Mass tribal worship to save sacred mountain from mining

WHEN/WHERE: 16 March 2008, Ijirupa, Niyamgiri mountain, Kalahandi district, Orissa

WHAT: Khond Adivasis from 300 remote villages in Kalahandi and Rayagada districts of Orissa come together for a mass pooja at Niyamgiri mountain. This special event is being organised by three Khond tribes to draw the world’s attention to an unprecedented threat to their culture, beliefs and place of worship. The Supreme Court is poised to decide on clearance for bauxite mining on the summit, the Kondh’s most sacred site.

Each year, hundreds of small ceremonies are held around Niyamgiri to give thanks to ‘Niyam Raja’ the Kondh’s supreme deity; clusters of villages come together with their jani disari/ bhejen (male/female priest) to make offerings of rice, chicken, pigeon, or a male goat, or seasonal fruit and flowers such as banana. This year, on March 16, all village clusters will join together for the first ever ‘mass worship’ at Niyamgiri.

WHO: Representatives from tribal groups across Orissa and India have been invited by local Kondh’s for a meal and music after the pooja. Activists and academics, advocates and anthropologists will join to express solidarity with the Khond in their bid to protect Niyamgiri..

WHY: Just as it is unthinkable to shift Babri Masjid or Jagannath Temple of Puri, or to substitute the Temple Mount, Al-Aqsa Mosque or Church of Saint Sepulchar, the sacred sites of India’s indigenous people cannot be moved or replaced. Niyamgiri is as integral to Kondh religion as any place of worship is to other religions, a point they are desperate for the world to recognise.

The Supreme Court of India, after a case lasting over three years, is set to decide on clearance to Sterlite (a subsidiary of Vedanta plc, UK-registered FTSE-100 company) to mine bauxite from Niyamgiri based on the recommendation of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, and the Government of Orissa. For the Kondh, mining this mountain would be a sacrilege that no financial package can compensate.

Campaigners for Judicial Accountability and Judicial Review say two pillars of the Constitution are also at stake:

“If mining is permitted in Niyamgiri, two of India’s strongest Constitutional guarantees will be overturned: the right of a ‘primitive tribal group’ to their territorial integrity and to decide on their own path of development (Schedule V of the Indian Constitution); and the right to religious practices and beliefs (Article 25),” says Prashant Bhushan, advocate, Supreme Court and part of the Campaign.

The forest which Kondh religion has conserved (covering 670-hectares known as Niyam Dongar) is one of Orissa's last core areas of unspoilt forest. With a religion rooted in nature, the Kondhs understand better than any scientist that the mountain is the source of their life, and that if the sacred summit area they have protected is deforested and mined, their perennial streams will gradually dry up.

Phulme Majhi, 25, says: “For us it is a matter of life or death. Niyam Raja is under threat and with it our land, livelihood and way of life.”

NOTES TO EDITOR:

A petition by Campaign for Judicial Accountability and Reforms, highlighting the concerns for the tribals in Orissa, has been sent to Prime Minister of India and Chairperson of ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA)