with the first spell of monsoon in mid-June people in Bargarh, Nuapada, Kalahandi and Sambalpur districts in Orissa experienced something they had never seen before: a grayish layer on leaves, vehicles and elsewhere.

BHUBANESWAR: WITH four districts affected by pest menace and the farmers panicking the Agriculture Director, Arabinda Padhi, announced that the situation is under control and it has not assumed an endemic form.

Pest attacks on paddy crops have been reported from several western Orissa districts. While three blocks of Kalahandi district are severely affected, reports coming from Boudh, Nuapada and Sonepur said paddy crops are damaged by swarming caterpillar or

The huge bauxite deposits in Niyamgiri have led the Vedanta group to set up an alumina refinery at Lanjigarh, making the tribals apprehensive about their habitat

In his latest pre-poll bonanza for the poor, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has decided to provide 25 kg of rice a month to all the families living Below the Poverty Line (BPL) at Rs 2 per kg.

Vedanta's projects in Orissa have faced adverse judgement from the Supreme Court and mounting protest from the locals. Despite such handicaps Vedanata chairman Anil Agarwal claimed in Orissa after the state's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik that the projects were progressing as per schedule.

The Orissa government's agreement with Vedanta Alumina to allow mining of bauxite deposits in the Niyamgiri hills, the home of the Dongaria Kondha tribe, is an example of how corporate interests backed by state support are trampling on tribal livelihoods and threatening an ecologically rich and important region.

M/s Vedanta Aluminium Limited has established a refinery plant of capacity to produce 1 MTPA aluminia. The plant comprises of two alumina production streams of capacity 0.5 MTPA each and three steam generation plants. The steam generation plants not only cater the requirement of steam for production of Alumina from bauxite by also electricity of 75 MW is generated for plant uses.

the Vedanta controversy has acquired yet another twist, with the Orissa government trying to acquire more land in Kalahandi district's Lanjigarh block, the place where the company's one million

The Niyamgiri reserve forests are home to spotted deer, sambar, wild boar and leopards. People complain that the Vedanta refinery and its staff quarters and the guesthouse near the hill are

Think Kalahandi and you think famine, abject poverty and misery. These were exactly my thoughts as I set out on a visit to Lanjigarh, a picturesque town surrounded by the Niyamgiri range in the Kalahandi district of Orissa. As we (BT lensman and I) get down from our eight-seater private jet at Utkela airstrip, at least 50 pairs of curious eyes greet the rarely-seen machine and us. What brings us to Lanjigarh is Vedanta Alumina's refinery project that has hit a

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