serves as a crucial corridor link between elephants in Kotagarh Sanctuary in Kandhamal district and Lakhari Valley sanctuary in Gajapati district. There are four elephant corridors that pass through Karlapat sanctuary area,” Mr. Samantara said.

He said, “presence of moist peninsular sal forests, mixed deciduous forests and bamboo brakes, undulated terrains interspersed with valleys, high altitude picks, plateaus, innumerable valleys has supported myriads of life forms, including some of the endangered mammals like tigers and elephants, leopards, wild boar, giant squirrel and antelopes.”

Moreover, 10 revenue villages and 9 un-surveyed villages with a population of 1,551 within Karalapat sanctuary would be affected by mines, Mr. Samantara pointed out, adding that the tribal people were mainly from Kutia Kandh community.

Alleging that livelihood of people would be lost, he said “rain-fed agriculture is the main source of income for these people. Paddy is the major crop. Besides they cultivate black gram, alsi and maize as cash crop on the foothills of the plateaus. They collect hill brooms and bamboo sticks and different minor forest produce like fruits, roots, gums, leaves and fuel wood and small timber for their own use as well as to sell in the nearby market.”

“The mineral deposited plateaus like Khandualmali and Krishnamali are 1 to 3 km. away from the boundary of sanctuary. According to the Supreme Court’s guidelines, no developmental, industrial or mining activities can take place within 10 km. of any wildlife sanctuary and national park. The proposed extraction of bauxite ore would violate the existing norm,” activists alleged.

It needs to be mentioned that Vedanta Alumina Limited has shut down its refinery on account of unavailability of bauxite ore. The company had entered into agreement with OMC for extraction of bauxite from Niyamgiri Hill range. However, the proposal could not be materialised. Now the company is in search of dedicated supply to refinery. The State government through Odisha Mining Corporation is trying to make the raw material available for the refinery.