BHUBANESWAR, India — Indigenous residents in India’s eastern Odisha state have accused authorities and corporate interests of widespread forgery to acquire community land for a controversial bauxite mining project tied to the Adani Group.
Local villagers in the Rayagada district allege that signatures and thumbprints were falsified on official consent documents required for the project. According to the complainants, the fraudulent records even included the biometric identifiers of deceased and fictitious individuals to fabricate local approval for land acquisition.
The allegations center around bauxite mining initiatives in the region, which have faced prolonged opposition from indigenous tribal communities concerned about environmental degradation and the displacement of traditional forest-dependent livelihoods.
Local authorities have faced mounting pressure from community leaders to investigate the provenance of the disputed consent forms and pause land acquisition procedures until the allegations of document tampering are thoroughly addressed.