New Delhi: Two years after the project was announced, residents of five villages of Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh district have been unrelenting in their original demand – coal mining cannot take place in Gondalpura.The movement to protect the land, health and livelihood of villagers from mining operations by Adani Enterprises Limited has consumed the villages of Gondalpura, Phulang, Gali, Hahe and Balodar.The Adani group acquired control of the Gondalpura coal block – which has an estimated 176 million tonnes in coal reserves – in November 2020, following the Union government’s auction of 41 coal blocks across states. The project proposes to mine 513.18 hectares of land, out of which over 200 hectares is forest land, say locals. The region is home to the Manjhi tribal group and communities like Ghanju, Ghuyian and Turi, who are in the Scheduled Castes list.Villagers have said that the land at stake is also prime agricultural land which is fertile throughout the year and yields rice, sugarcane and wheat. A coal mine is already operating in Barkagaon, which villagers have long since demanded be turned into an agriculture-only zone.Resistance to the project began ever since the block was allocated. In a meeting held in September 2021, a Gram Sabha at Gondalpura vowed that no Adani officials would be allowed in the area. Gram Sabhas are a unit of village governance. Also read: Jharkhand Villagers Protest Adani’s New Coal Venture, Refuse to Allow Land Acquisition SurveysThroughout October this year, villagers held several protests and conducted multiple public hearings, seeking support from Gram Sabhas. Villagers, meanwhile, peacefully opposed attempts by officials to conduct public hearings.On October 10, one such hearing at Balodhar was stopped. Two days later, a hearing at Gali was stopped and on October 18, a hearing at Gondalpura saw a women-led agitation outside the village Panchayat office.“Three Gram Sabha public hearings were stopped by the locals in their attempt to oppose the project. The protests were silent and followed Gandhian ideals. The company officials had to return,” Vikram Kumar Mahto, an activist on the ground, told The Wire.Women form the essence of the movement, Mahto says.“Our movement is ongoing, every week in every village we are organising ourselves. We are using the form of baithaks [informal talks] to keep mobilising communities,” he added.Activist Inderdev Ram Shanker Bhuiyan pointed out that protesters felt that attempts made by the corporate giant to conduct public hearings needed to be thwarted because the firm is allegedly attempting to “lure” people to give up their agricultural lands for a bad bargain. Attempts to conduct such hearings were opposed in July too, he said.The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013 makes it mandatory to hold a public hearing to record the views of the affected people. The gram sabha also has to be consulted for the preparation of a social impact assessment report – making it imperative, according to protesting villagers – to stop such meetings.Gondalpura region has a history of resistance. In 2006 the same coal block was allocated to the Tenughat Vidyut Nigam Limited, which led to protests across the region, as The Wire had reported. In 2010, the environment ministry, then headed by Jairam Ramesh, had stated that the Gondalpura coal block, which is part of the North Karanpura mining block, fell in a ‘no-go’ zone for mining activities. (With inputs from Sumedha Pal and Roshan Horo)