A publicly commissioned and legitimate sociopolitical system ideally relies on, accounts for and caters to society's needs. However, societies with questionable sociopolitical and institutional legitimacy tend to be ruthless in their policies, pursuits and practices vis-à-vis their populations — let alone their historical, cultural, natural and topographical assets. Today, ours is hardly an exception.

This manifests in socio-economic agonies, marginalisation and hopelessness among the ruled, as well as in the little — if any — legitimacy of the rulers and their increasingly extractive, exclusive policies and practices that repel talent, FDI and MNCs. Lacking resources to sustain elite capture, this dispensation has begun to relentlessly capitalise on protected cultural heritage. The war on nature is evident, among other instances, in the renewed effort to questionably legitimise the exploitation of the protected Karoonjhar.

For years, excavations continued by private companies........

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