India: Before Colonisation or even the advent of the Indo-aryan race moving to india, there existed indgidneous tribes to the northeastern states of india, the original adivasis, these group of tribes believe that the land that their ancestors have lived in is holy and worship elements of the soil, the forest and the river that surrounds them.

Widly, their land is also really rich in natural ores and minerals and is great for mining natural metals, many of which form the precursors to products like phones, aluminium foil, consumer electronics like washing machines and microwaves too. so if you put the two and two together you will realise that the land of the Indigenous tribes of india is filled with potential to fill deep pockets and make those involved in the process very rich.

Among the Adivasis arose some of India’s greatest freedom fighters. Birsa Munda, born in Jharkhand in the late 19th century, became a symbol of resistance against both British colonisers and the Indian land-owning classes — the zamindars. These zamindars exploited Adivasi farmers by lending money at exorbitant interest rates. Unable to repay, many fell into bondage, working as indentured labourers on the zamindars’ fields.

By the late 1800s, more than 10,000 Adivasi farmers joined the uprisings, rebelling against a system designed to strip them of land, dignity, and independence. From that history grew the stereotypes still attached to the Adivasis — portrayed as rebels or insurgents whenever they rose to defend their homes. But when your way of life, your land, and your people are threatened, is resistance not an act of dignity?

Today, millions of indigenous people in India are in danger of being evicted from forests that their ancestors have lived in for millennia. This grave injustice follows a shocking supreme court ruling that rides roughshod over the rights of India’s indigenous people, known as Adivasi, or tribals.

According to the 2011 census, these tribal people number 104 million – almost 9% of the country’s then 1.2 billion population. It is the largest indigenous population in any country in the world, occupying 22% of India’s geographical terrain.

The ruling class have constantly riddled them and since 2019, A number of Indian wildlife and conservation organisations, including Wildlife First, the Wildlife Trust of India, and the Tiger Research and Conservation Trust have accused the tribal people of destroying the forests’ biodiversity and have petitioned the court to clear them from the land. Yet the 2006 Forest Rights Act gave Adivasi rights to live on and protect the land that they had been cultivating within forest boundaries.

But most Indian NGOs understood years ago that the Adivasis were not the enemy, and they have been fighting on the same side — they know that the people live in harmony with nature and that evicting tribals will leave the forest unguarded and vulnerable – making it a haven for poachers.

The Forest Rights Act undid historic injustices perpetrated on the communities of forest dwellers for centuries. It has empowered tribal councils to reject planning applications by mineral companies, such as UK-based Vedanta, to mine for bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills.

But under the act, tribal people had to file a claim with state governments to secure the title deeds to their lands – and thousands of claims by Adivasis have been rejected all over India. The country’s highest court has now decreed many are “encroachers” and should be evicted.

How can people who did not have paper, who did not know they had to have written entitlement to live on land their ancestors occupied for centures be expected to produce relevant title deeds for a government formed less than a century ago?

Fertile food-producing lands have been forcibly taken from hapless farmers and gifted at throwaway prices to billionaire industrial groups. And this isn’t the first time Indian villagers have been removed from land in the name of development.

A case in point is the infamous Narmada eviction. On 12 December 1979, in spite of widespread protests, the Indian government decided to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river – and to construct 30 major, 135 medium, and 3000 small dams. This, they announced, would provide water to about 40 million people, along with irrigation, and electricity to people in the region. To achieve this, 200,000 people were displaced, of whom a majority were Adivasis.

In 2010, then–Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh drew a line in the sand. He declared that there had been “serious violations of environment protection acts” in Orissa’s Kalahandi district, where Vedanta sought to mine bauxite for its already-built aluminium refinery.

“There is no emotion, no politics, no prejudice… I have taken the decision in a purely legal approach. These laws are being violated. As the tribes were completely dependent on the forest, any violation of the protection extended to their habitat and habitations is simply unacceptable,” Ramesh said.

He further revealed that Vedanta had been found breaching environmental clearance laws for the refinery already operating in the region.

At stake was the Niyamgiri Hill range, a sacred site for the Dongria Kondh tribe, who regard the hills as holy. Vedanta — a UK-based mining giant owned by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal — had tabled a US$2.7 billion investment, promising jobs and development in one of India’s poorest districts. The company maintained it had complied with all rules and regulations.

A report by Amnesty International revealed that an alumina refinery in eastern India, operated by a Vedanta subsidiary, is poisoning the very environment on which local communities depend. Air and water pollution from the refinery have turned once-pristine rivers and fields into toxic sludge, threatening both health and food security.

Entire villages now live in the shadow of the plant, breathing polluted air and fearing the water that once sustained them. Rivers that had been the main sources of drinking, bathing, and irrigation are now seen with dread.

The consequences stretch beyond health. Amnesty warned that this environmental devastation may also inflame security risks, particularly in regions already marked by Maoist insurgencies. For decades, Maoist rebels have claimed to fight in part for the rights of poor tribal people displaced by large-scale industrial projects. Each eviction, each polluted river, each poisoned crop becomes a new recruitment tool.

Is it not natural, then, that when peaceful attempts to safeguard their way of life are ignored, when survival itself is threatened, some among the Adivasis may turn to violence? This is how violent ideologies find root — in the fertile soil of deep inequality, where one group’s wealth is built upon the dispossession of another.

As Late as September 2024, fresh concerns over Vedanta’s refinery in Odisha resurfaced when a process water storage facility breached, spilling water into surrounding forested areas. Process water — broadly defined as water used in industry, manufacturing, and power generation — can carry chemical residues from operations.

visuals from the site painted an unsettling picture. Footage showed torrents of muddy water gushing downstream into a rocky pond-like area, while large volumes spread across open fields. The flow covered ground where trees once stood firm and washed over surrounding vegetation. For farmers whose livelihoods depend on that land, the sight was yet another reminder of how fragile the balance between industry and environment has become.