Vedanta Resources is willing to relocate a controversial mine planned on land considered sacred by tribal groups in India, the company’s boss was quoted as saying yesterday.
Vedanta’s plans suffered a blow this week when a report commissioned by the Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests said the company’s planned project in the state of Orissa would threaten the “very survival” of the 8,000-strong Dongria Kondh tribe.
“We are willing to look at alternate locations,” Anil Agarwal, the billionaire chairman of Vedanta Resources, was quoted as saying in the Hindustan Times.
“Without the requisite approvals and clearances, we will not even move an inch,” he added.
Vedanta, India’s second-largest aluminum producer, wants the proposed mine to secure a supply of bauxite needed for its nearby aluminum refinery.
The ministry’s report said that going ahead with the mine in Orissa’s remote Niyamgiri Hill range would have a huge environmental impact.
The mine would “drastically alter” the region’s water supplies, affecting ecological systems and communities, the report said.
It also declared Vedanta was in “illegal occupation” of 26 hectares of land in the area and called it “an act of total contempt for the law.”
Vedanta has said it follows all government procedures, insisting the refinery and mine will help alleviate poverty in the deeply deprived region by providing jobs, healthcare, education and midday feeding schemes to locals.
However, the tribal population and social activist groups including Amnesty International, ActionAid and Survival International have become vocal campaigners against the project.
The Dongria Kondh tribespeople believe the lush hills are the home of their god Niyam Raja and depend on the land for their crops and livelihood.
Many investors such as the Church of England have attacked the company and sold off their shares to protest the planned mine.
The ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee is due to meet tomorrow to consider the report’s recommendations and then submit its views to Indian Minister of State of the Ministry of Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh, after which a final decision will be taken.
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