India’s Environment Ministry has rejected Vedanta Resources’ plan to expand the refinery six-fold, and demanded immediate improvements to the existing plant situated at the base of Niyamgiri hills.
Over a hundred families lost their homes when the refinery was built, and many others lost their land and livelihood.
One man told Survival International, “The site where the refinery is now, the sources of water were in abundance. But now the bauxite dust is mixing into the wells and the streams. We’re in great trouble, nothing is right here.”
The refinery was part of a massive mining project that would have seen the sacred mountain of the Dongria Kondh tribe destroyed. After years of resistance from the tribe, and a huge international campaign from organizations including Survival International and Amnesty, the Indian government axed the mine.
An Environmental Court has compounded this decision by revoking Vedanta’s ‘environmental clearance’ for the mine, after members of the Dongria Kondh tribe appealed against it. The judge declared that the original clearance had not considered the ‘human miseries which the project is likely to inflict’.
Vedanta appealed to continue with its plan to expand the refinery regardless, but failed. An expert committee tasked with investigating Vedanta’s activities in Orissa concluded that the company had worked on the expansion of the refinery without official permission, a ‘serious offence’.
In a different Indian state, Tamil Nadu, the Madras High Court ordered the closure of Vedanta’s notorious Tuticorin copper smelter, concluding that it was releasing pollution into the air and water with ‘devastating impact’. India’s Supreme Court is now examining the case.
Stephen Corry, Director of Survival said today, “Vedanta is learning the hard way that it cannot ride rough-shod over tribal people forever. Other companies should learn from Vedanta’s mistakes; before investing time and money in a project, a company must gain the consent of local tribal communities.”
Source: Survival International Press Release dated October 21, 2010.
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