‘It was fake’: Indian villagers allege forgery behind Adani mine project

Forged signatures and thumbprints – even of dead and fictitious people – allegedly used to get land for bauxite mine.

Raghunath Khara, a shopkeeper in Balda village in India's eastern Odisha state, found his name on a document consenting to a controversial mine development. He denies ever signing [Mahmodul Hassan/ Al Jazeera]

Koraput, India – Raghunath Khara was shocked to look at his thumb impression on a piece of paper that declared he had consented to a government proposal to mine his village’s pristine forest land for bauxite.

He says he never gave that thumb impression.

list 1 of 4 Who is Gautam Adani and why is he controversial?

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“I always sign in English. It was someone else’s thumb,” alleged Khara, a shopkeeper in Balda village in the tribal-dominated Koraput district of Odisha state in eastern India.

Khara is among hundreds of people from Indigenous tribes in Balda and neighbouring Bannur village who have lost their lands to the new bauxite mine. It is being developed by Kalinga Alumina Limited, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited, a conglomerate owned by Gautam Adani, India’s second richest businessman and close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The $24m project will consume a large chunk of the tabletop Balda Hill – home to forests, grasslands and caves that are considered sacred by at least 10 tribal villages surrounding it.

To push the project, the purported signatures and thumb impressions of nearly 600 tribals were allegedly collected during village council meetings in Balda and Bannur held on October 9 last year. Bannur is 5km from Balda.

Khara says he never attended the meeting at Balda and was instead protesting against the proposed mine with his wife, sister and other villagers about 100 metres from the village council office.

“It [thumb impression] was fake. We didn’t attend the village meeting at all. We were all busy protesting outside,” he told Al Jazeera.

India’s constitution recognises the rights of Indigenous communities over their traditional lands. Forest laws and laws granting autonomy to tribal areas dictate that village council resolutions are mandatory for any diversion of such lands for other purposes.

A resolution passed in a village council meeting is valid only if 50 percent of all the adults in the village consent to it in writing. Government documents claim all the 580 adults – 360 in Balda and 227 in Bannur – agreed to give up their land for the Adani mine. But the elected village heads in both villages denied any signatures were collected and called the two meetings “invalid”.

Even photographs taken by villagers at both council meetings show a combined attendance of about 100 people – nearly 40 in Balda and 68 in Bannur – far below the minimum 50 percent quorum required to pass a valid resolution.

Moreover, the villagers allege that most signatures on the resolution documents are fake, forged or impersonated.

They also claim the documents contain signatures of fictitious persons and even the names of people who died years ago. Some even said their signatures from a previous, unrelated village council meeting were fraudulently pasted onto the bauxite mine document.

Al Jazeera emailed the Adani group and its communications chief on August 18 seeking responses to the accusations of forgery and fraud. Then we followed up with a second request for comments on September 25, but did not receive any response. Al Jazeera also sought responses from Manoj Satyawan Mahajan, the district magistrate — the most senior bureaucrat in Koraput – to the concerns raised by villagers but did not receive a response. Rohit Varma, the superintendent of police for Koraput district, also did not respond to Al Jazeera’s queries.

Rama Hantal in his rusted tin-and-wood hut. The 60-year-old’s name also appeared in the consent document — even though he is paralysed, can barely move and can’t speak. His daughter-in-law denies he went to the meeting where the document was signed [Mahmodul Hassan/ Al Jazeera]

‘They took the paper away from me’

Many of those who attended the meetings said they were opposed to the mining project.

“We were told that if mining was allowed, the village would get roads, jobs, drainage and water connections and a school built,” said Madhav Kuntili, a farmer in Bannur.

Koraput is one of India’s least developed districts and similar promises often have a significant sway. Kuntili said a document was passed around, seeking signatures.

“I said if the forest was being diverted, then I would not sign it. They took the paper away from me,” he told Al Jazeera.

Across Balda and Bannur, Al Jazeera met many villagers who said they were shocked to find their signatures or thumb impressions on the resolution.

Rama Hantal sat motionless by the doorway of his rusted tin-and-wood hut. The 60-year-old has been paralysed for several years and is unable to talk.

“There is no chance he could have attended the meeting or even signed,” said Chandrama Hantal, his daughter-in-law.

While Hantal had apparently signed the consent form in Odia, Odisha’s official language, Chandrama saw a thumb impression against her name. She also denied attending the meeting.

