The police in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district on Monday arrested 21 people who have been taking part in a protest against mining activities. Many of them have sustained severe injuries after being beaten in detention, an Adivasi organisation named Damkondwahi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti said.

Residents of Todgatta, located in the district’s Etapalli tehsil, and around 70 surrounding villages have been protesting since March 11 against six auctioned iron mines at Surjagarh hills.

In May, five companies received leases for the mines, spanning 4,684 hectares. These companies are Omsairam Steels and Alloys Private Limited, JSW Steels Limited, Sunflag Iron and Steel Company Limited, Universal Industrial Equipment and Technical Services Private Limited and Natural Resources Energy Private Limited.

Adivasi villagers have long opposed mining operations in the hills, saying that these lands are sacred to them and that the mines will destroy the ecosystem and their agricultural livelihoods.

In September, Scroll had reported that mining has resulted in severe pollution and turned rivers as well as farmlands bright red in colour. The protestors explained that the authorities have sought to undermine their efforts by claiming that they have links with Maoists, filing cases against their leaders and intimidating them.

On Wednesday, the Damkondwahi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti said that the 21 arrested persons have been booked under Indian Penal Code Section 353 (assault or criminal force to determine public servant from discharge of his duty). The organisation said they will be lodged in a jail in the neighbouring Chandrapur district.

In their remand request, the police have claimed that those arrested had tried to kill them and carried explosives, according to the Damkondwahi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti. The police are also said to have accused them of receiving funds from Maoists.

An official statement on Monday alleged that the protestors had stopped police parties from Gatta village and the C-60, which is an elite paramilitary anti-Naxal force, from going to a police station that was to be inaugurated in Wangeturi, located on Maharashtra-Chhattisgarh border.

The statement also alleged that some residents had complained to the Gadchiroli Police that Maoists had forced them to participate in the protest against the mining.

The organisation refuted the allegations, saying the police were using the “same vicious narrative” to label the protestors as Maoists.

This hides “the fact that the collector and other state representatives are corporate-sponsored and serve the interests of the companies who seek to exploit the resource-rich region and its people for their profit”, the protestors said.

On Monday, the Damkondwahi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti wrote on social media that the police had destroyed huts in Todgatta and seized phones of the protestors.

Before the arrests, the organisation said that the police had been using drone cameras for surveillance. “They even knew that some important movement activists like Lalsu Nogoti, Sushila Naroti, Rakesh Alam, Poonam Jetti, Vandu Ulke, and Sainu Hichami are currently in Delhi,” the Damkondwahi Bachao Sangharsh Samiti said.

The police, however, alleged that residents had themselves razed the huts as they were fed up with the agitation continuing for over 250 days, The Times of India reported.

In 2007, despite stiff opposition from Adivasis, Mumbai-based Lloyds Metals was granted clearance to begin mining operations on 348.09 hectares of land on Surjagarh hills. Protestors successfully held the company away for some years, but mining operations finally began in 2011.

Since then, the red dust expelled from the mines has coated the surrounding areas – roads, fields and homes. The effluents of the mine have run down the hills and contaminated the river water and the fields of nearby villages.

Also read: The cost of protesting against mining in Gadchiroli

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