Kondh Tribes Determined to Fight UK Mining Firm in India

OrissaIndia’s Supreme Court has today dealt a dev­as­tat­ing blow to the Don­gria Kondh tribe by giv­ing British FTSE 100 com­pa­ny Vedan­ta per­mis­sion to mine their sacred moun­tain. The tribe say the mine will destroy their way of life for­ev­er. Vedanta’s sub­sidiary Ster­lite plans to mine for baux­ite, the raw mate­r­i­al for alu­mini­um, from Niyam­giri moun­tain in Oris­sa, east­ern India. Vedan­ta is major­i­ty owned by Lon­don-based Indi­an bil­lion­aire Anil Agar­w­al. The Don­gria Kondh say the huge open cast mine will destroy a vast swathe of untouched for­est, and will reduce their most sacred site to an indus­tri­al waste­land. Last month, thir­ty Don­gria Kondh men block­ad­ed a road that is being built through their for­est towards the site of the pro­posed mine. The tribe say they will stage mass protests if min­ing goes ahead.

OrissaIndia’s Supreme Court has today dealt a dev­as­tat­ing blow to the Don­gria Kondh tribe by giv­ing British FTSE 100 com­pa­ny Vedan­ta per­mis­sion to mine their sacred moun­tain. The tribe say the mine will destroy their way of life for­ev­er. Vedanta’s sub­sidiary Ster­lite plans to mine for baux­ite, the raw mate­r­i­al for alu­mini­um, from Niyam­giri moun­tain in Oris­sa, east­ern India. Vedan­ta is major­i­ty owned by Lon­don-based Indi­an bil­lion­aire Anil Agar­w­al. The Don­gria Kondh say the huge open cast mine will destroy a vast swathe of untouched for­est, and will reduce their most sacred site to an indus­tri­al waste­land. Last month, thir­ty Don­gria Kondh men block­ad­ed a road that is being built through their for­est towards the site of the pro­posed mine. The tribe say they will stage mass protests if min­ing goes ahead.

The Don­gria Kondh can­not appeal this deci­sion by the Supreme Court, but they plan to sub­mit anoth­er peti­tion to the Court focus­ing on the ways in which the mine will vio­late their cul­tur­al and reli­gious rights.

Don­gria spokesper­son Jitu Jake­si­ka said, ‘We will become beg­gars if the com­pa­ny destroys our moun­tain and our for­est so that they can make mon­ey. We will give our lives for our moun­tain.’

At this sum­mer’s Earth First! Gath­er­ing Sav­ing Ice­land is organ­is­ing a ses­sion on baux­ite min­ing and heavy indus­try and min­ing in gen­er­al in Oris­sa and around the globe, where there will be the oppor­tu­ni­ty to plan action against Vedan­ta in the UK.

More on devel­op­ments in Oris­sa