Proposed Bauxite Mining Project Threatens Rare Jeypore Ground Gecko In Odisha's Balda Hills

Only four individuals of the endangered Jeypore ground gecko have been documented in the past year within Odisha's Balda hills, the site of a proposed bauxite mining project.

The nocturnal gecko was presumed extinct for 130 years until its rediscovery in 2010 by herpetologists Ishan Agarwal and Aniruddha Datta-Roy in the Eastern Ghats.

Local Bondo and Porja Adivasis have protested the 147-hectare opencast bauxite mine proposal by Adani-subsidiary Kalinga Alumina Ltd., asserting the area is their ancestral land.