Among the signatories are three Gurubari Kharas – their purported thumb impressions in support of the mining project.

In Balda, villagers could only track two “Gurubaris” – one living 3km away who denied attending the meeting – and another from the village itself, who had died well before the village council meeting was held.

“My mother died in February 2025. How can they forge her presence and signature eight months later?” asked her son, Sahdev. She was nearly 75 when she died of natural causes.

Two other persons from the first Gurubari’s family are also listed as signatories – her bedridden husband, who has been paralysed since falling from a tree three months before the council meeting and her nephew. Both deny attending the October 9 meeting.

The third Gurubari remains untraced.

Al Jazeera interviewed more than 20 people and accessed records from both Balda and Bannur villages, but could not trace at least 67 persons named as signatories in the resolution.

In Bannur, at least three deceased persons were represented through thumbprints. The families of all three – who are also listed in the documents as consenters – confirmed the deaths of their kin.

“My mother died four years ago,” said Nakul Alang, the 35-year-old son of Sanai Alang who is listed at serial number 108 in the Bannur resolution.

Nakul’s signature appears in Odia, but he says he was working at a construction site in Visakhapatnam, a coastal city in Odisha’s neighbouring Andhra Pradesh state 170km (105 miles) from Koraput.

“I don’t know who put our names and signatures,” he told Al Jazeera.

Raghunath Khara’s name, along with those of his wife and sister, appear in the resolution, alongside thumbprints. They deny ever consenting to the mining project [Mahmodul Hassan/ Al Jazeera]

Hurried, ‘fraudulent’ meeting

On page 10 of the 16-page Bannur resolution document, 13 names are written by the same hand, followed by a neat array of thumb impressions next to them.

When Sunadhar Muduli, a 50-year-old farmer, saw the sheet, he immediately recognised that it was his own handwriting.

“But none of us ever attended the Gram Sabha meeting,” he said.

Muduli said Ramnath Pungi, who works for the local revenue office on contract, visited the village in December and handed him a registry. He was asked to fill the names of those residents who wanted to get their traditional lands recognised by the government.

Many tribal communities, who have been historically kept out of land documentation, have been cultivating on “government-owned” lands for generations. There have been frequent promises to transfer such lands to their names, and it is not uncommon practice in the region to send contracted officials to collect information about farmers.

“He said he needed everyone’s signatures. I told him I would gather the residents, but he said that was not necessary. That I could sign on their behalf,” said Muduli, who then called some residents to get their permission.

“I wrote down the names on one side of the page and then he and I placed our thumbs alternatively against the name. It was his idea and I just followed the instructions,” he said.

It was only in June when Al Jazeera visited Bannur that Muduli saw the inclusion of the same sheet as part of the mining resolution draft.

Pungi also confirmed to Al Jazeera that the signatures were taken on another pretext.

“I was paid 3,000 rupees to collect documents and sign land settlement documents from each village. That’s what I did. I only submitted the signed sheet to the [revenue] office,” he said.

“I did not know they would use it for this [Adani project]. I am also against mining in our region.”

Official guidelines state that the announcement of a Gram Sabha meeting should be made two weeks before the scheduled date in order to ensure a quorum.

However, several residents told Al Jazeera that the notices announcing the meeting were pasted outside the village council offices on October 8, only a day before the meeting. The notices, accessed by Al Jazeera, were dated September 22 and September 23, 2025.

The road leading to the peak of Balda hill due to be converted into an approach road for the mine [Mahmodul Hassan/ Al Jazeera]

‘Abnormally rushed’ mining approval

Meanwhile, the government pushed the Adani mining project in Odisha – hastily, according to the residents and activists.

In February 2023, the Odisha government declared Adani Enterprises as the preferred bidder for the mine at Koraput, triggering immediate protests by the tribal people in Balda and Bannur. They marched to the local government office to protest against the mining of 157 hectares of forest land by destroying the trees around them and displacing residents.

Two years later, on March 6, 2025, the state government held a public hearing – a mandatory process to obtain approvals where villagers are given details of the project and their objections formally recorded. An overwhelming number of villagers expressed their opposition to the mining project.

Despite the objections, an environmental clearance – a key approval given by the government after assessing possible ecological damage of a project – was granted a few months later.

