Odisha has witnessed over seven decades of popular resistance against coercive land acquisition and the depletion of its natural resources. These have been some hallmarks of state policy under all post-Independence state governments, whether led by the Congress or the Biju Janata Dal, and now the Bharatiya Janata Party. The slogan that resonates most prominently in mass rallies today across the state is the denunciation of the ‘double-engine’ government, referring to the BJP-led governments at both the Union and the state. Recently, members and supporters of the parties of the INDIA bloc organised a successful Odisha Bandh on October 8 which saw the participation of the Congress, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, Forward Bloc, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar), Samajwadi Party and Rashtriya Janata Dal. Markets and public transport came to a full standstill almost up to 5 pm in some districts. The INDIA Bloc, comprising the CPI(M), CPI, CPI(ML)-Liberation, Forward Bloc, Congress, NCP (Sharad Pawar), Samajwadi Party, RJD and JMM, observed the Odisha Bandh with united protest marches across the state.In Bhubaneswar, INDIA Bloc leaders and activists marched from Master Canteen Square towards Lok Sabha Bhawan, demanding the ouster of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, withdrawal of SIR, necessary reforms in the Election Commission and electoral system, repeal of the MMDR (Amendment) Act, 2026, resignation of School and Mass Education Minister Nityananda Gond and accountability for textbook errors, and immediate and adequate relief for flood-affected areas. The protest march was stopped by the police, and hundreds of protesters were detained.— CPI (M) (@cpimspeak) October 8, 2026This is a striking development – the fact that the entire opposition to the BJP-led state government has seemingly united against the rampant perils of mining. In fact, the main demand of the October 8 mobilisation was for the withdrawal of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Amendment Act, 2026, as it is rightly feared that the amendments would undermine the state’s rights over its mineral resources and reduce the state’s revenue from mining. The other two issues were the resignation of the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and also the state school and mass education minister Nityananda Gond over the errors in school textbooks and its wide implications on education. Odisha Bandh 💥 https://t.co/F9KbLrXmZG— Odisha Congress (@INCOdisha) October 8, 2026Learning from the movements, the INDIA bloc also raised concerns about the protection of forests, water, land, Adivasi rights and the livelihoods of mine workers and local communities. Although it has been 20 years since the Forest Rights Act was enacted, the district administrations of most of Odisha have not taken any concrete steps towards implementing the FRA in these villages, and the new awareness in the opposition is, therefore, welcome. However, likely immune to the changing tides, the mining interests in Odisha are conducting business as usual. Conversations with locals and my own travels reveal that a countless number of sal and other trees have been felled on the hills of Sijimali that span over Raygada-Kalahandi districts. The police also continue to camp at Kantamal, a village that is one of the strongholds of people’s resistance to the proposed Sijimali bauxite mining project, draining the villagers of their autonomy and freedom of movement, and making arrests that make nationwide news.Also read: Randall Sequeira and Laxman Naik’s Arrests Among Several Meant to Clear the Way for Mining in Odisha, Say ActivistsWhat the locals sayNarengi Dei Majhi, a leading Adivasi activist from Sagabari village, went to the site where uprooted sal trees were lying in a heap. She was accompanied by other members of Ma Mati Mali Surakhya Manch, the platform spearheading the people’s resistance to the proposed Sijimali Bauxite Mining Project of Vedanta limited after the Memorandum of Understanding was signed in February 2023. The disputed project area straddles both Kashipur block in Raygada and Thuamul Rampur block in Kalahandi.Narengi Dei in front of the cut trees on October 8. Photo: By arrangement.Speaking to the author on October 9, the day after the Bandh, she said: “At least thirty tractors have left carrying sargi [sal] trees. We do not know if this is done by any government order or by the middlemen of the company. We are struggling to protect the land, the soil, the forests and the streams. I spent seven to eight months last year in the Rayagada Jail only to protect these hills and forests. Is protecting our land a crime? Or is cutting trees in an Adivasi region a crime? Who is the criminal?” Known as sargi in Odia, sal trees are sacred for the Adivasi community and thereby hold much cultural significance. Economically, their value lies in timber to be