Cancellation of London Dongria Kondh tribe picket following targets disinvestment from Vendanta

The Sur­vival demon­stra­tion out­side Coutts Bank pre­vi­ous­ly adver­tised on this web­site planned for the 10th June has been can­celled. In reac­tion to the planned pick­et Coutts has just informed Sur­vival that they no longer hold shares in Vedan­ta, the British-based com­pa­ny whose planned baux­ite mine will dev­as­tate the lands of Indi­a’s Don­gria Kondh tribe.

The Sur­vival demon­stra­tion out­side Coutts Bank pre­vi­ous­ly adver­tised on this web­site planned for the 10th June has been can­celled. In reac­tion to the planned pick­et Coutts has just informed Sur­vival that they no longer hold shares in Vedan­ta, the British-based com­pa­ny whose planned baux­ite mine will dev­as­tate the lands of Indi­a’s Don­gria Kondh tribe.

Sur­vival is con­tin­u­ing to lob­by oth­er Vedan­ta share­hold­ers, as well as the com­pa­ny itself.

For more infor­ma­tion, please go to http://www.survival-international.org/tribes/dongria

Report fol­lows of pick­et last week.

Sur­vival protest — ‘Fins­bury prof­its from tribe’s destruc­tion’
28 May 2008

Sur­vival Inter­na­tion­al this morn­ing held a demon­stra­tion out­side the Lon­don PR com­pa­ny FINSBURY, a sub­sidiary of glob­al adver­tis­ing com­pa­ny WPP. The protest high­light­ed Finsbury’s involve­ment with British min­ing giant Vedan­ta, which is set to destroy one of India’s most iso­lat­ed tribes – the Don­gria Kondh.

Car­ry­ing plac­ards that said ‘Fins­bury prof­its from tribe’s destruc­tion’, demon­stra­tors hand­ed leaflets to Fins­bury employ­ees as they arrived for work, urg­ing them to per­suade Fins­bury to resign their account with Vedan­ta.

Vedanta’s sub­sidiary, Ster­lite, plans to mine alu­mini­um ore from the Niyam­giri moun­tains in Oris­sa, India, where all of the 8,000 Don­gria Kondh live.

The Don­gria Kondh vehe­ment­ly oppose the mine. Jitu Jake­si­ka, a Don­gria spokesper­son, 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.’

The Don­gria Kondh have lived on the slopes of Niyam­giri since time immemo­r­i­al, and are total­ly depen­dent on its forests. They view the moun­tain as sacred, grow crops on the slopes, and gath­er wild fruit in the dense forests.