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

 

Search the Site

Google Custom Search

Website Links

Links to reports and papers on Environmental Issues in Orissa
Mining and Industrialisation Updates, Orissa
Objections and petitions filed on Environmental Grounds
Niyamgiri Bachao
Link to Other Sites and Information

Links to reports and papers on Environmental Issues in Orissa

  1. New: Inspection Report of Vedanta's Alumina Refinery by Orissa Pollution Control Board
  2. 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’.
  3. New: CSE comments of MoEF's Draft Environmental Impact Assessment notifications
  4. Proceedings of the Public Hearings of Vedanta's proposed expansion of Lanjigarh Alumina Refinery
  5. Objection filed for the Public Hearing of the proposed expansion of Vedanta's Lanjigarh Alumina Refinery
  6. Orissa State Pollution Control Board report on Paradeep Phosephate Ltd. confirming largescale environmental pollution
  7. Map of Keonjhar Mining Lease Area 
  8. Note on Environmental Impact of Industrialisation on Sambalpur-Jharsuguda region by State Pollution Control Board, Orissa
  9. Submission to the Special Rapporteur on Doganria Kondhs by Survival International
  10. Biodiversity of Niyamgiri hill range, Orissa by Chiranjibi Pattanaik and C. Sudhakar Reddy
  11. World Bank report on Mining in Keonjhar District " Mine over Matter"
  12. 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
  13. Google Earth Map showing POSCO area (for those who have Google Earth, download the file and click it to open google earth)
  14. Satellite map interpretation showing pan naraj in area proposed to be handed over to POSCO
  15. Blacklisted Vedanta- Read the Recommendations of the Council of Ethics-The Government Pension Fund, Government of Norway
  16. Undermining Development: Copper Mining in Zambia (by Vedanta) -By ACTSA, Christian Aid and SCIAF
  17. Petition countering MoEF's "Note on Bauxite Mining in Orissa" submitted to the Supreme Court
  18. 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
  19. Environmental Clearance, a farce played by MoEF-The Vedanta Case by Rahul Choudhary in Radical Notes
  20. Knocked out by Bauxite: An article on Niaymgiri in Tehelaka.com
  21. Lessons of Empire: India, 60 Years After Independence by Nick Robins and Pratap Chatterjee, CorpWatch
  22. Orissa: Throttled Dissent, Overstepped Laws, Displaced Peoples by Saswat Pattanayak
  23. Center for Science and Environment (CSE's) Presentation on Mining
  24. Vedanta Cares? Busting the Myths about Vedanta's operation in Lanjigarh, India - A report by Action Aid International
  25. The World's Worst Polluted Places by Blacksmith Institute (Includes Sukinda, Orissa)
  26. Greenpeace: Biodiversity assessment of Dhamra Port
  27. Unique limbless Lizard new to science found in Khandhadhar Hill Sundargarh District, Orissa (Proposed mining site for POSCO)
  28. Keonjhar: Mining Lease Map (2.4 Mb jpg file)
  29. "Utkal Bauxite and Alumina Project- Human Rights and Environmental Impacts" By Robert Goodland uploaded at  www.business-humanrights.org
  30. State of Environment, Orissa, 2006: By Orissa Pollution Control Board
  31. Orissa Assembly's House Committee Report on UAIL 
  32. CSE's comments on the Environmental Impact Assessment of UAIL
  33. OSPCB letter to Utkal Alumina
  34. Mine? What Mine? Ah, Yes, the mine. Article by Kanchi Kohli on Vedanta and Niyamgiri
  35. Chronicle of a Struggle – the Kashipur anti-mining movement: By Achyut Das and Vidya Das
  36. Status Paper on Mining Leases in Orissa
  37. Vedanta’s Aluminum refinery project and Bauxite mining project on Niyamgiri:  Environmental and Social Costs  vis-s-vis  benefits to Orissa and its people
  38. 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
  39. Fact Finding Report on NALCO by Himanshu Shekhar and Aruna Murthy
  40. STUDY ON IMPACT OF PROPOSED LANJIGARH BAUXITE MINING ON BIODIVERSITY INCLUDING WILDLIFE AND ITS HABITAT by  Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun
  41. Ecological Debt: A Case Study from Orissa, India: By Sanjay Khatua and William Stanley
  42. Procedure for Public Hearings for industrial and other projects requiring environmental Clearance as per Environment Protection Act, 1986
  43.  "Oriya version" of the Procedure for Public Hearing for Environmental Clearance
  44. Supreme Court Monitoring Committee on Hazardous Material: Report on visit to Orissa 
  45. Environment Impact Assessment Process in India and its drawbacks: A report by Himanshu Patra and Aruna Murthy 
  46. EPGOrissa Release :Bhushan Steel destroys community protected forests illegally in Sambalpur (pdf 1mb) 
  47. Utkal Mining and Alumina Refinery Project:  Environment related clearances and their implementation : Note by  Manju Menon of Kalpavriskha
  48. Climate Change in Orissa: Down to Earth
  49. ANTHROPOLOGY OF A GENOCIDE:TRIBAL MOVEMENTS IN CENTRAL INDIA AGAINST OVER-INDUSTRIALISATION: By Felix Padel and Samarendra Das   
  50. Niyamgiri Calling (article by an anonymous author) posted on minesandcommunities.org
  51. Lanjigarh Redux: Vedanta starts construction of its Smelter Plant at Jharsuguda without Environmental and Forest Clearance 
  52. "Puruna Durniti Bhalla" - Oriya Tranalsation of  Down to Earth Editorial by Sunita Narain (Translated by Himanshu Patra and Y Giri Rao) 
  53. Brief Report on Niyamgiri Hill in context of proposed mining by Vedanta: A report by EPGOrissa 
  54. Double death: Aluminium's links with Genocide - An article by Felix Padel and Samarendra Das  
  55. Dispossessed and displaced: A brief paper on tribal issues in Orissa - Paper by Kundan Kumar
  56. Behind the Shining: Aluminium's Dark Side: An IPS/TEEN/TNI Report
  57. 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
  58. Weblog EPGOrissa
  59. 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

