Shopkeeper Raghunath Khara said he was shocked to see his thumb impression on a paper declaring he had consented to the government-backed mining proposal. "I always sign in English. It was someone else's thumb," he told Al Jazeera. Khara said he never attended the village council meeting at all, but was protesting with his wife, sister and other villagers about 100 metres from the village office in Balda.
The mine is being developed by Kalinga Alumina Limited, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, the conglomerate owned by Gautam Adani, India's second richest businessman and a figure close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The project will consume a large part of Balda Hill, home to forests, grasslands and caves considered sacred by at least 10 surrounding tribal villages.
Purported signatures and thumb impressions of nearly 600 tribal adults were allegedly collected during council meetings in Balda and neighbouring Bannur, 5km away, held on October 9 last year. Indian law recognises the rights of Indigenous communities over traditional lands, and requires a village council resolution for any diversion of such land. A resolution is valid only if 50 percent of all adults consent in writing.
Government documents claim all 580 adults in the two villages agreed to give up their land. But the elected village heads of both villages denied any signatures were collected and called the two meetings invalid. Photographs taken by villagers show combined attendance of about 100 people, far below the required quorum.
Villagers allege most signatures on the resolution documents are fake, forged or impersonated. They say the documents contain names of fictitious persons and people who died years ago, and that some signatures from an earlier, unrelated council meeting were fraudulently pasted onto the bauxite mine document.
Al Jazeera emailed the Adani group for comment; the published report does not include a response.