NEW DELHI: A tribe dubbed the “real-life Avatar” after the Hollywood blockbuster have won their decade-long fight to stop British resources giant Vedanta from mining bauxite in hills they regard as sacred, authorities said yesterday.
The environment ministry rejected Vedanta’s plans for a multi-billion dollar bauxite mining project in the eastern state of Orissa after villagers voted overwhelmingly against the project.
Bhakta Charan Das, a local member of parliament who belongs to the national ruling Congress party, welcomed the decision.
“It is a victory for the Dongria Kondh tribals who made history by stopping mining at their place of worship,” Das said.
But an Orissa state minister called the rejection of the proposal to mine bauxite in the mineral-rich Niyamgiri hills “unfortunate” and accused the national government “of doing politics at the cost of development”.
Orissa Steel and Mines minister RK Singh told Press Trust of India (PTI) that steps would be taken to provide an alternative source of bauxite for London-listed Vedanta’s one-million-tonne-a-year aluminium refinery.
The environment ministry’s decision caps a decade-long battle against the proposed mine by the Dongria Kondh tribe. The 8,000-strong group has fiercely resisted attempts to mine the green hills of Niyamgiri on which they have relied for their crops and livelihood, and believe the hills are home to their deity Niyam Raja.
The Supreme Court ruled last April that locals should vote on the plan to extract bauxite from the hills. The proposal was rejected by all 12 village councils in the area. The voting by the villagers marked the first time an environmental referendum had been conducted on the orders of the Supreme Court, the PTI news agency said.
AFP