Under Indian laws, forest-dwelling communities who have been historically left out of land -ownership can seek individual or community rights over traditional forest lands. Balda and neighbouring communities applied for rights over 2,500 hectares of forest land in 2025. A majority of those claims overlapped with the mining lease area.

Usually, the settlement of claims involves the collation of claims and documents, approval from local bodies, verification by officials and ample time for appeals if the claims are modified or rejected. The process is usually notoriously slow.

In January, authorities “settled” these community rights claims without informing the village councils in the area. Less than one-fifth of the claimed area was recognised while the entirety of the mining area was excluded from the claims. Villagers are usually given time to appeal.

However, in this case, two appeals committees affirmed the decision in just three days, without even allowing the villagers time to submit their appeals, allege the villagers.

Ajaya Muduli is part of a three-member team authorised by the affected villages to approach any court in India, sign documents, take necessary legal steps and liaise with government committees in their fight to prevent the takeover of their lands.

Muduli told Al Jazeera that the land acquisition process was “abnormally rushed”.

“We have safeguarded this sacred land for centuries and yet were not even consulted,” Muduli told Al Jazeera. “This is a clear tactic forcing the mines on us without our consent while snatching our rights.”

Immediately after the October 9 Gram Sabha meetings, the villagers wrote to the local authorities asking for the deliberations to be held again. They flagged the hurried nature of the meetings and pointed to the fact that the village heads had declared them “invalid”.

Yet, on October 15, the allegedly forged resolutions were added to the official file. It was only on February 11 this year that those documents were made public on the environment ministry’s website.

So far, more than 50 people from several villages in Koraput have issued sworn affidavits declaring that they did not attend the village council meetings and that their signatures or thumb impressions were forged. They have also filed petitions in court and with district authorities, as well as complaints with the police, alleging forgery and demanding an investigation into the land given for the Adani mine.

In March, the 10 affected villages around Balda Hill held meetings where they rejected the previous resolutions passed by their village councils and reiterated their opposition to the proposed bauxite mine.

In May, Muduli approached the court on behalf of the villagers. But it was too late.

On May 7, all required approvals were granted to Kalinga Alumina Limited and the forest land was handed over for the $24m bauxite mining project, with an associated alumina refinery on a lease of 50 years. No compensation has been promised to the villagers.

“What they have done is illegal, but we will not back off,” Balda resident Rajendra Khara told Al Jazeera.

While the approvals have been granted, actual work has not started on the ground. Villagers have vowed to stop construction. “Whatever happens, we are never going to give it to Adani. This is our ancestral land,” Rajendra said.

A woman carrying firewood in Balda village [Mahmodul Hassan/ Al Jazeera]

‘Deeply troubling trend’

Arpitha Kodiveri, assistant professor of political science at Vassar College in the United States who has worked on environmental law and justice related to mining in India, told Al Jazeera that bypassing the consent of landowners sets a trend for illegal practice.

“What you are starting to see across multiple jurisdictions is an administrative approach to bypassing the consent provision. What I fear is that it has become an illegal administrative practice of implementing the consent provision without adhering to procedure and law, and that is something we should be worried about,” she said.

Kodiveri said alleged irregularities in the consent process could also provide grounds for the affected parties to challenge the government clearance granted to such mining projects. She also argued that the rules should make consequences for irregular consent practices clearer and must seek accountability when mandatory provisions are bypassed.

“Guidelines must be established so this process is implemented in spirit and not just in letter, and to signal to administrative actors that there are consequences for practising fraudulent signatures or taking signatures of the deceased. This has happened so many times in Odisha and elsewhere that it is a deeply troubling trend.”

Land Conflict Watch, a New Delhi-based research organisation, has tracked at least 28 instances of consent-related “conflicts” from projects such as mining, plantation, energy and other infrastructure across India since 2003. The organisation also found allegations of forgery, evasion of mandatory public consultations and forceful mining of ancestral land while studying such conflicts.

Even the studies conducted by the government show a similar trend.

A 2024 report by India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), an independent constitutional authority, on land management in tribal-dominated areas revealed 136 consent violations in mining and other projects. In 73 of these violations, no Gram Sabha meetings were held, while in another 29, land acquisition was done while disregarding the views of the village council.

Over the past few years, however, allegations of outright forgeries of Gram Sabha resolutions have emerged.

