Environmental Protection Group, Orissa
Citizens for Environmental Protection
What is EPGOrissa?
Environment Protection Group, Orissa, is an informal forum, where a number of Indian citizens have joined together with an aim to safeguard the state’s rich biological diversity, its environment, its people, its economy and culture of various ethnic groups from the clutches of existing development paradigm based on extractive mining and industrialization. EPGOrissa is a non-funded group which is run through members contributions, mainly through voluntary work.
EPGOrissa Blog
Effort at a running commentary on the state of affairs (environmental and others) in the state of Orissa. It also provides links to new additions and updates in the epgorissa website.
Latest Video
A poignant and beautiful song which captures the essence of people's movements for their rights, livelihoods, dignity and environment
The World Environment Foundation (London) was set to hand over the Golden Peacock Award for Best Environmental Management to Vedanta Alumina Ltd. Unfortunately for Vedanta, the Greenwash party was protested by activists which has led to the award being postponed
Links to reports and papers on Environmental Issues in Orissa
- Inspection Report (with photos) of M/s Vedanta Aluminum Lt. Jharsuguda, 02.07.09 showing high level pollution.
- Inspection Report of M/S Vedanta Aluminium Ltd., Bhurkamunda, Jharsuguda, 19.06.09 (Detail Report by OSPCB)
- Inspection Report of M/S Vedanta Aluminium Ltd., Bhurkamunda, Jharsuguda, 12.06.09 (Report of OSPCB showing flouride pollution)
- Inspection Repoty of Vedanta's Alumina Refinery in November 2008 (Detailed Report by OSPCB)
- Inspection Report of Vedanta's Alumina Refinery in November 2007 (Detailed Report by Orissa Pollution Control Board)
- New: Inspection Report of Vedanta's Alumina Refinery by Orissa Pollution Control Board
- New: CSE's comments on the secret ‘Report of Expert Group constituted in Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) on the system of statutory clearances for Industrial Infrastructural Projects’.
- New: CSE comments of MoEF's Draft Environmental Impact Assessment notifications
- Proceedings of the Public Hearings of Vedanta's proposed expansion of Lanjigarh Alumina Refinery
- Objection filed for the Public Hearing of the proposed expansion of Vedanta's Lanjigarh Alumina Refinery
- Orissa State Pollution Control Board report on Paradeep Phosephate Ltd. confirming largescale environmental pollution
- Map of Keonjhar Mining Lease Area
- Note on Environmental Impact of Industrialisation on Sambalpur-Jharsuguda region by State Pollution Control Board, Orissa
- Submission to the Special Rapporteur on Doganria Kondhs by Survival International
- Biodiversity of Niyamgiri hill range, Orissa by Chiranjibi Pattanaik and C. Sudhakar Reddy
- World Bank report on Mining in Keonjhar District " Mine over Matter"
- Striking While the Iron is Hot: A Case Study of the Pohang Steel Company's (POSCO's) Proposed Project in Orissa, India by Manshi Asher, NCAS, Pune
- Google Earth Map showing POSCO area (for those who have Google Earth, download the file and click it to open google earth)
- Satellite map interpretation showing pan naraj in area proposed to be handed over to POSCO
- Blacklisted Vedanta- Read the Recommendations of the Council of Ethics-The Government Pension Fund, Government of Norway
- Undermining Development: Copper Mining in Zambia (by Vedanta) -By ACTSA, Christian Aid and SCIAF
- Petition countering MoEF's "Note on Bauxite Mining in Orissa" submitted to the Supreme Court
- MoEF's "Note on Bauxite Mining in Orissa: Report on Flora, Fauna, and impact on Tribal population" submitted to the Supreme Court in the Vedanta Case
- Environmental Clearance, a farce played by MoEF-The Vedanta Case by Rahul Choudhary in Radical Notes
- Knocked out by Bauxite: An article on Niaymgiri in Tehelaka.com
- Lessons of Empire: India, 60 Years After Independence ,
- Orissa: Throttled Dissent, Overstepped Laws, Displaced Peoples by Saswat Pattanayak
- Center for Science and Environment (CSE's) Presentation on Mining
- Vedanta Cares? Busting the Myths about Vedanta's operation in Lanjigarh, India - A report by Action Aid International
- The World's Worst Polluted Places by Blacksmith Institute (Includes Sukinda, Orissa)
- Greenpeace: Biodiversity assessment of Dhamra Port
- Unique limbless Lizard new to science found in Khandhadhar Hill Sundargarh District, Orissa (Proposed mining site for POSCO)
- Keonjhar: Mining Lease Map (2.4 Mb jpg file)
- "Utkal Bauxite and Alumina Project- Human Rights and Environmental Impacts" By Robert Goodland uploaded at www.business-humanrights.org
