BHUBANESWAR: The 2.98 km access road from Sijimali hilltop bauxite reserve to State Highway (SH) 44 in Rayagada district, right in the eye of a raging conflict between the tribal inhabitants and the state administration, is yet to receive final approval for diversion of forest land.
The proposed road, planned to facilitate bauxite transportation from the Sijimali hilltop to SH-44 involves about 11.314 hectare area in Kashipur tehsil of the district of which 4.911 hectare comes under forest category and requires clearance under FC Act 1980. The Sijimali bauxite reserve was allotted to aluminium giant Vedanta Limited in 2023.
The land meant for the approach was granted stage-I (in-principle) approval for non-forestry use by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) on January 5 this year, under section 2(1)(ii) of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980.
However, the MoEFCC’s communication to state Forest, Environment and Climate Change department, seen by the TNIE, clearly mentioned that the land cannot be transferred to the user agency till stage-II approval is given.
Laying down the conditions, the ministry made it clear that “transfer of forest land to user agency should not be effected by the Odisha government till final (stage-II) approval for its diversion issued by the Ministry.” The MoEFCC has laid down a total of 39 conditions for the Forest department to comply with prior to stage-II clearance.
“After receipt of the report on compliance to the conditions stipulated, final/stage-II approval for diversion of the said forest land will be issued by the Ministry,” it said. TNIE has learnt that currently, the compliance report is still pending with the divisional forest officer (DFO) of Rayagada.
As per documents accessed, the land would be acquired by state-owned IDCO and transferred to the PWD for road construction. In fact, this particular site was chosen from a list of three options. The land in question is part of two villages - Sagabari and Porlanng - and has 91 trees as per an enumeration.
Vedanta Limited was allocated Sijimali bauxite mine, spread across Kalahandi and Rayagada district with an estimated resource of 311 million tonne, in March 2023.
Sources said a total 3.4 km road is required to be built for transportation of bauxite from Kashipur side of the mine to SH-44. However, about 0.42 km length of the road falls within the mine area.