When the Odisha police opened fire on a gathering of villagers On January 2, 2006, the village, near the Kalinganagar steel hub in Jajpur district, who had come to protest the construction of the boundary wall of a Tata Steel plant. Thirteen Adivasis and a policeman were killed, sending shock waves across Odisha.

The land on which Adivasis were living for centuries was being taken away by the state with the promise of the benefits of development that would come along and transform their lives. They were also promised at least one job in a family. Factories came up, mining began, but the transformation in the lives of the people remained elusive; instead, what they began witnessing was destruction of the environment around them.