Local people in Odisha, India claim that it was forged behind land taken for the Adani mine

Allegedly, fake signatures and thumbprints - even those of dead and fictitious people - have been used to obtain bauxite mining land.

KORAPOT, India – Raghunath Khara was shocked to look at his thumb impression on a piece of paper that said he had agreed to a government proposal to mine bauxite from his village's pristine forest land.

He says that he never had such an idea of thumb.

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"I always sign in English. It was someone else's thumb," claimed Khara, a shopkeeper in Balda village in the Koraput tribal-dominated region of Odisha state in eastern India.

Khara is among hundreds of indigenous tribes in Balda and the neighboring village of Banur who have lost their land to the new bauxite mine. It is being developed by Kalinga Alumina Limited, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises Limited, a conglomerate owned by Gautam Adani, India's second-richest businessman and close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The $24 million project will consume a large portion of Balda Hill - home to forests, grasslands and caves that at least 10 surrounding tribal villages consider sacred.

Apparently, to take the project forward, the purported signatures and thumb impressions of nearly 600 tribals were collected at village council meetings in Balda and Banur held on October 9 last year. Bannur 5 km Staz Balda

Khara says he never attended the Balda meeting and instead protested the proposed mine with his wife, sister and other villagers about 100 meters from the village council office.

"It [the thumb image] was fake. We didn't attend the village meeting at all. We were all protesting outside," he told Al Jazeera.

The Indian Constitution recognizes the rights of indigenous communities over their traditional lands. Forest laws and laws granting autonomy to tribal areas mandate that village council approvals are required for any conversion of land for other purposes.

The resolution that is approved in the meeting of the village council is only valid if 50% of all adults in the village agree to it in writing. Government documents claim that all 580 adults - 360 in Balda and 227 in Banwar - agreed to give up their land for the Adani mine. But the elected villagers of both villages denied the collection of signatures and called these two meetings "invalid".

In addition, villagers claim that most of the signatures on the resolution documents are forged, forged or forged.

They also claim that the documents contain signatures of fake people and even names of people who died years ago. Some even said that their signatures from a previous unrelated village council meeting were forged on the bauxite mining document.

Al Jazeera emailed the Adani Group and its communications officer on August 18 seeking a response to allegations of forgery and fraud, then followed up with a second request for comment on September 25, but received no response. Al Jazeera also asked district magistrate Manoj Satyawan Mahajan - the most senior bureaucrat in Koraput - to respond to the concerns raised by the villagers but did not receive a response. Koraput District Superintendent of Police Rohit Varma also did not respond to Al Jazeera's questions.

Many who attended the meetings said they were against the mining project.

"We were told that if mining is allowed, the village will get roads, jobs, drainage and water connections and a school will be built," said Madhav Kuntili, a farmer in Banur.

Koraput is one of the least developed regions of India and similar promises often have significant impact. Contelli said a document was obtained for signature.

"I said if the forest is diverted, I will not sign it. They took the paper from me," he told Al Jazeera.

Across Balda and Benour, Al Jazeera met many villagers who said they were shocked to find their signatures or thumb impressions on the resolution.

Rama Hantal was sitting motionless by the door of his tin and rusted wooden hut. This 60-year-old man has been paralyzed for several years and is unable to speak.

"There is no way he will be able to attend the meeting or even sign," said Chandrama Hantal, his daughter-in-law.

While Hantal had apparently signed the consent form in Odia, the official language of Odisha, Chandrama saw a thumbprint in front of his name. He also denied attending this meeting.

Among the signatories are three Gurubari Khara – their alleged thumb impressions in support of the mining project.

In Balda, the villagers could only follow two 'Gurubaris' - one who lived 3 km away and refused to attend the meeting - and the other from the village itself, who had died long before the village council meeting.

"My mother died in February 2025. How can they forge her presence and signature eight months later?" He asked his son Sahdaf. He was nearly 75 years old when he died of natural causes.

Two other members of the Gorobury I family are also listed as signatories - her bedridden husband who fell from a tree three months before the council meeting, and her crippled nephew. Both companies denied this at the Oct. 9 meeting.

Al Jazeera interviewed more than 20 people and accessed records from the villages of Belda and Banour, but was unable to trace at least 67 people named as signatories to the resolution.

In Bannur, at least three deceased persons were indicated through the thumb. The families of all three - also referred to in the documents as consent forms - acknowledged the deaths of their relatives.

"My mother died four years ago," said Nakul Alang, the 35-year-old son of Sanai Alang, who is listed as serial number 108 in the Benoor resolution.

Nakul's signature appears in Odia, but he says he was working at a construction site in Visakhapatnam, a coastal town in Odisha's neighboring Andhra Pradesh state about 170 kilometers (105 miles) from Koraput.

"I don't know who put our name and signature," he told Al Jazeera.

On page 10 of Bannur's 16-page resolution document, 13 names are written in the same hand, followed by an orderly array of thumb impressions next to them.

When Sunadhar Moduli, a 50-year-old farmer, saw the paper, she immediately recognized that it was her handwriting.

“But none of us ever attended a gram sabha meeting,” he said.

Moduli said Ramnath Pungi, who works on contract basis for the local revenue department, visited the village in December and gave him a register. He was asked to fill in the names of residents who want their traditional lands recognized by the government.

Many tribal communities, historically excluded from land records, have been farming on "government-owned" land for generations. Repeated promises have been made to hand over such lands to them, and it is not uncommon in this region to send contract officials to collect information from farmers.

"He said he needed everyone's signature. I told him I would gather the residents, but he said no. I can sign on their behalf," said Moduli, who then called some residents to get permission.