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

Mining and Industrialisation Update September-October, 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.

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.
  1. Appeal to the Supreme Court of India to protect Niyamgiri by Friends of Earth, Finland
  2. Appeal to the SC by Kalpavrisksh to protect Niyamgiri
  3. The Latest Judgement of the Supreme Court on Niyamgiri on Nov 23rd
  4. Blacklisted Vedanta- Read the Recommendations of the Council of Ethics-The Government Pension Fund, Government of Norway
  5. Undermining Development: Copper Mining in Zambia (by Vedanta) -By ACTSA, Christian Aid and SCIAF
  6. CEC Report submitted to Supreme Court
  7. MoEF Report on Impact of Bauxite Mining submitted to Supreme Court
  8. Counter to MoEF Report Submitted to the Supreme Court by Petitioner Sidharth Nayak
  9. Brief Report on Niyamgiri by EPGOrissa
  10. TEARS OF NIYAMGIRI (Niyamgiri ke aanshu) -by Dard Hindustani

Youtube uploads on Niyamgiri, Vedanta and Dongarias


Link to Other Sites and Information

Links to Other Sites 

  1. Sanhati- Fighting Neoliberalism in Bengal
  2. Greenpeace India
  3. Kashipur Ki Awaaz http://geocities.com/kashipurkiawaaz
  4. Mines and Communities http://www.minesandcommunities.org
  5. Orissa State Pollution Control Board
  6. Kashipur Solidarity http://kashipursolidarity.tripod.com
  7. ANCANTINDIA http://www.alcantinindia.org
  8. http://www.saanet.org/kashipur
  9. Chattisgarh Net
  10. Website of Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Corporation ltd.
  11. Government of Orissa Policy Documents http://orissagov.nic.in/policy/plan.htm
  12. Orissa Reference Annual http://orissagov.nic.in/e-magazine/orissaannualreference/ORA-2005/ORA-2005.htm
  13. Orissa mora, Khani Mora  http://odishamines.blogspot.com/
  14. http://www.youtube.com/niyamgiri

Contact

epgorissa@gmail.com

Mining and Industrialisation Updates, Orissa

Submissions to Orissa State Pollution Control Board

Niyamgiri and Vedanta

Kashipur

POSCO

Kalinganagar

Vedanta Smelter

Iron ore Mining

Bauxite Mining

Coal Mining



Photographs Album




Recent Photos

   

Recent Videos