orissalive.com, July 27, 2009
By Anurjay Dhal
BHUBANESWAR: After running from pillar to post, even despite tall claims of Gandhi-Nehru family scion, Rahul Gandhi, the primitive tribal Kondh living in India’s most popular hunger zone in Orissa’s infamous KBK districts of Kalahandi, have finally launched their last battle against controversial Vedanta Company owned by London based Steel maker Anil Agarwal.
With Rahul Gandhi failed to kept his promises and local MP Bhakta Charan Das and his Green Kalahandi seems keeping mum, Sitaram, a young tribal boy from the district, has arrived in London to fight against the Steel maker.
“Many laugh while many cheated us but we cannot live without our God Mountain and the forest. We will continue our peaceful struggle. It is a life and death battle and Kondh people are united on this,” said young Sitaram. ActionAid is helping the tribal community in their fight against Vedanta.
Sitaram would appeal to shareholders of Britain-headquartered metal giant Vedanta to reconsider its plan to mine bauxite from the 'sacred' Niyamgiri hill against the wish of the local tribal community.
Threatened by the proposed mining, the Kondh community living on the ecologically sensitive hill has sent their representative to appeal to company shareholders to abandon the project.
The company is set to build an open-pit mine for bauxite on the top of the hill and a refinery plant on the foot of the hill. The Supreme Court allowed Vedanta Resources to mine bauxite in Niyamgiri Hill in August last year.
Activists protesting the move said the mining will lead to dislocation of this indigenous community and destroy the local ecosystem.
The community believes that the Niyamgiri hills are the ancestral home of thousands of tribal people whose distinctive way of life and culture make them one of India’s most vulnerable indigenous groups.
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