PUDR strongly condemns the raids, attacks on villagers and destruction of their houses by the local police and goons in Kantamal village in Odisha’s Kalahandi District. As per accounts received from local people, at about 2 am on 7 April, police along with private persons entered the village. When people came out they were subject to tear gas shells. Many were beaten up with lathis; two women have sustained severe head injuries. The repression continued till the early hours of the morning. Kantamal is one of the strongholds of the movement against the Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project, spread over both Thuamul Rampur and Kashipur blocks in Kalahandi and Rayagada districts, respectively. It may be recalled that in March 2023, the Odisha government issued a fifty-year mining lease to M/S Vedanta Ltd. for extraction of bauxite from an area spreading across 1549 hectares, including 699 hectares of forest land, which villagers have been resisting through Ma Mati Mali Surakshya Manch, the body spearheading the campaign to protect the hills and forests of Sijimali, which has been struggling for the rights of Adivasis in Rayagada and Kalahandi under the Fifth Schedule. The people have petitioned the NGT and the matter is pending.
The April 7 raids and attacks come in the wake of prohibitory orders issued on 3 April, when police and administrative officials in large numbers surrounded Kantamal village, and over loudspeakers, announced the decision to construct a road to the Sijimali bauxite mines. Under the directions of Sub-Collector Rayagada, the order prohibited the gathering of more than four persons within 100 meters radius of the approach road being constructed. Villagers had been threatened with strict action in case of violation of the order under Sec 163 BNSS. However, people sat on vigil on the hills from April 4 to 6 not allowing administration and police to go towards the approach road to be constructed. The police have alleged that the villagers attacked them when they went to arrest “law-breakers” (https://www.orissapost.com/over-100-injured-in-vedanta-mine-clash/). The April 7 raid, police violence on people and attacks on houses is evidence of the intensification of the terror campaign that the administration and police have mounted with the help of local private persons, against those opposed to the mining project. People had feared that the prohibitory orders would be used to target them – apprehensions that came true on 7 morning.
It needs to be noted that the April 7 events were preceded by large scale arrests in March 2026.
Talaampadar, a small village, with around 120 houses, in Thuamal Rampur block of Kalahandi district has been playing a leading role in the movement. On 11 March, twenty-one Adivasis from Talaampadar village were arrested based on a local complaint made by a Vedanta company loyalist. The complaint stated that the accused along with another 40-50 residents had barged into his house and assaulted him, and six others including his brother who was grievously injured. Several sections of the BNS including attempt to murder (109 (1)), voluntarily causing grievous hurt (117 (2)) rioting (191 (3)), unlawful assembly to commit offence with common object (190) were invoked in the FIR filed at Karlapat PS of Kalahandi district. Ten of those arrested are women, varying from 50 to 19-year-olds. At least one woman is pregnant and two have left behind their breast-fed children.
According to information received by PUDR from local activists, hundreds of police as well as private persons targeted the house of a leader of Ma Mati Mali Surakhya Manch (MMMSM) in the early hours of 11 March and forcibly broke in. Besides his house, the raiding party armed with knives and lathis barged into other houses, breaking doors and walls, destroying household goods and farm implements. Residents were dragged out, beaten and those who tried to prevent the attack or save themselves were caught and arrested at random. The mayhem continued till 7 am in the morning. PUDR learnt that several villagers fled to the forests in fear and many lost their household goods and official documents such as Aadhar cards, voter and ration cards.
Bail was denied to the twenty-one Adivasis on 12 March by the JFMC Civil Judicial Magistrate, Thuamul Rampur because of the serious sections invoked and also because the police said that the investigation was in a “nascent stage”. All twenty-one were sent to judicial custody in Bhawanipatna District Jail. Bail was once again denied by the Sessions Court on 6 April. The Judge chose to defer the matter as the Case Diary was still awaited. Nor has the police submitted the Injury Report. Hence, for almost four weeks now, twenty-one Adivasis continue to remain behind bars without relief. The use of non-bailable makes it possible to incarcerate the villagers for an indefinite period over protracted Sessions Court bail hearings.
All twenty one are Adivasi cultivators and wage workers dependent on the land. Their families, including children, are in deep shock and awaiting their presence to resume household work and earnings to resume as part of daily life.
On 25 March, Lingraj Azad and Suresh Sangram were arrested in Bhawanipatna, Kalahandi District. Azad, President of the Samajwadi Jan Parishad, and Suresh Sangram have been at forefront of the struggle against Vedanta’s bauxite mining project and are advisors of Ma Mati Mali Surakhya Manch. They have been booked under Sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 109(1) (Attempt to murder), 310(2) (dacoity), 351(3) (aggravated criminal intimidation), 191(2) (rioting), 191(3) (rioting with deadly weapon), and 190 (unlawful assembly with common intent) of the BNS. Both were denied bail on 6 April by the Kashipur Sessions Court and have been taken to Rayagada Jail.
The present crackdown is an intensification of a prior history of attacks which PUDR has noted, be it the police crackdown in Kashipur and Niyamgiri in August 2023 or the indiscriminate arrests of members of Ma Mati Mali Surakhya Manch in September 2024. Apart from leaders and activists, the entire Adivasi and Dalit communities opposing the mines, are being harassed and terrorized by the combined might of private corporations and state power. The arrests, prohibition order and night raids and attacks are disastrous for a community which is dependent on farming and on gathering firewood. As cultivators and wage workers, the prohibition order is a direct attack on local people’s work related and everyday needs. The refusal in granting bail not only shows the nature of a pliant judiciary but also shows how a struggle is criminalized, along with devastation of lives and livelihood.
PUDR demands:
- Immediate release of the villagers of Talaampadar.
- Immediate release of Lingaraj Azad and Suresh Sangram.
- Immediate end to attacks on villagers through criminalization and terror.
- Immediate withdrawal of the 3 April prohibitory order for the construction of the approach road to the mining area.
- Action against police personnel responsible for the illegal raids, violence, destruction and arbitrary arrests.
Deepika Tandon and Shahana Bhattacharya
Secretaries, People’s Union for democratic Rights (PUDR)
