Bhubaneswar, July 18: The Kondh tribals of Serkapadi, a tiny village in Rayagada district, today almost unanimously rejected the proposal for bauxite mining in the Niyamgiri hills, which is home to them and the abode of their presiding deity, Niyam Raja.

The village, about 85km from Rayagada town, hosted the first of a series of 12 proposed gram sabhas to decide the fate of the controversial Niyamgiri bauxite project following a Supreme Court judgement on April 18.

Organised amidst tight security with four platoons of police force surrounding the small Dongria Kondh settlement, the gram sabha saw the tribal residents vehemently opposing any attempt at mining in the hills on the grounds that it would destroy both their livelihood and culture. Sources said almost all the 38 voters in the village including women turned up for the meeting where the Rayagada district judge, Sarat Chandra Mishra, was present as an observer.

Sources said apart from the residents of Serkapadi, around 500 tribals from adjoining villages turned up to watch the gram sabha proceedings clad in their traditional attire.

Many of them carried axes, their favourite weapon. Senior leaders of Niyamgiri Surakasha Samiti, which has been opposing the state government’s decision to hold these meetings in just 12 villages of the area, were also present in the village.

Rayagada district collector Shashi Bhushan Padhi described the gram sabha as a success but refused to disclose the details of the proceedings saying they would be available later.

These village meetings are being held in keeping with a Supreme Court judgement that said mining in the Niyamgiri hills could not take place by trampling upon the religious and cultural rights of the local people.

The matter had gone to the apex court after the Union ministry of environment and forests in August, 2010, rejected stage II forest clearance to a project for the mining of bauxite in the hills jointly by the state-owned Odisha Mining Corporation and a Vendanta group company.

The project is considered crucial to the survival of Vedanta’s one-million-tonne alumina refinery at Lanjigarh in the foothills of Niyamgiri.

Union tribal affairs minister V. Kishore Chandrs Deo is opposed to the state government’s decision to hold the gram sabhas in only 12 of the around 112 villages on the Niyamgiri hills stretching from Kalahandi to Rayagada district.

Stating that it was against the spirit of the apex court judgement, he did not rule out the possibility of the court being moved again over the issue.

While some civil society activists have also threatened to take legal recourse against the government, Niyamgiri Suraksha Samiti said they would organise parallel gram sabhas.

However, scheduled tribe and scheduled caste development minister Lal Behari Himirika stuck to his guns asserting that the state government had taken the right decision.

The gram sabhas are to be held in six more villages of Rayagada district and in five villages of Kalahandi. The last one will be organised at Karapar village on August 19.