The ongoing attack on adivasis by the combined power of the State and industry took a new turn with the firing by police leading to the massacre of adivasis in Kalinga Nagar in Orissa on 2 January 2006. Thirteen persons, including two women and a policeman, were killed and 17 injured following a clash between villagers and the police. Curfew was imposed in the Kalinga Nagar area.

About a thousand people, mostly tribals belonging to Chandia, Champakoila and Gobarghati villages near the upcoming industrial hub of Jajpur district, were on protest against the earthwork for the steel project of Tata Steel. According to Police sources, all attempts to disperse the crowd lathi-charge, tear-gas and rubber bullets failed. They had to open fire. The bullets took the lives of five people on the spot. Two succumbed to their injuries on the way to hospital, and the rest died in the hospital at Cuttack.

The repercussions of the Kalinga Nagar incident spread to Tentoponsi where the proposed sites for projects of Tata Steel`s 12 MT Greenfield steel plants are located. Thousands of people from 23 villages around Tentoponsi came together at Haldiboni football ground in Tentoponsi village, equipped with traditional weapons, such as bows and arrows, spears and sickles, and burnt the effigies of Navin Patnaik (Orissa Chief Minister), Arjun Munda (Jharkhand Chief Minister) and B. Muthuraman (Managing Director, Tata Steel) for the brutal and inhumane incident at Kalinga Nagar.

According to official sources, the government had acquired the land at Kalinga Nagar for Tata Steel, but the locals rejected the compensation offers. As the global demand for steel rises, private steel companies are busy setting up huge steel mills in the mineral-rich states of Orissa and Jharkhand. Tribal lands are being taken away without adequate compensation or comprehensive rehabilitation policies. The companies and the government are displacing tribals and reducing them to beggary. Since the companies are reluctant to appoint `unskilled` adivasis in their plants, a majority of the tribals are displaced without alternative employment.

The move to displace adivasis is an age-old one. In Jharkhand, the present government has decided to hand over thousands of acres of land to the big business houses for large-scale mining and related activities. If implemented, this will displace around 55,000 adivasis in the State.

Recognising the foul play, the tribals took a united decision to face the threat by forming Bhumi Suraksha Sanghatans (BSSs). The BSSs have paved the way for a new resistance movement. The resolve is not to give an inch of land to industry or to the government. Another important decision is not to allow political party leaders to lead tribal movements. The violent attack in Kalinga Nagar might pave the way for unprecedented resistance by adivasis to protect their rights.