Resource Extraction and Internal Displacement: Drivers of Conflict in India’s Mineral Belt

Abstract

Background: India’s central-eastern mineral belt, which spans Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and adjoining districts, holds much of the country’s coal, iron ore and bauxite. It also holds a large share of its Scheduled Tribe population, its densest forest cover and its most persistent armed conflict. Public debate often reduces this overlap to a single story, either “development versus insurgency” or “greed versus grievance”. This paper tests whether either story survives scrutiny.

Methods: A scoping review was conducted following PRISMA-ScR conventions. First, a 117-record bibliography supplied by the commissioning author was audited. Records were screened for topical relevance, and 38 were retained and thematically charted. Second, 52 purposively selected external sources (peer-reviewed studies, monographs, official reports, statutes and judgments) were added to build a comparative evidence base. Comparative case analysis was then applied to eight Indian sites and four international cases.

Results: The evidence indicates that conflict in the belt is not produced by minerals as such. It is produced by the interaction of five conditions: (i) coercive or consent-deficient land acquisition, (ii) a rent geography captured by politically connected intermediaries, (iii) a gap between statutory protections and administrative practice, (iv) the failure of extractive industries to absorb displaced labour, and (v) a security-state response that criminalises dissent. These conditions form a self-reinforcing displacement–conflict feedback loop. Quantitative studies of the Maoist conflict support livelihood and institutional channels over simple resource-greed explanations, and international comparisons show that the pattern is neither uniquely Indian nor inevitable.

Conclusion: Displacement should be treated as a causal driver of conflict, not merely an unfortunate by-product of mining. Durable de-escalation requires consent-based land governance, enforceable benefit-sharing, transparent rent administration and demilitarised conflict management.