Indian villagers allege forged consent for Adani bauxite mine in Odisha

Hundreds of Indigenous villagers in Koraput district, in India's eastern state of Odisha, allege that their signatures and thumb impressions were forged on documents used to approve a bauxite mine developed by a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises.

The $24m project by Kalinga Alumina Limited would consume much of Balda Hill, a tabletop hill with forests, grasslands and caves considered sacred by at least 10 surrounding tribal villages.

Government documents state that all 580 adults in Balda and Bannur — 360 and 227 respectively — consented to give up their land at village council, or Gram Sabha, meetings held on October 9, 2025. Under Indian law, a resolution is valid only if at least 50 percent of a village's adults consent to it in writing.

Elected village heads in both villages deny that signatures were collected and call the meetings invalid. Photographs taken by residents show about 40 people at Balda and 68 at Bannur, well below the required quorum.

Raghunath Khara, a shopkeeper in Balda, said the thumb impression attributed to him was not his. "I always sign in English. It was someone else's thumb," he told Al Jazeera, adding that he was protesting outside the council office while the meeting was held.

Villagers also say the documents list fictitious people and people who died years earlier. Sahdev said his mother, one of three women named Gurubari Khara, died in February 2025, eight months before the meeting. In Bannur, families confirmed at least three deceased residents were recorded as consenting.

Al Jazeera interviewed more than 20 people and reviewed records from both villages, but could not trace at least 67 people named as signatories.

Signatures collected 'on another pretext'

Sunadhar Muduli, a farmer in Bannur, recognised his own handwriting on page 10 of the 16-page Bannur resolution, where 13 names appear in one hand beside a row of thumb impressions. He said Ramnath Pungi, a contract worker for the local revenue office, asked him in December to record residents seeking recognition of their traditional lands, and told him he could sign on their behalf.

Pungi confirmed the signatures were collected for land settlement work, not the mine, and said he was paid 3,000 rupees per village. "I did not know they would use it for this," he said.

Residents also say meeting notices were pasted outside council offices on October 8, a day before the meetings, although the notices were dated September 22 and 23, 2025. Guidelines require two weeks' notice.

Project pushed 'abnormally rushed'

Odisha named Adani Enterprises preferred bidder for the mine in February 2023. A public hearing on March 6, 2025 drew widespread opposition, but environmental clearance followed months later. Villagers applied for rights over 2,500 hectares of forest land in 2025; most of the claims overlapped the mining lease. In January, authorities settled the claims without informing village councils, recognising less than a fifth of the area and excluding the mining zone.

Ajaya Muduli, authorised by the villages to take legal action, called the land acquisition "abnormally rushed".

More than 50 people have filed sworn affidavits denying they attended the meetings, along with court petitions and police complaints alleging forgery. In March, the 10 affected villages rejected the earlier resolutions and restated their opposition to the mine.

Al Jazeera emailed the Adani group and its communications chief on August 18 and followed up on September 25, but received no response. Koraput district magistrate Manoj Satyawan Mahajan and superintendent of police Rohit Varma also did not respond to questions.

Source: Al Jazeera.