Blockade stops British company’s midnight entry into tribes’ land

7/1/09 — A block­ade mount­ed by more than 50 pro­tes­tors stopped British min­ing com­pa­ny Vedan­ta enter­ing the land of the Don­gria Kondh and oth­er Kondh tribes under cov­er of dark­ness last night.

Dongria Kohnd 1

7/1/09 — A block­ade mount­ed by more than 50 pro­tes­tors stopped British min­ing com­pa­ny Vedan­ta enter­ing the land of the Don­gria Kondh and oth­er Kondh tribes under cov­er of dark­ness last night.

The FTSE 100 com­pa­ny plans to mine baux­ite on the Don­gria Kondh’s sacred moun­tain in the state of Oris­sa, lay­ing waste to the forests they depend on for their sur­vival.

Last night’s action fol­lows high lev­el meet­ings at the week­end between Vedanta’s bil­lion­aire chair­man Anil Agar­w­al and Oris­sa Chief Min­is­ter Naveen Pat­naik, who backs the mine. After the meet­ing, Agar­w­al told jour­nal­ists that min­ing would start ‘with­in a month or two’.

India’s Supreme Court has approved Vedanta’s plans, but the mine is yet to receive the envi­ron­men­tal clear­ance required for it to go ahead.

The stand-off between local vil­lagers and Vedanta’s bull­doz­ers at the block­ade site con­tin­ues. Pro­tes­tor Ajun Chan­di, who has received a series of threat­en­ing phone calls from Vedan­ta, says, ‘You must let the whole world know what Vedan­ta is doing.’

The Don­gria Kondh have said they will mount armed resis­tance if Ven­dan­ta try to evict them and destroy the for­est cov­ered moun­tains they call home.

More info at: www.survival-international.org/tribes/dongria