Tradition · Adivasi forest-rights movement
Dongria Kondh resistance
Also known as Niyamgiri movement
The Dongria Kondh resistance against the Vedanta Resources bauxite-mining lease on their sacred Niyamgiri mountain, 2003-2013, is the single most important precedent on Adivasi community forest rights in independent India. Twelve gram sabhas of the Niyamgiri range voted unanimously on 18-19 July 2013 to reject the open-cast mining lease, after a Supreme Court order of 18 April 2013 that the religious and cultural claims of the Dongria over Niyamraja itself had to be heard before any environmental clearance could stand. The verdict stopped the US$2 billion Lanjigarh refinery expansion and became the template for subsequent gram sabha-first rulings in the Baiga, Pathalgadi and Hasdeo-Aranya struggles.
- Function
- Social reform & movement
- Confidence
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Connections (1)
- Related traditionNiyamgiri Hills
The Niyamgiri Hills are the ancestral mountain of the Dongria Kondh and the subject of their 2003-2013 community-forest-rights resistance against the Vedanta Resources bauxite mining lease. The movement is simply inseparable from the place: the Supreme Court's 18 April 2013 judgment ordered the twelve gram sabhas of the Niyamgiri range to vote on whether the hill's religious and cultural significance to the Dongria could be overridden by the mining lease, and the gram sabhas unanimously voted no over 18-19 July 2013. The verdict reshaped Indian environmental and Fifth Schedule law.
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Standard reference.
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