used for furniture or for construction. In adivasi lives, their significance goes well beyond its economic value. Sacred forest patches are protected as spaces for deities, spirits and ancestors; they embody sacred presence, are a part of collective memory, and an essential element of the forest ecology inextricably tied up with community life, beliefs and traditions.Sal forests have immense ecological significance as well. They store large amounts of carbon in their biomass and soils. Sal trees are slow-growing, and their durable, water-resistant wood decomposes slowly, allowing carbon to remain stored for longer. The layer of fallen leaves enriches the soil with organic matter, helps retain moisture and supports nutrient cycling. The dense canopy also moderates local temperatures, creating a cooler microclimate even during the peak of summer.As Narengi Dei asked, it remains a question as to who is behind the felling of trees, as there is no final forest clearance as yet. Vedanta Limited was granted Stage-I (in-principle) clearance in December 2025. Villagers are anxious as to whether trees are being cut by a third party as a provocation for the people’s movement. . There is also the larger question, who are the real allies of Adivasis protecting their land and forests. It is more pressing than ever before in this state where powerful institutions work in seamless collusion to meet targets of mining and industrialization. While it rallies for the withdrawal of the MMDR amendments, the INDIA bloc should also listen closely when the people demand active protection of their lands, deities, and livelihoods.The following two accounts – from Talaampadar and Kantamal – reveal hitherto unpublished details of the ongoing distress that people are enduring in this battle for survival.Murthi Majhi from Majhigaon summed up the issues while expressing the collective wisdom of the people when he addressed a large gathering in Kantamal recently. I paraphrase these sentiments in translation:“Although we had heard these stories since childhood, we never imagined that state police would march straight into common Adivasi villages to unleash brutal repression and terror. For the past three to four days, police personnel have come, set up camp, and taken over our land, claiming they are here to provide us ‘security.’“Our people go all the way to Kerala and Andhra Pradesh, sweating their blood out just to work as labourers, and they die silently in distant lands. Our people suffer such unimaginable crises, dying simply for a morsel of food, for basic clothes, or for a livelihood. When we cry out for justice, where are those netas, ministers, collectors, or the magistrate?“They have allied today only for mineral mines and corporate loot! To destroy the water, forest, land, fruits, and roots of Adivasis, Harijans, and Dalits, they have deployed legions of ruthless police forces to lockdown and “secure” Kantamal for exploitation.“Did we vote Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to power for this? For them to crush us? This tyranny is utterly despicable, and our hearts will never accept it! They have been living off public money like predatory animals, generation after generation. Just because they wear government uniforms or draw a salary of Rs 1 lakh tomorrow, do they think they can come here and intimidate us?We are children of this soil, people born of this earth. Can we ever abandon our mother? If our mother earth dies, we die with her! True, a biological mother gives birth to a person, feeds them lovingly for a year, a year and a half, or two years, and then lets them go. But where does that person grow up? On this very earth! “We are born from our parents’ wombs only for a few transient days; eventually, our parents age, pass away, and depart to the heavenly realms. But Mother Earth remains, holding us close, protecting us. She gives us water and wind, fruits and flowers, and feeds and clothes us – that is why we revere her as our true Mother.“Even if we perish, even if we lose our lives, we will never let them seize this opportunity to loot us. This is how they have continuously conspired to sell out our country.“If we show negligence and step backward now, they will keep terrorising us like this forever. There is no need to ever be afraid. Let death come if it must, but we will never bow down in fear.” IncarcerationsTalaampadar is in Thuamal Rampur block of Kalahandi district. On the night of March 10, a confrontation of villagers of Talaampadar with a pro-company villager escalated sharply. The police descended on the village in the middle of the night and picked up 21 Adivasi people, including 11 women. Most of the women secured bail after spending 44 days in jail. On June 10, the 10 men from Talaampadar secured bail at a lower court. They got the statutory default bail as the police had not yet filed the chargesheet within the statutory 90 days. During my visit