India: Tribe Forms Human Chain

SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE

27 January 2009

India: Tribe Forms Human Chain To Keep British Company Off Sacred Mountain

Hundreds of members of the Dongria Kondh tribe have formed a human chain around their sacred mountain today to prevent British mining giant Vedanta from bulldozing it.

The tribespeople and their allies began to form the chain in the early hours of this morning. The chain remains in place and stretches for at least 15 kilometres, blocking all roads leading to the mountain.

Vedanta plans to dig an open pit mine on the Dongria Kondh’s sacred mountain, to extract the aluminium ore bauxite. India’s Supreme Court gave the mine the go-ahead in August last year, but road blocks by the Dongria and other Kondh tribes have so far kept construction vehicles off the mountain.

Vedanta’s chairman Anil Agarwal recently told journalists that mining will begin in ‘a month or two’.

Survival’s director Stephen Corry said today, ‘Resorting to standing in front of bulldozers to protect their survival, the Dongria Kondh are showing just how far the authorities have failed them. The fact that the machines are run by a major British company should be a cause for shame in the City of London. This is a scandal which won't g` away until Vedanta leaves the tribe in peace.

–ENDS–

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