Protect rights of communities in Orissa

Communities affected by Vedanta Resources mining activities

UK-based mining company is abusing the human rights of indigenous communities in Orissa, India.

Vedanta Resources, through its subsidiary companies plans to mine for bauxite in the Niyamgiri Hills, considered sacred by the Indigenous Dongria Kondh community. The proposed mine will threaten the community’s rights to water, food, health and work.

Local communities in nearby Lanjigarh, whose farmlands were acquired for Vedanta’s alumina refinery in 2003, are struggling to protect their livelihoods while contamination of their water sources and dust emissions pose serious risks to their health. Vedanta has ignored these risks and is now planning a six-fold expansion of its alumina refinery.

Vedanta has failed to provide full information and to adequately consult with local communities about its mining and refinery-expansion plans.

Final permission for the projects is pending with the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The people of Lanjigarh and Niyamgiri have been protesting against Vedanta’s attempts to willfully ignore their human rights. Please support their struggle by signing the petition below.

[We will submit your signatures to Vedanta Resources at their Annual General Meeting on Wednesday 28 July 2010.]

We, the undersigned, call upon Vedanta Resources to:

address existing human rights abuses linked to the Lanjigarh refinery;

halt refinery expansion until full, impartial and adequate assessments of the human rights implications of the proposed projects are carried out in genuine consultation with the affected communities;

halt mining plans and related activities in the Niyamgiri Hills until the Dongria Kondh provide free prior and informed consent to the project.

Read the full report: 'Don't mine us out of existence' [PDF]