British mining company threatens sacred mountain
Vedanta Resources, a British company, intends to dig an open-pit bauxite mine on Niyamgiri mountain in India.
The mine will destroy the forests on which the Dongria Kondh depend and wreck the lives of thousands of other Kondh tribal people living in the area.
India’s Supreme Court has given the go ahead for the mine, but the Kondh peoples are determined to prevent the destruction of their most sacred site.
To be a Dongria Kondh is to live in the Niyamgiri Hills in Orissa state, India - they do not live anywhere else. Yet Vedanta Resources is determined to mine their sacred mountain's rich seam of bauxite (aluminium ore).
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| Watch Survival’s 10 minute film ‘Mine: story of a sacred mountain’ narrated by Joanna Lumley |
The Dongria farm the hill slopes, grow crops in among the forest and gather wild fruit and leaves for sale.
There are over 8000 members of the tribe, living in villages scattered throughout the Niyamgiri Hills.
They call themselves Jharnia, meaning ‘protector of streams’, because they protect their sacred mountains and the life-giving rivers that rise within its thick forests.
To the Dongria, Niyam Dongar hill is the seat of their god, Niyam Raja. To Vedanta it is a $2billion deposit of bauxite.
Vedanta’s open pit mine would destroy the forests, disrupt the rivers and spell the end of the Dongria Kondh as a distinct people.
The Dongria, and neighbouring Kondh tribals who also revere Niyam Raja, are determined to protect their sacred mountain.
They have held road blocks, a human chain and countless demonstrations against the company.
A Vedanta jeep was set alight when it was driven onto the sacred plateau.
In 2009 India’s Minster for Environment and Forests stated ‘There is still hope for Niyamgiri’ and the Ministry is currently investigating the project.
In 2010 the Church of England withdrew its investments from Vedanta stating that the company had failed to show, ‘The level of respect for human rights and local communities that we expect.’
The Norwegian Government and investment firm Martin Currie have also sold their shares in Vedanta Resources over concerns for human rights.
International pressure to save the Dongria Kondh is mounting.
A village of a neighbouring Kondh tribe in the Niyamgiri foothills is bulldozed to make way for the refinery.
India's Supreme Court denies Vedanta permission to mine Niyamgiri, but invites its subsidiary, Sterlite, to apply for a licence.
The Dongria Kondh stage regular large-scale protests against the mine.
UK government condemns Vedanta's treatment of the Dongria, demands change
Victory: India's Environment Minister blocks Vedanta's proposed mine.
