Vedanta

Posted on Foil Vedanta

On Monday 29 July the seventh village – Phuldumer – again voted unanimously to reject Vedanta’s mine. This means the majority have now spoken, and Niyamgiri is saved by the people’s vote as sanctioned by the Supreme Court of India! In Odisha activists are already celebrating after months of hard work to ensure this precedent legal process was fair, and not manipulated. This victory also shows the amazing strength of Niyamgiri’s the people. Despite all Vedanta and the Odisha state government’s attempts to subvert the process: by threatening villagers with guns and violence, by selecting just twelve villages, by choosing corrupt judges – Niyamgiri villagers have united, across caste, class and district to defend the mountain that gives them life and livelihood.

On 28 August a demonstration against the mining giant Vedanta Resources took place during Vendata's AGM in London.

The demonstration was a joint effort between War On Want, Foil Vedanta, the London Mining Network, Amnesty and Survival International to protest outside the multinational corporation’s annual meeting at the Lincoln Centre in London’s Covent Garden.

Demonstrators accused Vedanta of causing death and displacement on a massive scale, as well as poisoning water and the environment.

On the 28th of July a large group of activists campaigning against mining corporation Vedanta, gather outside their AGM to protest against the wrong doing of Vedanta, especially to demand the withdraw of Vedanta from the Nyamgiri mountain in Orissa, India. Mountain that is sacred for the Dongria Kondh tribe.

London-listed Vedanta Resources came under further pressure over ethics as Britain's Church of England said it was selling all its shares in the company, worth around £3.8 million.

“We are not satisfied that Vedanta has shown, or is likely in future to show, the level of respect for human rights and local communities that we expect of companies in whom the Church investing bodies hold shares,” said Mr John Reynolds, the chairman of the Church's Economic Investment Advisory Group, which acts as the main advisor to the Church Commissioners and the Church of England Pensions Board.

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). The Dongria and other local Kondh people are resisting Vedanta and are determined to save Niyamgiri from becoming an industrial wasteland. Other Kondh groups are already suffering due to a bauxite refinery, built and operated by Vedanta, at the base of the Niyamgiri Hills.

Mining in the Age of Terror

The aluminium industry occupies a vital position in the military-industrial complex. Supply links between mining companies and arms companies are at the heart of this complex, along with the financial institutions that invest in both. In a context where state violence, as well as the terrorism it targets, is escalating in many countries, the “war against terror” has created a climate where too few are questioning the arms industry, and its role in promoting war.