- State of Environment, Orissa, 2006: By Orissa Pollution Control Board
- Orissa Assembly's House Committee Report on UAIL
- CSE's comments on the Environmental Impact Assessment of UAIL
- OSPCB letter to Utkal Alumina
- Mine? What Mine? Ah, Yes, the mine. Article by Kanchi Kohli on Vedanta and Niyamgiri
- Chronicle of a Struggle – the Kashipur anti-mining movement: By Achyut Das and Vidya Das
- Status Paper on Mining Leases in Orissa
- Vedanta’s Aluminum refinery project and Bauxite mining project on Niyamgiri: Environmental and Social Costs vis-s-vis benefits to Orissa and its people
- Ecological, Socio-economic and Health Impact Assessment of Coal Mining: A Case Study of Talabira Coal Mines in Orissa by H. Sekhar and A. Murthy
- Fact Finding Report on NALCO by Himanshu Shekhar and Aruna Murthy
- STUDY ON IMPACT OF PROPOSED LANJIGARH BAUXITE MINING ON BIODIVERSITY INCLUDING WILDLIFE AND ITS HABITAT by Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun
- Ecological Debt: A Case Study from Orissa, India: By Sanjay Khatua and William Stanley
- Procedure for Public Hearings for industrial and other projects requiring environmental Clearance as per Environment Protection Act, 1986
- "Oriya version" of the Procedure for Public Hearing for Environmental Clearance
- Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Material: Report on visit to Orissa
- Environment Impact Assessment Process in India and its drawbacks: A report by Himanshu Patra and Aruna Murthy
- EPGOrissa Release :Bhushan Steel destroys community protected forests illegally in Sambalpur (pdf 1mb)
- Utkal Mining and Alumina Refinery Project: Environment related clearances and their implementation : Note by Manju Menon of Kalpavriskha
- Climate Change in Orissa: Down to Earth
- ANTHROPOLOGY OF A GENOCIDE:TRIBAL MOVEMENTS IN CENTRAL INDIA AGAINST OVER-INDUSTRIALISATION: By Felix Padel and Samarendra Das
- Niyamgiri Calling (article by an anonymous author) posted on minesandcommunities.org
- Lanjigarh Redux: Vedanta starts construction of its Smelter Plant at Jharsuguda without Environmental and Forest Clearance
- "Puruna Durniti Bhalla" - Oriya Tranalsation of Down to Earth Editorial by Sunita Narain (Translated by Himanshu Patra and Y Giri Rao)
- Brief Report on Niyamgiri Hill in context of proposed mining by Vedanta: A report by EPGOrissa
- Double death: Aluminium's links with Genocide - An article by Felix Padel and Samarendra Das
- Dispossessed and displaced: A brief paper on tribal issues in Orissa - Paper by Kundan Kumar
- Behind the Shining: Aluminium's Dark Side: An IPS/TEEN/TNI Report
- Applications to Orissa Pollution Control Board for Public Hearings for various proposed industrial and mining projects: Vedanta Aluminium Smelter, Iron ore mines in Keonjhar and Sundargarh districts, Coal mines in Angul and Jharsuguda Districts
- Weblog EPGOrissa
- Orissa Industrial Policy, 2001
Mining and Industrialisation Updates, Orissa
One of our most important initiatives is to publish the "Mining and Industrialisation Updates, Orissa", a bi-monthly newsletter. The major content of the Updates are selected news items about mining and industry, data on environmental and forest clearance, Letters for environmental and forest clearances issues by the Ministry of Environmentand Forests, data on mining leases and land acquisitions etc. Please go to M & I Updates to download the latest edition of the newsletter
New: Mining update August-September 09
Mining and Industrialisation Update, July 2009
Mining and Industrialisation Update, June 2009
Mining and Industrialisation Update, May 2009
Mining and Industrialisation update, March-April 2009
Mining and Industrialisation Update, February 2009
Mining and Industrialisation Update, January 2009
Mining and Industrialisation Update February, 2008
Mining and Industrialisation update January, 2008
Mining and Industrialisation update December, 2007
Mining and Industrialization Update No 15, March, 2007
Mining and Industrialization update No 14, February, 2007
Mining and Industrialization update No 13, January, 2007
Mining and Industrialization Update No 12, December, 2006
Mining and Industrialization Update No 11, November, 2006
Mining and Industrialisation Update No 10, October, 2006
Mining and Industrialisation Update No 9, September, 2006
Mining and Industrialisation Update No 8, August, 2006
Mining and Industrialisation Update no 7, July 2006
Mining and Industrialisation Update No 6, June, 2006
Mining and Industrialisation Update No 5, May, 2006
Mining and Industrialisation Update No 4, March-April, 2006
Mining and Industrialisation Update No 3, January- February, 2006
Mining and Industrialisation Update No. 2, November-December, 2005
