Doctor moved to Odisha to treat Adivasis, now behind bars for anti-mining protests

Randall Sequeira is a doctor who moved to Odisha’s Kalahandi district in 2017 to improve healthcare among Adivasi communities. He treated people in remote villages, ran health camps, trained voluntary health workers and helped students prepare for medical entrance examinations. He later supported resistance to bauxite mining in the region.

Police picked up Sequeira and activist Laxman Naik from Sequeira’s Bhawanipatna home around 11 pm on October 16. Officers handed them to Rayagada police. Sequeira was placed in judicial custody and charged with offences ranging from attempt to murder and rioting to possession of arms. Police say several serious cases were pending against him.

The arrest is linked to an April clash between police and tribals over an approach road to the Sijimali bauxite reserve. Police say Sequeira’s role emerged during investigation, although he was not named in the original FIR. His supporters describe the arrest as part of a wider crackdown on anti-mining resistance.

Police say Sequeira’s arrest followed a violent April clash between tribals and police in Rayagada district. The dispute concerned construction of an approach road to the Sijimali bauxite reserve. People on both sides were injured. The clash became the central event linking Sequeira to the later criminal case.

Sequeira was not named in the FIR registered after the clash. However, police claim their investigation later established his role. The Inspector General said four or five serious cases were pending against him and accused him of instigating people to make false allegations against the state government. Two tribal women also complained that he had instigated them.

Police had earlier made a general diary entry against Sequeira in September 2023. It concerned pamphlets, maps and other anti-mining materials circulated near the Sijimali hills. These allegations, together with the clash investigation, form the police case described in the article. Sequeira’s supporters dispute the arrest’s broader justification.

Sijimali and Kutrumali are two bauxite blocks in the Eastern Ghats hill ranges. The landscape is described as hills interspersed with valleys. Both blocks lie across Rayagada and Kalahandi districts and are known to contain high-grade bauxite. Their size and mineral value have made them central to proposed mining development.

The article links Adivasi protests to projects involving bauxite mining in the Sijimali and Kutrumali hills. A violent clash occurred over an approach road to the Sijimali reserve. Sequeira supported tribal resistance and circulated anti-mining materials, according to a police diary entry. The article also describes wider resistance by Adivasi and Dalit communities.

The protests matter because mining development is not limited to an extraction pit. It can require roads and other supporting infrastructure. The article reports that more than a hundred people have been jailed, according to Sequeira’s senior, Cyriac Abby Philips. It does not provide a detailed account of every community objection.

The two blocks represent a large mineral concentration in the Eastern Ghats. Sijimali spans 1,500 hectares and has an estimated reserve of 311 million tonnes. Kutrumali covers 702 hectares and has an estimated reserve of 127.737 million tonnes. Both are described as high-grade bauxite blocks spread across Rayagada and Kalahandi.

The article states that Vedanta bagged the Sijimali mine in February, but the supplied text ends at “February 2” and does not provide the completed date or further development details. The excerpt therefore supports naming Vedanta for Sijimali, but not a complete account of the award process.

The provided article does not state which company won rights to develop Kutrumali. It also does not give a complete description of the companies’ development plans. Those missing details cannot be established from the supplied text. The figures nevertheless show why the blocks are strategically important and why mining proposals have prompted strong local resistance.

Large bauxite projects can transform local landscapes because extraction removes vegetation and often requires roads, railways, pits, storage areas and processing facilities. That disruption can affect farming, forest gathering, water access and culturally important places. The supplied article establishes that the proposed blocks lie in hilly valleys and that communities are resisting related development.

The main mechanism is cumulative land-use change. Roads and railways open previously hard-to-reach areas, while mining removes surface layers and changes drainage. Dust, noise, traffic and polluted runoff can affect nearby settlements, streams and wildlife. Habitat loss and fragmentation can reduce biodiversity. These environmental pathways are well-established, but the article does not document measured impacts at Sijimali or Kutrumali.

If development proceeds, local conflicts could intensify unless land, water, health and community decision-making are protected. The article already records a clash over an approach road and wider arrests linked to resistance. It does not state whether construction will proceed, what safeguards apply, or what compensation communities may receive.

Judicial custody is detention ordered by a court during criminal proceedings. The person is held in a jail or sub-jail under prison authorities, rather than kept in police custody for questioning. It does not by itself establish guilt. In Sequeira’s case, the article says he was in judicial custody at the Rayagada sub-jail while facing several charges.

Section 163 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita gives Executive Magistrates power to issue temporary written orders. These orders can address danger, public nuisance, riots, or threats to public safety and tranquillity. They may restrict conduct or movement when authorities consider such action necessary to prevent disorder.

The article says an exclusion order under Section 163 barred Sequeira from entering Rayagada district. In July 2025, the Orissa High Court quashed that order. The provision therefore permits temporary preventive restrictions, but those restrictions can be challenged and reviewed by courts. The article does not specify the full reasoning behind the High Court’s decision.

Bauxite is the principal ore of aluminium. It is usually mined from near-surface deposits, crushed and refined into alumina through the Bayer process. Alumina is then converted into aluminium metal through electrolysis in the Hall-Héroult process. Producing aluminium requires substantial energy, while refining creates a caustic residue commonly called red mud.

Extraction can disrupt communities and ecosystems through clearing, excavation, dust, noise, heavy traffic and changes to drainage. Roads and railways may extend these effects beyond the mine. Mining can reduce habitat, affect biodiversity and pressure water supplies. Social disruption may include loss of farms, forest resources, homes or culturally important places, depending on the site and safeguards.

The supplied article focuses on conflict around Sijimali and Kutrumali, not on aluminium processing. It identifies high-grade bauxite, an approach-road clash and resistance by Adivasi communities. It does not report measured pollution, displacement or biodiversity loss there. Those impacts are established risks of bauxite development, not documented outcomes in this excerpt.