In 2023 in Sijimali, about 180km from Balda, villagers discovered similar forged consents and meetings for a bauxite mine by Vedanta Resources, India’s largest mining company backed by a London-based conglomerate. At least eight villages denied consent to hand over 708 hectares of forest land, despite official documents claiming otherwise.

Sijimali has seen near-continuous protests since, escalating to violence in April when clashes between the police and protesters injured 70.

“If the Gram Sabha has not given consent, then the forest clearance given is illegal. It has to be quashed. They are making a mockery of the law,” Shomona Khanna, a Supreme Court lawyer specialising in environmental and tribal law, told Al Jazeera.

“These are criminal offences … Any person who dispossesses a forest dweller of their forest right or interferes in the enjoyment of the forest right is committing a crime, which is called an atrocity under Indian law,” she said.

Back in Balda, the villagers fear that if mining starts, the rainwater-fed streams that sustain paddy cultivation will dry up. Forests that provided gourds, fruits, flowers, bark, firewood and medicinal plants will be affected.

Like many Indigenous tribal communities, their animist faith is linked to the surrounding forests – home to small shrines, idols and caves considered to be sacred.

“The forest is everything for us,” said Raghunath Hanthal, a 70-year-old priest in Balda. “Our maa [goddess] is here.”

On the official document, the priest’s name is listed as serial number 171, with his purported signature in Odia.

“I did not even go to the meeting. We were here, protesting that day,” he said. “Taking away our forests will not just destroy our livelihood, but it will incur the wrath of our goddess.”

据称，伪造的签名和指纹——甚至是已故或虚构人物的签名和指纹——被用来获取铝土矿开采用地。

印度东部奥里萨邦巴尔达村的店主拉古纳特·卡拉发现自己的名字出现在一份同意开发一个备受争议的矿山的协议文件上。他否认曾签署过该文件。[马赫穆杜尔·哈桑/半岛电视台]

印度科拉普特——拉古纳特·卡拉震惊地发现，一张纸上印着他的拇指印，上面声明他已同意政府的一项提议，即在他村庄的原始森林土地上开采铝土矿。

他说他从未留下过那个拇指印。

列表 1/4：Gautam Adani 是谁？他为什么备受争议？

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列表 4/4：印度的采矿热潮威胁着部落人民

“我一直都用英文签名。那是别人的拇指，”卡拉说道。他是印度东部奥里萨邦科拉普特县巴尔达村的一位店主，该县是一个以部落为主的地区。

卡拉是巴尔达村和邻近的班努尔村数百名因新建铝土矿而失去土地的土著部落成员之一。该矿由卡林加氧化铝有限公司开发，该公司是阿达尼企业有限公司的子公司，而阿达尼企业有限公司是一家由印度第二大富豪、与印度总理纳伦德拉·莫迪关系密切的高塔姆·阿达尼拥有的企业集团。

这项耗资 2400 万美元的项目将占用巴尔达山的大部分平地——巴尔达山拥有森林、草原和洞穴，被周围至少 10 个部落村庄视为圣地。

为了推进该项目，据称在去年10月9日于巴尔达和班努尔举行的村委会会议上，收集了近600名部落居民的签名和指纹。班努尔距离巴尔达5公里。

卡拉表示，他从未参加过巴尔达的会议，而是和妻子、妹妹以及其他村民在距离村委会办公室约 100 米的地方抗议拟建的矿场。

“（指纹）是假的。我们根本没去参加村里的会议。我们都在外面忙着抗议，”他告诉半岛电视台。

印度宪法承认土著社区对其传统土地的权利。森林法和赋予部落地区自治权的法律规定，任何将此类土地用于其他用途的变更，都必须经过村委会决议。

村委会会议通过的决议只有在全村50%的成年人以书面形式同意的情况下才有效。政府文件声称，巴尔达村360名成年人和班努尔村227名成年人共580人同意为阿达尼煤矿项目放弃土地。但这两个村的民选村长均否认收集到任何签名，并称这两次会议“无效”。

村民在两次议会会议上拍摄的照片显示，出席人数加起来只有大约 100 人——巴尔达村近 40 人，班努尔村 68 人——远远低于通过有效决议所需的 50% 法定人数。