Objections and petitions filed on Environmental Grounds
The Environmental and conservation Governance system in India is based on a number of laws including Environmental Protection Act, 1972, Forest Conservation Act, 1980, Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 etc. One of the provisions of EPA, 1972, provides for a public hearing before a project is provided environmental clearance. Surprisingly, in a democracy, this is the only process which affords a hearing to citizens before any project with its attendant environmental and livelihood costs is imposed on them. Even this aspect has been given a go by using the loopholes in the Guidelines for environmental clarance which allows the project proponent to carry out an Environmentat Impact Assessment of its project and submitting the same to the regulatory authorities i.e. the Pollution Control Boards and the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Govt. Of India.
The ability of the corporate sector to "influence" the regulators has led to a major breakdown in the environmental clearance systems in Orissa, with shoddy EIAs being prepared by consultants and being approved by the regulators. To create accountability of the regulators and project proponents in this process, activists from Orissa have taken it upon themselves to examine the EIAs prepared by project proponents and prepare valid objections on environmental grounds to be submitted during the public hearings. The examination of the EIAs have brought out the shocking nature of sensitive environmental and conservation costs which are ignored and suppressed, allowing projects with grim environmental and conservation costs to be passed.
The ability of the corporate sector to "influence" the regulators has led to a major breakdown in the environmental clearance systems in Orissa, with shoddy EIAs being prepared by consultants and being approved by the regulators. To create accountability of the regulators and project proponents in this process, activists from Orissa have taken it upon themselves to examine the EIAs prepared by project proponents and prepare valid objections on environmental grounds to be submitted during the public hearings. The examination of the EIAs have brought out the shocking nature of sensitive environmental and conservation costs which are ignored and suppressed, allowing projects with grim environmental and conservation costs to be passed.
- New: Objection to the public consultation meeting for Establishment of Proposed Open Cast Coal Project of Tata Sponge Iron Ltd at Radhikapur, Chhendipada, Angul
- Critique of the EIA of the TATA Power's Naraj 1000 MW coal based power plant
- Petition submitted to the Orissa State Pollution Board on the environmental clearance hearing for Tata Power's Naraj 1000 MW coal based power Plant
- Petition submitted to the National Environment Appellate Authority against faulty environmental clearance granted for expansion of Bhushan Steel Factory in Sambalpur
- Petition submitted to National Environment Appellate Authority against environmental clearance granted to Orissa Sponge Iron Ltd. mine in Khandadhar area of Keonjhar District
- Petition submitted to the Orissa Pollution Control Board requesting them to cancel the Public Hearing for POSCO project in Jagatsinghpur
- UAIL's Baphalimali mine public hearing at Udri, Kalahandi, on 29th January, 2007 - Critique of the EIA submitted by Kalahandi Zilla Nagarik Sanchetana Manch
- NEW: Petition Submitted by P. Samantra to OPSCB providing environmental critique of the UAIL refinery
- NEW:Petition submitted to OSPCB for the Public hearing of Utkal Alumina Industries ltd.(UAIL) Alumina refinery on 17th Oct, 2006 protesting its illegality
- NEW: Petition submitted to Orissa State Pollution Control Board for Public Hearing for setting up of Steel Factory by M/S SPS Steel and Power Limited at Kukurjanga, Jharsuguda District
- NEW: Petition Submitted to OSPCB for Public Hearing (23rd August, 2006), of M/S Rungta Iron and Bauxite Mines at Sanindpur, Koida, Sundergarh
- NEW: Petition submitted to OSPCB for the Public Hearing of Expansion of the Sponge Iron Plant of Neepaz Metallics at Chandi-Haripur, Sundergarh District
- Objection to Proposed expansion of Steel Plant of Jindal Stainless Limited at Duburi, Kalinganagar
- Objection to Expansion of Steel Plant of Bhushan Steel at Rengali Sambalpur
- Objection to Mahulsukha Manganese Ore Mines, Bhutuda for public hearing held in January,2006
- Objection to proposed Iron ore mining near Malangtoli for Nilanchal Ispat
- Objection to the proposed Iron Ore mining in the Malangtoli Massif by Orissa Sponge Iron Ltd.