to the village, locals narrated how these incarcerations affected their agricultural work, as well as their chances at getting daily wage work. Talaampadar was witnessing this kind of mass arrests and police presence for the first time. In March, drones were flying overhead and 20-25 Bolero cars were stationed around the village, especially from 9 am to 4 pm. Wage work vanished as fear took over. Locals did not want to step out. One of the villagers said that when the disari or village priest was also arrested, they were even more scared. “It was not only our families that suffered. The entire village was in deep shock. If we have land, we earn each day and feed our families, but there was too much fear to step outside because the FIR stated ’50 others’,” said Pushpa Majhi, who was arrested and secured bail. “Now the hearings have started in Bhawanipatna court but we cannot afford to travel to Bhawanipatna. If we hire a vehicle, it costs Rs 3,000 to Rs 4,000. Earlier, each household would contribute to the village fund, but now nobody has any money for their own families.” A migrant worker whose wife was arrested spoke to me requesting anonymity. “Today, our people are unable to attend court and unable to feed their families. Some men have left for Kerala to do wage work in order to feed their families. They did this at the risk of being arrested for not appearing in court. But what crime have we done that we have to pay money to attend court? These laws and courts are for rich people. They are doing this to intimidate us into silence,” he said.He said that while Adivasis are prepared to “die fighting” for their land, there are “middlemen and agents” who have won over a few families.Talaampadar villagers organised a Gram Sabha meeting on July 24 following the process mandated by the FRA, and formed a Forest Rights Committee. The committee will initiate the process of filing claims of individual forest rights, community forest rights and community forest resource rights. The Gram Sabha meeting also unanimously resolved that the proposed mining of Sijimali hills would be detrimental for the villages. It appointed representatives to convey the concerns of the villagers to the district administration and state administration, file petitions, and take any legal course of action on behalf of the villagers to save Sijimali from mining. Kantamal in disquietSix months ago, a brutal police crackdown took place on Kantamal village in Kashipur block of Raygada district. A large contingent of police and half-uniform men tear gassed Adivasis in the dead of the night using batons and knives, opened fire towards the morning, just before before leaving. The news that made headlines prompted an unprecedented outpouring of solidarity through protests, statements, marches and visits to Sijimali and wide coverage in the media. Mainstream parties like the Congress, BJD and even BJP visited the area. The National Youth Congress carried out a one-week march in May. However, there is a deep disquiet in the village today as the police have returned to camp there.Within two months of the police crackdown, villagers here too organised a Gram Sabha on July 8. They formed a Forest Rights Committee for Kantamal with the consent of all members present who resolved to get implemented individual forest rights, community forest rights and community forest resource rights under the Forest Rights Act. The meeting condemned the act of the company and the administration in allegedly forging the signatures and thumb impression of the villagers while preparing purportedly fake Gram Sabha reports in December 2023 and declared illegal the Gram Sabhas held under police coercion.Also read: Fabricated Consent, Coercion and Resistance: Odisha’s Sijimali Echoes the Niyamgiri ConflictRupa Majhi, a leading member of the Ma Mati Mali Surakhya Mancha, told this writer, “Our Gram Sabha meeting has made clear the legal rights of all villagers and the community and so our right over our lands, animals, streams, sacred groves and the sacred place of god Tij Raja. We only want to file our claims and that is why the police have been sent again.”The day-to-day negotiations of those belonging to Adivasi and Dalit communities in this region have become more precarious since September 10 with the arrest of Lada Sikaka, a leader of the Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti. Within a few hours of his arrest, the police moved into Kantamal.Dongria Kandha leader Lada Sikaka. Photo: By arrangement.An entire month has passed by since they occupied the community hall in the upper section of the village without the consent of the villagers, says Rupa Majhi. It is noteworthy that the occupation of the community hall by the police is in complete violation of all protective legislation accorded to those living in Schedule Five Areas and their autonomy and self-governance. In a Fifth Schedule