Impact of Mining on Tribal Livelihood:An Empirical Investigation into the Customary Frameworks and Issues Affecting Sustainable Livelihood in Eastern India

Apart from displacing people from their ancestral home and severing their cultural ties and bonds established over generations, mining also devastates the livelihood of the Tribals inhabiting areas experiencing such activities. With the onset of the era of Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization (LPG) coupled up with other Corporate-friendly legislations to encourage Multi National Corporations (MNCs) to establish their business concerns in India such as the Industrial Promotion Resolution (IPR) enacted by the Government of Odisha (GoO), prevailing levels of mining activities have received a major boost leading to the physical displacement and livelihood dispossession of millions of Tribals in Eastern India alone. Being the homeland of the Tribal People, Eastern India comprising up of the States of Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal is also home to a variety of mineral reserves located in mountain cappings, most of which are habitation sites of different Tribal Communities. Under such circumstances, it was considered imperative to undertake an empirical survey in the areas inhabited by this vulnerable section of the population in Eastern India to unravel the various underlying factors affecting their livelihood so that an Integrated Livelihood Revival Plan (ILRP) can be generated to mitigate the adverse implications of mining on Tribal livelihood. The key findings of the present study provide a snapshot of the critical issues affecting sustainability in areas experiencing mining activities. At the end, the Researcher-author provides his views with regards to the contributions he thinks the Present Study has made to the broader frameworks of Sustainable Development and Sustainable Livelihood from the perspective of the Eastern India Tribes.