此外，村民们声称决议文件上的大多数签名都是伪造的、冒充的或假的。

他们还声称，这些文件包含虚构人物的签名，甚至还有多年前去世的人的名字。有些人甚至说，他们之前在一次无关的村委会会议上的签名被伪造地粘贴到了铝土矿开采文件上。

半岛电视台于8月18日向阿达尼集团及其通讯主管发送邮件，就伪造和欺诈指控寻求回应。随后，我们于9月25日再次发送邮件请求置评，但未收到任何回复。半岛电视台还就村民提出的担忧向科拉普特地区行政长官——当地最高级别官员马诺杰·萨蒂亚万·马哈詹寻求回应，但同样未收到回复。科拉普特地区警长罗希特·瓦尔马也未回复半岛电视台的问询。

拉玛·汉塔尔住在他那间锈迹斑斑的铁皮木屋里。这位60岁老人的名字也出现在了同意书中——尽管他瘫痪了，几乎无法动弹，也无法说话。他的儿媳否认他曾参加过签署这份文件的会议。[马赫穆杜尔·哈桑/半岛电视台]

“他们把我的文件拿走了。”

许多参加会议的人表示他们反对该采矿项目。

“我们被告知，如果允许采矿，村里就会修建道路、提供就业机会、铺设排水系统、接通自来水，还会建一所学校，”班努尔的农民马达夫·昆蒂利说道。

科拉普特是印度最不发达的地区之一，类似的承诺往往很有说服力。昆蒂利说，一份文件被传阅，征集签名。

“我说过，如果森林要被改道，我就不会签字。他们把文件从我手里拿走了，”他告诉半岛电视台。

在巴尔达和班努尔，半岛电视台采访了许多村民，他们表示，当他们发现自己的签名或指纹出现在决议上时，感到非常震惊。

拉玛·汉塔尔一动不动地坐在他那间锈迹斑斑的铁皮木头小屋门口。这位60岁的老人已经瘫痪多年，无法说话。

“他不可能参加会议，甚至不可能签字，”他的儿媳钱德拉玛·汉塔尔说。

虽然汉塔尔显然是用奥里萨邦的官方语言奥里亚语签署了同意书，但钱德拉玛却在她的名字旁边看到了一个拇指印。她也否认参加了会议。

签署者中有三位古鲁巴里·卡拉人——据称他们用拇指按压表示支持该采矿项目。

在巴尔达村，村民们只能找到两位“古鲁巴里”——一位住在 3 公里外，否认参加了会议——另一位则住在村里，但他在村委会会议召开之前就已经去世了。

“我母亲于2025年2月去世。八个月后，他们怎么能伪造她的存在和签名呢？”她的儿子萨赫德夫问道。她去世时享年近75岁，死于自然原因。

第一位古鲁巴里家族的另外两人也被列为签名人——她卧床不起的丈夫（三个月前从树上摔下来导致瘫痪）和她的侄子。两人均否认出席了10月9日的会议。

第三位古鲁巴里仍然下落不明。

半岛电视台采访了 20 多人，并查阅了巴尔达村和班努尔村的记录，但至少有 67 名决议签署人下落不明。

在班努尔，至少有三名死者通过指纹进行身份识别。这三名死者的家属——他们也被列为文件中的同意人——证实了亲人的死亡。

“我的母亲四年前去世了，”35岁的纳库尔·阿朗说道，他是萨奈·阿朗的儿子，在班努尔决议中排名第108位。

纳库尔的签名是奥里亚语，但他表示自己在维沙卡帕特南的一个建筑工地工作，维沙卡帕特南是奥里萨邦邻近的安得拉邦的一个沿海城市，距离科拉普特 170 公里（105 英里）。

“我不知道是谁签了我们的名字，”他告诉半岛电视台。

拉古纳特·卡拉及其妻子和妹妹的名字出现在决议中，旁边还有他们的指纹。他们否认曾同意过该采矿项目。[马赫穆杜尔·哈桑/半岛电视台]

仓促召开的“欺诈性”会议

在 16 页的 Bannur 决议文件的第 10 页上，有 13 个名字是由同一人亲笔书写的，旁边整齐地排列着一排拇指印。

50岁的农民苏纳达尔·穆杜利看到这张纸时，立刻认出这是他自己的笔迹。

“但我们当中没有人参加过村民大会，”他说。

穆杜利说，拉姆纳特·蓬吉是当地税务局的合同工，他去年12月到访过该村，并交给了他一份登记册。他被要求填写那些希望政府承认其传统土地的村民的姓名。

许多部落社区历来被排除在土地登记之外，世世代代都在“政府所有”的土地上耕作。政府经常承诺将这些土地转移到他们的名下，而且在该地区，派遣受雇官员收集农民信息的做法也并不罕见。

