In Kalinganagar, Odisha, the Tata Group’s plan to establish a massive steel plant was met with resistance from the local tribal communities. The tribal people were deeply concerned about losing their land and livelihoods due to industrialization. This conflict escalated, leading to a tragic incident on January 2, 2006, when 14 tribals lost their lives in a police firing incident. To further compound the tragedy, it was discovered that during postmortems, the palms of five deceased tribals were chopped for fingerprinting purposes.

The root causes of the tribal protests were twofold. Firstly, they were demanding job opportunities in the proposed steel plant as compensation for the loss of their lands and homes. Secondly, there was a prevailing fear that the steel plant would negatively impact the environment by polluting water bodies and land, thus making life difficult for the tribal communities. This dispute not only hindered the establishment of the steel plant but also had broader implications for the industrialization efforts in Odisha.