The unanimous vote by 12 gram sabhas in Odisha's Rayagada and Kalahandi districts, rejecting Vedanta Aluminium and the Orissa Mining Corporation's plan to extract bauxite from the Niyamgiri hills, is a historic and significant precedent that could determine the course of similar developments in other tribal areas in India.

The discharge of municipal sewage, industrial effluents and biomedical waste into the Mahanadi has raised concerns about environmental sustainability and also posed a serious threat to the health of people living on the banks. This article critically examines the river pollution caused by the spiralling urbanisation and industrialisation along with dumping of waste by many medical facilities. There is an urgent need to address this enormous challenge which is a direct outcome of inefficient planning and management.