“他说他需要所有人的签名。我告诉他我会去召集居民，但他却说没必要，我可以代表他们签名，”穆杜利说道，随后他打电话给一些居民征求他们的同意。

“我把名字写在纸的一侧，然后我和他轮流用拇指按压名字。这是他的主意，我只是照做了，”他说。

直到今年六月半岛电视台访问班努尔时，穆杜利才看到同一份文件被纳入了采矿决议草案中。

蓬吉也向半岛电视台证实，这些签名是以另一个借口获得的。

他说：“我受雇到每个村庄收集文件并签署土地清册，报酬是3000卢比。我就是这么做的。我只把签好的文件提交给了（税务）部门。”

“我不知道他们会把矿用在这个项目（阿达尼项目）上。我也反对在我们地区采矿。”

官方规定指出，为确保达到法定人数，村委会会议的公告应在预定日期前两周发布。

然而，多位居民告诉半岛电视台，会议通知直到10月8日才张贴在村委会办公室外，也就是会议召开的前一天。半岛电视台获得的这些通知日期分别为2025年9月22日和23日。

通往巴尔达山顶的道路将被改建为矿山进场道路。[马赫穆杜尔·哈桑/半岛电视台]

异常仓促的采矿审批

与此同时，据当地居民和活动人士称，政府仓促推进了奥里萨邦的阿达尼矿业项目。

2023年2月，奥里萨邦政府宣布阿达尼企业为科拉普特矿的首选竞标者，此举立即引发巴尔达和班努尔部落民众的抗议。他们游行至当地政府办公室，抗议政府在157公顷的森林土地上开采矿藏，砍伐周围的树木，并导致居民流离失所。

两年后，即2025年3月6日，州政府举行了公开听证会——这是获得批准的强制性程序，村民们在会上被告知项目详情，他们的反对意见也被正式记录在案。绝大多数村民都表达了对该采矿项目的反对意见。

尽管有人反对，但几个月后，政府在评估项目可能造成的生态破坏后，还是颁发了环境许可——这是一项关键的批准。

根据印度法律，历史上被排除在土地所有权之外的森林居民社区可以寻求对其传统森林土地的个人或社区权利。巴尔达及其邻近社区于2025年申请了2500公顷森林土地的权利。这些权利申请的大部分与采矿租赁区重叠。

通常，理赔流程包括收集理赔申请和相关文件、获得地方政府批准、由官员核实，以及在理赔申请被修改或驳回时留出充足的上诉时间。这一过程通常出了名的缓慢。

今年1月，当局在未通知当地村委会的情况下“解决”了这些社区权利诉求。最终，只有不到五分之一的诉求区域得到承认，而整个矿区都被排除在外。村民通常会有时间提出上诉。

然而，村民们声称，本案中，两个上诉委员会仅用了三天时间就维持了原判，甚至没有给村民们时间提交上诉。

阿贾亚·穆杜利是受影响村庄授权的三人团队成员之一，该团队可以向印度任何法院提起诉讼、签署文件、采取必要的法律措施，并与政府委员会联络，以阻止他们的土地被征用。

穆杜利告诉半岛电视台，土地征用过程“异常仓促”。

穆杜利告诉半岛电视台：“我们守护这片圣地已有数百年历史，却连咨询都没有。这显然是企图在未经我们同意的情况下强行开采矿藏，同时剥夺我们的权利。”

10月9日村民大会结束后，村民们立即致函地方当局，要求重新召开会议。他们指出会议仓促，并强调村长们已宣布会议“无效”。

然而，据称伪造的决议于10月15日被添加到官方文件中。直到今年2月11日，这些文件才在环境部的网站上公开。

截至目前，科拉普特县多个村庄已有超过50名村民出具宣誓书，声明他们未参加村委会会议，且他们的签名或指纹系伪造。他们还向法院和地区政府提交了请愿书，并向警方报案，指控存在伪造行为，要求对阿达尼煤矿项目所获土地进行调查。

