Odisha: Are Gandhamardan Hills on Miners’ Target Again?

The hills, it is said, are the repository of life, an ocean of things that can be related to the lives of living beings. Any attempt to disrupt the flora, aquifers and even fauna is, therefore, suicidal.

Odisha is rich with many such hills, stretching from Megashan hills to Gandhamardan, which are also a great warehouse of medicinal plants.

Epics say that it was in the Gandhamardan hills from where Lord Hanuman searched for the Sanjeevani that could cure Laxman from the deadly wound inflicted by a weapon fired by Indrajit (Meghnad).

This could be a myth, but it is undeniable that conservation of ecology and development is intimately intertwined, according to some social scientists.  However, the race for development and industrialisation is redefining the sanctity of both.

Mining has become one of the monsters as hills are being robbed off forests and are being blasted to unearth the minerals.

What is disturbing is the out of proportion mining activity visible in Odisha’s Gandhamardan hill range, the latest target.

Besides being the beauty of Odisha, these hills play the role of external pace-makers for the sustenance of lives of humans, wild animals and an immense reserve of plants and aquifers.

Located at a height of 12,000 meters above sea level and 700 meters from the land, the Gandharmardan hill range is in fact the fortress for both Bolangir and Bargarh districts.

The hill range has over 240 types of life-saving medicinal plants and about 500 kinds of trees that possess healing properties.

Gandhamardan is not only a destination for local Ayurvedic practitioners but also those from across the country, who come here in search of the wonderful fauna.

The abundance of medicinal plants and trees has led to the  state government establishing an Ayurveda university, known as Shri Shri Nrushinganath Ayurveda University.

“Earlier, there was a college named Parimal Giri that was a knowledge hub for hundreds of students of Ayurveda”, Dr P K Sahu, a professor and Ayurveda scholar, told this writer.

This finds mention in a book by the Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang, also known as Zuangzang, a Buddhist monk, scholar during 7th century AD who had spent time in Gandhamardan hills, added Sahu.

The Twist

In 1980, the Geological Survey of India (GSI) and Odisha’s Director of Mines and Minerals (ODMM) found that an area over seven km on this hill had rich reserves of bauxite spread over 735 hectares. Soon, the area became the target of mining operators from Odisha and India.

The floodgates for miners were opened with each trying to convince the departments concerned to give them a slice of the pie. Successive governments, too, forgot about the ecological empire of Gandhamardan hills and handed over a sizable mining area to Bharat Aluminium Company (BALCO) for the required exploitation.

At the same time, a revolt by people raised its head, demanding immediate halt to the mining operation by BALCO.

The Gandhamardan hills are estimated to hold 104.78 million tonnes of bauxite reserves, surpassing the 72 million tonnes in the Niyamgiri hills.

But governments failed to resist the lure from several national and international mining operators. As a result, the Gandhamardan bauxite areas were found honey-combed through mining leases.

It remains to be seen how the present political dispensation will handle the row between miners and people. Lately, news is doing the rounds in the administrative circles that plans are allegedly afoot to sell some areas in the foothills to the Adani Group, although there is no official confirmation on any such deal yet.

There is already an ongoing movement by the Gandhamardan Surakhsa Samiti not to allow any such deal with the company.

They fear that once any such deal with any company gets through, the hill range would lose the immense reserves of nature, flora and fauna and about 22 perennial natural streams. Above all, the virtual guardians of the hill range, the tribes and others, would vanish soon. 

The Opposition parties -- Congress and Biju Janata Dal-- have also alleged a deal in the pipeline with the Adani Group to give land rich with minerals in Gandhamardan hills. However, the Bharatiya Janata Party government in Odisha has, so far, denied the charges, although not so assertively.   

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Odisha.