Bhubaneswar: Expressing his support for mining activities for the country's economic growth, Orissa Governor M C Bhandare, however, said today that there should not be any development activity at the expense of the tribal populace endangering the environment.

Mining activities should not take place at the cost of poor tribal people who live in forests and environment and "rather these activities should go along with poverty alleviation programme," Bhandare said while releasing the sixth environment report of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) here.

The former President of the Supreme Court Bar Association said globalisation and liberalisation had come to stay but it should be ensured that the tribal people, displaced due to activities like mining, were properly resettled and rehabilitated with adequate compensation to them.

The Governor's statement was significant in view of the recent Supreme Court judgement in the Vedanta case.
The people, particularly the tribal Dangoria Konds, were totally opposed to mining activities in Niyamgiri Hills alleging that mining activities would not only adversly affect their lifestyle, it would also pose danger to the delicate bio-diversity of the area.

Source : PTI