POSCO (Pohang Steel Company of South Korea) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Odisha government on 22 June 2005, to construct a $12-billion integrated steel plant in Jagatsinghpur district. The project site required some 4,000 acres of land, of which 2,700 acres was forestland. Soon after, people started protesting against the proposed plant as several thousand families (estimated to be around 50,000) were at risk of being displaced and/or facing a loss of their livelihoods.

The local communities asserted their forest rights under FRA, 2006 over the land that they have traditionally used for the cultivation of betel vines, paddy and vegetables. The struggle to halt the project lasted for twelve years. Facing stiff resistance from the local communities and failing to get an unimpeachable environmental clearance, POSCO finally withdrew from the project in 2016.

However, the people whose land had been acquired are yet to get it back. The Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, mandates that land acquired for a project that remains unused for five years should be returned to the landowners. In addition to demanding the return of their cultivable land, the people are also demanding that the government urgently process individual and community forest rights claims that have been pending since 2011.

In the midst of all this, the Odisha government is facilitating the transfer of the acquired land to Jindal Steel Works for another mega project. A public hearing was organized on 20th December, 2019, which has been denounced as a "farce" by the villagers as the project affected people did not participate in the said meeting. The village council (palli sabha) of Dhinkia village passed a resolution against the project with other villages to soon follow suit.

Mr. Sankar Prasad Pani, an advocate based out of Orissa informed LCW in 2021, that pursuant to the resolution passed by the Dhinkia village and others, the Ministry of Forest, Environment and Climate Change (MoEF) issued a letter to the State Pollution Control Board of Odisha to examine the issues raised. Further, there are pending environmental clearances and project is yet to undergo a full appraisal by MoEF. It was reported that on March 3 and 4, 2021, the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC) for the projects related to infrastructure development of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF & CC), criticised the Environment Impact Assessment/Environment Management Plan (EIA/EMP) for the project and requested more information, including a revised environmental baseline study-looking at what information must be analysed to establish a benchmark against which future progress for the project can be made- impact mitigation plan and details of financial allocation.

In April 2022, environmental clearance (EC) was granted to Jindal Steel Works mega steel project. Prafulla Samantara, a rights activist based in Odisha, had challenged the validity of this EC in the National Green Tribunal (NGT). The challenge was filed on the ground that the project would cause environmental degradation by polluting the river Mahanadi, which acts as a source of water for residents of the area.

A year later, on 20 March 2023, the NGT suspended the EC granted to the project for three months. And the Odisha High Court on 24 March 2023, ordered a stay on the alienation of land to JSW till forest rights of the traditional forest dwellers is recognised under the Forest Rights Act, 2006.

Further, on 15 May 2023, a division bench of the Supreme Court ruled that local communities will have a say in the re-examination of potential environmental impacts of the steel project. They asked local communities to ventilate their grievances with the EAC.

In September 2023, the MoEFCC [revalidated the environmental clearance](https://www.jsw.in/sites/default/files/assets/downloads/steel/IR/Environmental Clearances/230915-EC-Revalidation-ISP.pdf) of JSW Utkal Steel with revised safeguards and mitigation measures.  

However, an interim report submitted by the People’s Commission to the Government of Odisha states that the clearance was obtained without determining the forest rights of residents. People were forced to leave their homes and only source of livelihood due to fear of arrest and torture. Around 100 cases have been registered between 2019 and 2023 concerning this issue.  

In January 2024, the project was characterised as a Green Steel Manufacturing Complex and that IDCO has handed over 2,958 acres of land to JSW to set up the facility. 

On 16 February 2024, the former Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen Patnaik, laid the foundation stone for the greenfield integrated steel manufacturing complex.   

As of November 2024, JSW and POSCO have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish this steel plant. This development marks the return of POSCO to the very land from which it was compelled to withdraw due to the decade-long, unyielding community resistance of the people of Dhinkia.