Vedanta Limited is an Indian multinational mining company headquartered in Mumbai, India, with its main operations in iron ore, gold and aluminium mines in Goa, Karnataka, Rajasthan and Odisha.
The Adivasi are tribes of the Indian subcontinent. The term is a modern Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by tribal political activists to give an indigenous identity to tribal people by claiming indigenous origin. The term is also used for ethnic minorities, such as Chakmas of Bangladesh, Khas of Nepal, and Vedda of Sri Lanka. However, the government of India does not officially recognise tribes as indigenous people. India ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 107 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the United Nations (1957) and refused to sign the ILO Convention 169. Most of these groups are included in the Scheduled Tribe category under constitutional provisions in India.
Kalahandi is a district of Odisha in India. Archaeological evidence of Stone Age and Iron Age human settlement has been recovered from the region. Asurgarh offered an advanced, well civilised, cultured and urban human settlement about 2000 years ago in the region. In South Asia it is believed that the lands of Kalahandi district and Koraput district were the ancient places where people started cultivation of paddy. In ancient time it was known as Mahakantara and Karunda Mandal, which means treasure of precious stones like karandam (corundum/manik), garnet, beruz, neelam, and alexandrite, etc. Manikeswari is the clan deity of Kalahandi may also signify its historical name.
Khonds are an indigenous Adivasi tribal community in India. Traditionally hunter-gatherers, they are divided into the hill-dwelling Khonds and plain-dwelling Khonds for census purposes; all the Khonds identify by their clan and usually hold large tracts of fertile land but still practice hunting, gathering and slash-and-burn agriculture in the forests as a symbol of their connection to and ownership of the forest. Khonds speak the Kui and Kuvi languages and write them in Odia script.
Koraput is a town and a Municipality in Koraput district in the Indian state of Odisha. Koraput town is the district headquarter of Koraput district.
Vedanta University is a proposed, private, multi-disciplinary, co-educational university to be started by Anil Agarwal of Vedanta Resources corporation near Puri-Konark highway, Odisha, India. According to the news reports and as of Sep 2010, the plans of the university was a closed chapter. However, in late April 2015 a revival of the project was initiated; The ex-Chief Secretary of Odisha, Mr. Bijay Patnaik, was hired as the President of the Vedanta University Project to revive this project.
Anil Agarwal is the founder and Chairman of Vedanta Resources Limited. He controls Vedanta Resources through Volcan Investments, a holding vehicle with a 100% stake in the business.
Vedanta Resources Limited is an Indian diversified mining company headquartered in Mumbai, India. It is the largest mining and non-ferrous metals company in India and has mining operations in Australia and Zambia and oil and gas operations in three countries. Its main products are Zinc, Lead, Silver, Oil & Gas, Iron Ore, Steel, Aluminium and Power. It has also developed commercial power stations in India in Odisha and Punjab.
Gandhamardan Hills or Gandhamardan Parbat is a hill located in between Balangir and Bargarh district of Odisha, India. This hill is well known for medicinal plants. There is a Bauxite reserve which is planned for exploration by the state government through a private venture. Lord Hanuman is believed to reside here and in the Piduru Mountains in Sri Lanka.
Naresh Chandra Saxena is an Indian bureaucrat who served as a member of the Planning Commission of India.
Bhawanipatna is classified as one of the major tourist destinations by the tourism Department of Government of Odisha. All the tourist attraction in Kalahandi region comes under Bhawanipatna jurisdiction. Though tourist potential of Kalahandi has not been exploited optimally due to poor marketing, political negligence and infrastructure development, the land is very rich in terms of water fall, forest and wild life, natural and scenic beauty, tribal life, mountains, agriculture field, historical sites and handicrafts. The best time to visit Kalahandi region is from October to March. April–June is hard Summer and the mercury may rise to 45 degree C and June to August is the Monsoon Season. It occasionally rains in September, but do not miss the great festival like Nuakhai in September and Dassara in end of September or early October. Beginning of Dessara marks the pleasant weather condition till the celebration of Chaitra in February/March.
Bhakta Charan Das is an Indian politician. He was a member of the Indian Parliament and represented the Kalahandi constituency in the 15th Lok Sabha.
The Dangaria Kandha people are members of the Kondhs. They are located in the Niyamgiri hills in the state of Odisha in India. They sustain themselves from the resources of the Niyamgiri forests, practising horticulture and shifting cultivation. They have been at the centre of a dispute over mining rights in the area.
The Katkari also called Kathodi, are an Indian tribe from Maharashtra. They have been categorised as a Scheduled tribe. They are bilingual, speaking the Katkari language, a dialect of the Marathi-Konkani languages, with each other; they speak Marathi with the Marathi speakers, who are a majority in the populace where they live. In Maharashtra the Katkari have been designated a Particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG), along with two other groups included in this sub-category: the Madia Gond and the Kolam. In the case of the Katkari this vulnerability derives from their history as a nomadic, forest-dwelling people listed by the British Raj under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, a stigma that continues to this day.
Oonga is a Hindi and Oriya film directed by Devashish Makhija, and produced by Speaking Tree Pictures & Moo Print Pictures. It is a story of a little adivasi boy's obsession with becoming Rama, set against the backdrop of corrupt land mining activities threatening to destroy his village and the civil strife it leads to. The film stars Nandita Das, Seema Biswas, Salim Kumar and Raju Singh.
The Niyamgiri is a hill range situated in the districts of Kalahandi and Rayagada in the south-west of Odisha, India. These hills are home to Dongria Kondh indigenous people. The hills have one of India's most pristine forests in the interior. It is bound by Karlapat Wildlife Sanctuary on the north-west side and Kotgarh Wildlife Sanctuary on the north-east end.
Vedanta Jharsuguda Power Station is a coal based thermal captive power plant located near Jharsuguda town in Jharsuguda district in the Indian state of Odisha. The power plant was commissioned in July 2008, and is operated by the Vedanta Resources. It supplies power to aluminum smelter of Vedanta Resources.
Orissa Mining Corporation v. Ministry of Environment & Forest & Others is a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of India, which declared that Gram Sabha has a role to play in safeguarding the customary and religious rights of the STs and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (TFDs) like Dangaria Kondha etc. under the Forest Rights Act. The Apex Court maintained that the decision lies with the locals.
Kucheipadar, a village in Kashipur subdivision, Rayagada district, Orissa in India, became famous for its well-known tribal movement opposing the mining proposals made by the Utkal Alumina International Limited (UAIL) in the region which started in 1996. In the mid-1990s, large deposits of bauxite were discovered in the area, simultaneously private companies were given leases of the land by the government without proper consultations. The local tribal residents became aware of the project when in 1996 the UAIL project team went there to conduct a survey. Utmost confusion about the nature of the project, its impact on regional livelihood and the future of residents led the tribals to organise a civil disobedience campaign. The movement later spread to the entire region of Kashipur.
Wira Pdika is a 124-minute 2005 film independently produced and directed by Samarendra Das and Amarendra Das, characterised by the reviewer Subrat Kumar Sahu as 'a milestone in terms of authenticity in documentary filmmaking'.