3 月，巴尔达山周围受影响的 10 个村庄举行了会议，会上他们否决了村委会先前通过的决议，并重申了他们对拟建铝土矿的反对。

五月份，穆杜利代表村民向法院提起诉讼。但为时已晚。

5月7日，卡林加氧化铝有限公司获得了所有必要的审批，林地也正式移交给该公司，用于建设价值2400万美元的铝土矿开采项目，同时还将租赁一座配套的氧化铝精炼厂，租期为50年。目前尚未承诺向村民提供任何补偿。

“他们的行为是非法的，但我们不会退缩，”巴尔达居民拉金德拉·卡拉告诉半岛电视台。

虽然审批已经通过，但实际施工尚未开始。村民们誓言要阻止建设。“无论如何，我们绝不会把这块地给阿达尼集团。这是我们的祖传土地，”拉金德拉说道。

巴尔达村一名妇女扛着柴火。[马赫穆杜尔·哈桑/半岛电视台]

“令人深感不安的趋势”

美国瓦萨学院政治学助理教授阿皮塔·科迪维里 (Arpitha Kodiveri) 曾研究过印度采矿相关的环境法律和司法问题，她告诉半岛电视台，绕过土地所有者的同意会助长非法行为的风气。

“在多个司法管辖区，我们都开始看到一种绕过同意条款的行政手段。我担心的是，这种不遵守程序和法律就执行同意条款的做法已经变成了一种非法的行政行为，这才是我们应该关注的问题，”她说道。

科迪韦里表示，审批过程中涉嫌存在的违规行为也可能成为相关方质疑政府对这类采矿项目批准的理由。她还认为，相关规定应更明确地阐明违规审批行为的后果，并在强制性条款被规避时追究责任。

“必须制定指导方针，确保这一流程真正落实到位，而不仅仅是流于形式，并向行政人员发出明确信号：伪造签名或盗用死者签名是要承担后果的。这种情况在奥里萨邦和其他地方屡见不鲜，令人深感不安。”

总部位于新德里的研究机构“土地冲突观察”自 2003 年以来，追踪了印度各地至少 28 起与同意相关的“冲突”事件，这些冲突涉及采矿、种植园、能源和其他基础设施项目。该组织在研究这些冲突的过程中，还发现了伪造文件、逃避强制性公众咨询以及强行开采祖传土地等指控。

就连政府进行的研究也显示出类似的趋势。

印度审计长（CAG）是独立的宪法机构，其2024年发布的一份关于部落聚居区土地管理的报告揭露，在采矿和其他项目中存在136起违反村民同意的案例。其中73起案例未召开村民大会，另有29起案例在征地过程中无视村委会的意见。

然而，在过去几年里，出现了公然伪造村委会决议的指控。

2023年，在距离巴尔达约180公里的锡吉马利，村民们发现了类似的伪造同意书和会议记录，这些文件和会议记录涉及印度最大的矿业公司韦丹塔资源公司（Vedanta Resources，一家总部位于伦敦的集团公司）的一个铝土矿项目。尽管官方文件声称同意，但至少有八个村庄拒绝交出708公顷的林地。

此后，锡吉马利几乎一直发生抗议活动，4 月份抗议活动升级为暴力事件，警察与抗议者发生冲突，造成 70 人受伤。

“如果村委会没有同意，那么颁发的森林许可就是非法的，必须予以撤销。他们这是在藐视法律。”最高法院专门从事环境法和部落法的律师肖莫娜·卡纳告诉半岛电视台。

“这些都是刑事犯罪……任何剥夺森林居民森林权利或干涉其享受森林权利的人都犯了罪，根据印度法律，这被称为暴行，”她说。

回到巴尔达村，村民们担心，一旦采矿开始，赖以维持水稻种植的雨水溪流将会干涸。提供葫芦、水果、鲜花、树皮、柴火和药用植物的森林也将受到影响。

与许多土著部落社区一样，他们的万物有灵论信仰与周围的森林有关——森林里有小型神龛、偶像和被认为是神圣的洞穴。

“森林对我们来说就是一切，”巴尔达村一位70岁的祭司拉古纳特·汉塔尔说。“我们的女神就在这里。”

在官方文件上，这位牧师的名字被列为第 171 号，并附有据称是他用奥里亚语签下的签名。

“我根本没去参加会议。那天我们都在这里抗议，”他说。“夺走我们的森林不仅会摧毁我们的生计，还会触怒我们的女神。”