The Supreme Court judges read the report aloud in court. The government lawyers did not know where to hide from the embarrassment. The case was decided long before the judges finished reading the report. The judges said the Gonds had earned the right to be heard, because clearly the government had taken away all their rights a long time ago. So the least the Gonds could get now was the right to vote about the mine.

And so, finally, the Gonds were allowed to decide their own fate. The Supreme Court appointed a special team to make sure the voting was done in a fair manner. All kinds of experts and observers were sent to Deogan. And, in the third week of February, the Gonds came out to vote. They were to put a tick mark against either of two boxes, ‘yes’ or ‘no’, against two questions, and then drop the piece of paper in a box. Every single grownup from twenty villages was there, even the old and the sick.

Jadob met Korok after the court’s order. With tears in his eyes, Jadob thanked the boy, and apologised because Korok himself, being less than eighteen, would not be able to vote.

‘You have earned it, you know. You should have been allowed to vote. You are as grown-up as anybody else, maybe even more, even if the law does not agree. I am sorry,’ said Jadob.

Korok, who was not used to people crying around him, did not know what to say. He was happy the villagers would get to vote, and did not much mind if he didn’t. He would vote when he grew up.

And the Gonds voted. Every single one of them voted ‘no’ to the first question: were they willing to leave their villages and settle somewhere else? And every single Gond voted ‘no’ to the second question: should the government be allowed to give the land to the Company for a bauxite mine?

And that was where the matter ended. The Supreme Court agreed to the result of the vote, and wrote stern letters to the governments in Delhi and Bhubaneshwar to leave the Gonds alone.

But there was more. The Supreme Court also ordered the government of Odisha to investigate how the police and other officials worked in Balangir, and to ‘make changes where necessary’. It also asked the government to check if the Gonds had been unfairly treated during the drought, and to pay them money for such poor treatment.

Long before this, the fury of the state government had fallen on Patnaik. He had been immediately suspended the day after he arrested Mishra, and was now being investigated for corruption, for mistreatment of people in Balangir, and for a lot of other things. Patnaik and his family had to leave Balangir quietly, and very quickly.