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.
On 28 March 2022, Adivasi (tribal) protesters were arrested and jailed in the Sundergarh district of the state of Odisha in eastern India for obstructing construction work on a railway line that is intended to carry coal mined by Adani in Australia to an Adani coal power station in India.
In January 2020, Indian news media reported that a cloud of uncertainty hung over the future of Adani’s power project at Godda. Provincial elections had just been held and a new government had been elected in the state of Jharkhand. Spokespeople for the new government were quoted saying that they would take a fresh look at the approval for Adani’s power station because of the controversial confiscation of farmers’ lands.
Recently, the Adani group unveiled a cross-cultural art installation titled ‘Gondwana’ – a work by Gond adivasi and Warlpiri indigenous artists from India and Australia at its Ahmedabad headquarters. Is this a bid to whitewash the damage being inflicted on adivasis in Chhattisgarh and indigenous peoples in Australia?
