Indigenous rights

Adani Watch, News

Rahul Gandhi’s election pledge to support struggle against Adani’s Hasdeo coal projects

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The campaign to protect India’s Hasdeo forests from coal mining received a boost on 13 February 2024 when prominent Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi, met with leaders of the movement and pledged the support of his party. The indigenous tribal people of the biodiverse Hasdeo forests have been struggling gamely to protect their ancestral homeland from a string of coal projects being developed by the Adani Group. A change of state government in December had disastrous consequences, with dozens of campaigners detained by police while a swathe of forest was felled.

Adani Watch, News

Rahul Gandhi in the thick of a three-government stoush over Adani’s Hasdeo coal projects

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Adani’s plans for huge new coal mines in India’s Hasdeo forests have created a political stoush involving three governments. One state government has asked the national government to revoke mining permits. Another wants the coal. And the national government says the decision to destroy the forests has already been made. In the midst of all this is Rahul Gandhi, one of India’s most prominent politicians.

Adani Watch, News

Violation of rights prompts secession move

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In the eastern Indian state of Odisha, a struggle by tribal people against displacement by a railway that will carry Adani’s Carmichael coal to its power station at Godda has exposed the violation of rights conferred when India became an independent nation. This story describes how this controversy has its roots in an old Indian fault-line between territories governed by the British Empire, and ‘princely states’ – territories governed in colonial times by native Indian rulers. The violation of indigenous rights enshrined at independence in 1947 has prompted leaders to call for a secession of a former princely state from the state of Odisha.

Adani Watch, News

Retired schoolteacher takes Adani to court over land grab at Godda

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Chintamani Sahu, 72, is spearheading a legal challenge to the Adani Group’s massive coal-power station at Godda. Having refused to surrender the land on which his ashram stands, he has led a group of refuseniks to file a case at the state’s High Court. They argue that the acquisition of land for the project was illegally carried out. Today, as the power plant’s skeleton hulks over his ashram, and the government stalls the case, Sahu is undeterred.

Adani Watch, News

Victims of Adani land grab lead their people’s struggle against Godda power plant

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For over four years, a brave family has refused to hand over their land to Adani’s coal-power project at Godda in north-eastern India. The power plant is the intended destination for Adani’s Carmichael coal. In 2018, Sita Murmu fell at the feet of Adani officials as crops on her land were bulldozed. Last month, she and her family addressed a tribal convention near the construction site, inspiring a struggle to protect indigenous rights in the region. They remain impervious to official threats and enticements to surrender their ancestral lands to the colossal power plant.

Adani Watch, News

Big breakthrough for Hasdeo tribal people as three Adani coal mines put ‘on hold’

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Defenders of India’s Hasdeo forests enjoyed a huge breakthrough last week, when the relevant state government said it was suspending works on three Adani coal-mining projects. The decision was made following dissent against the mining by a high-profile member of the ruling Congress party in the state of Chhattisgarh. Adivasi (tribal) people have strenuously opposed the coal mines because of the threats to their ancestral lands and way of life. They have called for the stay on the mines to be made permanent.

Adani Watch, News

Odisha authorities under pressure to ‘snuff out’ tribal protests against rail expansion for Adani coal

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Odisha authorities told to ‘snuff out’ tribal protests against rail expansion for coal from Adani’s Carmichael mine. In March, police in the eastern Indian state of Odisha cracked down heavily on a protest by Adivasi (tribal) people being displaced by a railway expansion. It is the second time in 70 years that this community has been uprooted without adequate compensation.

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