Area, the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA) provides a framework for self-governance by Adivasi communities, while Article 244(1) of the Indian Constitution governs the administration of Scheduled Areas. These constitutional and statutory provisions recognise the importance of protecting tribal customs, cultural identity, community resources and traditional practices of decision-making. The community is also entitled to fundamental rights under the Constitution, particularly Article 19, which guarantees freedoms including the right to assemble peacefully, form associations and move freely, subject to constitutionally permitted restrictions, as well as Article 21, which protects the right to life and personal liberty, encompassing the right to live with dignity and the protection of privacy.The community hall belongs to the community and is used in several tribal rituals, as well as children’s tuitions, women’s self-help group meetings and for conflict resolution by the elders and community leaders.Also read: At Niyamgiri, Policing is Paving the Way for MiningThe police moved in saying they would be providing protection to two women who have filed FIRS stating that there is a threat to their life and liberty in the village. One of the women, who had until very recently been at the forefront of the movement, said on a regional news channel that she feared remaining in the village. Her shift in favour of the company, said locals, coincided with the police moving into Kantamal village. This author spoke to her. On October 9, she shared that she has been coerced by police and has been miserable. It is not easy to fathom the truth. However, engineering the fraying of community ties and the sowing of suspicion among villagers is not a new tactic. On September 12, 600 villagers gathered and submitted a letter asserting these rights to the police personnel stationed in the area. The community maintains that the police presence, imposed at the behest of the district administration, is part of a concerted attempt to surveil its members, restrict their freedoms and prevent them from exercising their democratic right to dissent and protest against the takeover of their ancestral territory – a land sacred to them and integral to their collective identity and existence.Translated, the letter says:“Our village Kantamal has been occupied by your police force for three days. There is an atmosphere of fear and terror among all villagers, especially women, elderly and children. Children have stopped attending school in fear of being arrested. We cannot venture out for medicines or if anybody is suddenly ill. Villagers cannot go out for any agricultural activity or take their cattle for grazing. Women and girls are in fear of going out to bathe or attend to morning chores. The police will be responsible for the future of the children as well as the death of anyone in the village.”Local policemen told villagers that they were there because of orders from above and will vacate whenever the order comes to do so from the same quarters. Locals have started organising long meetings every day at Gudi Ghar in the middle of the village square. The Gudi is a central place that is also considered sacred. People from nearby villagers join these meetings to reiterate their commitment to protect Sijimali and their ancestral lands and sacred deities.A meeting at the Gudi Ghar. Photo: By arrangement.Narengi Dei from Sagabari village spoke at the September 12 meeting at the Gudi. Her words are important, and I have translated them thus:“Why are we all sitting gathered here? This is something everyone needs to know and understand. Why has the police administration come and stationed themselves right here in our Kantamal village? Our fathers and mothers are living in terror; they cannot even go out to relieve themselves, they cannot bathe, and they cannot even step out to gather leaves or firewood. By whose authority have they been occupying our land and camping here for the last three days? Why are they refusing to show us any official proof or legal paperwork? Even when we plead with them and demand answers, they withhold it. Because of this tyranny, mothers and fathers are so disturbed, holding on their small children, forced to live day and night out in the deep forests, enduring the harsh rain and freezing dew! They are too terrified to even stay inside their own homes. Come forward and answer us! Give us answers to our questions, stand face-to-face before your sisters and mothers and speak.”While global capitalism is reaching out to the remotest areas for critical mineral wealth, the people of these areas know that their future is intimately tied up with the soil and the earth. They await the realisation of all people and especially the political Opposition that all lives, human and nonhuman, of the forests and waters, are interlinked. Ranjana Padhi is an author and feminist activist based in Bhubaneswar.