By Shizza Umer
Did Deceased Villagers Consent to an Adani-Linked Mine in Odisha?
A woman died in February 2025. Eight months later, her name appeared on documents recording consent for a bauxite mine on Balda Hill in Odisha’s Koraput district. Her son has asked how his mother could have signed anything eight months after her death.
She is not the only name in question. Villagers allege that the consent records for the project, run by a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, contain signatures they never gave, names of dead residents and sheets collected for an entirely different purpose. These are allegations; no court has yet ruled on them.
Nearly 600 Recorded Consents, About 100 People in the Room
The disputed records come from village council meetings held on 9 October 2025 in Balda and Bannur. Under the law, at least half of adults must consent in writing. Government documents recorded nearly 600 consenting adults. Photographs taken by villagers show about 100 people attending across both meetings.
The notices for those meetings were allegedly pasted up on 8 October, one day before, although official guidelines require two weeks’ notice.
The names on the list raise sharper questions. Alongside the woman who died in February, three deceased residents of Bannur appear as signatories. So does Rama Hantal, a 60-year-old man who is paralysed and cannot speak. “There is no chance he could have attended the meeting or even signed,” his daughter-in-law said. At least 67 named signatories could not be traced at all.
More than 50 villagers have sworn affidavits denying they attended or signed. The elected heads of both villages call the meetings invalid.
Signatures Collected for Land, Used for a Mine?
The most serious allegation concerns how the names got there. Ramnath Pungi, a contract worker at the local revenue office, says he was paid 3,000 rupees to collect signed sheets for a land settlement. He says he did not know they would be used for the mine.
Farmer Sunadhar Muduli recognised his own handwriting on the resolution. He says he wrote the names after Pungi asked him to fill in a registry for land recognition.
If those accounts hold, signatures gathered to secure villagers’ land rights were presented as their consent to lose that land.
A Sacred Hill and a Long Fight
Balda Hill’s forests, grasslands and caves are sacred to at least 10 tribal villages. Opposition is not new. Villagers marched when Adani Enterprises was named preferred bidder in February 2023, and in March 2025 thousands marched to the Nandapur tahsildar’s office demanding the lease be cancelled because no village consent had been given.
Villagers also claimed forest rights over 2,500 hectares. In January 2026, authorities recognised less than a fifth of that area and excluded the entire mining zone, without notifying the village councils. Two appeals committees upheld the decision within three days.
A Pattern Beyond Balda
The problem is not confined to one hill. India’s federal auditor found 136 consent violations in a 2024 report, 73 of them involving no village council meeting at all. “If the Gram Sabha has not given consent, then the forest clearance given is illegal,” Supreme Court lawyer Shomona Khanna said.
Approved Anyway
In March 2026, ten villages formally rejected the resolutions. It made no difference. On 7 May 2026, every required approval was granted and the forest land handed over, with no compensation promised. A villager’s court challenge in May came too late. Adani did not respond to requests for comment.
No construction has started. The villagers say none will. “The forest is everything for us,” said Raghunath Hanthal, a 70-year-old priest whose name sits on the list at number 171.
By Shizza Umer
SOURCES
