Dongria Kondh Road Block — Tribe vows to fight mine with axes and arrows

Tribe vows to fight mine with axes and arrows

One of India’s most iso­lat­ed tribes, the Don­gria Kondh, is prepar­ing to stop British FTSE 100 com­pa­ny Vedan­ta from min­ing alu­mini­um ore on their sacred moun­tain, after police and hired thugs forced pro­tes­tors to dis­man­tle a bar­ri­cade over the week­end.

Tribe vows to fight mine with axes and arrows

One of India’s most iso­lat­ed tribes, the Don­gria Kondh, is prepar­ing to stop British FTSE 100 com­pa­ny Vedan­ta from min­ing alu­mini­um ore on their sacred moun­tain, after police and hired thugs forced pro­tes­tors to dis­man­tle a bar­ri­cade over the week­end.

About 150 peo­ple had blocked the road in Oris­sa state on Wednes­day after hear­ing that Vedan­ta intend­ed to start sur­vey work for a planned alu­mini­um mine which would destroy an eco­log­i­cal­ly vital hill, and the Don­gria Kondh’s most sacred site. Vedan­ta employ­ees vis­it­ed the block­ade repeat­ed­ly, threat­en­ing the pro­tes­tors. On Fri­day the vil­lagers gave in and took down the bar­ri­cade, but about 100 are still at the side of the road, block­ing traf­fic when Vedan­ta vehi­cles approach.

Vedan­ta is major­i­ty owned by Lon­don-based Indi­an bil­lion­aire Anil Agar­w­al.

Today, Don­gria Kondh from all over Niyam­giri, the hill range that would be dec­i­mat­ed by Vedanta’s mine, are mak­ing arrows and prepar­ing their axes to stop Vedan­ta reach­ing their sacred moun­tain. One Don­gria man said today ‘Now our peo­ple are very angry. We have to show the Don­gria Kondh pow­er to Vedan­ta.’

When India’s Supreme Court gave Vedan­ta the green light in August to mine on Don­gria land, around 40 Don­grias used tree trunks to block a road lead­ing into their hills, and held ban­ners read­ing, ‘We are Don­gria Kondh. Vedan­ta can not take our moun­tain.’ [pho­tos avail­able]

The moun­tain that Vedan­ta wants to mine is not only the Don­gria Kondh’s most sacred site, it is also inte­gral to the entire ecosys­tem of the hills, enabling the numer­ous streams and lush forests which sus­tain the Don­grias to con­tin­ue to thrive.

Survival’s direc­tor, Stephen Cor­ry, said today ‘The Don­gria Kondh are pro­tect­ing their land from invaders, who are only inter­est­ed in plun­der­ing the moun­tain for their own gain. The Don­grias will get noth­ing from the mine, except des­ti­tu­tion and ruin, and Sur­vival will con­tin­ue to sup­port their resis­tance to Vedan­ta.’

For more infor­ma­tion please con­tact Miri­am Ross at Sur­vival Inter­na­tion­al (+44) (0)20 7687 8734 or (+44) (0)7504 543 367 or email mr@survival-international.org