Conflicts like the one in Niyamgiri are becoming increasingly common in India as the country tries to extract and exploit the mineral wealth in its forests and mountains. India allows state governments to 18)appropriate land for use by private companies provided the people displaced are compensated and resettled. People living on that land cannot object once the state acquires it， and in Orissa the authorities have approved 54 projects worth $46 billion. That process has already displaced 1.4 million people in the state since 2001， according to India’s Rural Development Ministry. The Dongria are challenging this policy in the courts. Says Prafulla Samantara， an activist in Orissa and one of the original 19)petitioners in the case： “How can the state give away land which is not theirs in the first place？”
The Dongria don’t want to leave their mountain， but that doesn’t mean they want to be left in an untouched state of nature. At one point in the film， Avatar’s hero， Jake Sully， 20)laments about the Na’vi， “They’re not going to make a deal ... There’s nothing that we have that they want.” But that’s not necessarily true for the Dongria or the millions of other so-called tribal people who live in India’s vast 21)stretches of undeveloped forest. While they are largely self-sufficient， living on what they can grow and hunt， they do sell some of their22)produce to traders in neighboring towns. Gautam Navlakha， a volunteer with the People’s Union for Democratic Rights， another civil-liberties group based in New Delhi， says that while the Dongria and other tribal populations 23)are disillusioned with the government’s resettlement schemes， they would welcome real help. Ponds and other simple irrigation projects would make their livelihood less dependent on the 24)monsoon and make their agriculture more productive， allowing them to grow two or three crops a year instead of just one. “They say， ‘You’ve never done anything for us， now please let us be，’” says Navlakha. “‘If you are going to develop this area， then do what we want.’”
Near the end of the film， the Na’vi fight a long and heroic battle with a 25)corporate 26)militia to save their sacred forest. In real life， a violent conflict is unlikely to end well for the Dongria. The Dongria’s battle has been peaceful so far. While the Dongria possess bows and arrows， they “are not violent people，” says Samantara. “But if the government uses violence， they will 27)retaliate. That is my biggest fear.” If the helicopters head into the Dongria Kondh’s 28)abodes， there won’t be any fearsome， winged 29)Ikran 30)swooping in to save them.