- Objection to the proposed Putulipani Iron Ore Mines in Keonjhar District by M/s Gandhamardan Sponge Iron Ltd.
- Objection to proposed Utkal D-Block Coal Mine of OMC at Talcher Coalfields, Angul District
- Objection to proposed increase in capacity of Talabira Coal Mines,Sambalpur
- Objection to proposed Aluminium Smelter of Vedanta Alumina Ltd. in Jharsuguda district
Niyamgiri Bachao
The Supreme Court in its Judgement on 23rd Nov, 2007, banned Vedanta from mining Niyamgiri, but destroyed the hopes of the environmentalists and tribals of getting justice by allowing, in principle, Vedanta's sister concern Sterlite India Ltd. to mine Niyamgiri. Thus the Court refused to place the environmental sanctity of Niyamgiri above the profits of corporate sector, and accepted the spurious arguments made by Vedanta and State Government that mining will lead to tribal development. This ignores the strong recommendations of SC's own Central Empowerd Committee of not mining Niyamgiri in any case as well as flies in the face of all evidence that mining in schedule V tribal areas lead to impoverishment and social and cultural destruction. However, thousands of Dongaria Kondh's and othe tribals from Niyamgiri have taken the oath that the Niyamgiri will be mined only over their dead bodies - so the battle to save Niyamgiri has now completely shifted to the political and social arena, away from the false hope from a pro-corporate judiciary.
- Appeal to the Supreme Court of India to protect Niyamgiri by Friends of Earth, Finland
- Appeal to the SC by Kalpavrisksh to protect Niyamgiri
- The Latest Judgement of the Supreme Court on Niyamgiri on Nov 23rd
- Blacklisted Vedanta- Read the Recommendations of the Council of Ethics-The Government Pension Fund, Government of Norway
- Undermining Development: Copper Mining in Zambia (by Vedanta) -By ACTSA, Christian Aid and SCIAF
- CEC Report submitted to Supreme Court
- MoEF Report on Impact of Bauxite Mining submitted to Supreme Court
- Counter to MoEF Report Submitted to the Supreme Court by Petitioner Sidharth Nayak
- Brief Report on Niyamgiri by EPGOrissa
- TEARS OF NIYAMGIRI (Niyamgiri ke aanshu) -by Dard Hindustani
Youtube uploads on Niyamgiri, Vedanta and Dongarias
- Niyamgiri: The Mountain of Law (preview): A documentary by Surya Dash
- Vedanta in Orissa
- ActionAid supports the rights of Niyamgiri Mountain people
- Dongria Kondhs
- New :Mine - The Story of a Sacred Mountain: Survival International Film Trailer on Niyamgiri
Link to Other Sites and Information
Links to Other Sites
- Sanhati- Fighting Neoliberalism in Bengal
- Greenpeace India
- Kashipur Ki Awaaz http://geocities.com/kashipurkiawaaz
- Mines and Communities http://www.minesandcommunities.org
- Orissa State Pollution Control Board
- Kashipur Solidarity http://kashipursolidarity.tripod.com
- ANCANTINDIA http://www.alcantinindia.org
- http://www.saanet.org/kashipur
- Chattisgarh Net
- Website of Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Corporation ltd.
- Government of Orissa Policy Documents http://orissagov.nic.in/policy/plan.htm
- Orissa Reference Annual http://orissagov.nic.in/e-magazine/orissaannualreference/ORA-2005/ORA-2005.htm
- Orissa mora, Khani Mora http://odishamines.blogspot.com/
- http://www.youtube.com/niyamgiri
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