ActionAid has presented an application to the City of London to tear down St Paul's Cathedral for digging out minerals and processing its roof into drinks cans and foil for chocolate bars.
According to ActionAid the request is as good as that of London-based Vedanta Resources' plans to break open the sacred Niyamgiri Mountain in Orissa for bauxite mining.
The Kondh tribe worships the mountain as home to their God Niyam Raja. For generations, the tribals of Kalahandi and Rayagada districts in Orissa have looked to Niyamgiri forests for fruits, tubers, medicinal herbs, spices, millets, green leafy vegetables, sesame seeds and water.
Tribal leader goes all the way to London
Kumuti Majhi, leader of the Kondh tribes, travelled to London ahead of Vedanta's annual general meeting (AGM) to fight for his tribe's culture, livelihood and survival.
"These hills are our living God and we depend upon this mountain," said Kumuti. "The proposed mines will destroy our forests and further pollute our drinking water."
"We have a lot of support from people around the globe and it's growing every day."
An appeal to shareholders
Surrounding Vedanta's AGM is ActionAid's clarion call to shareholders to block its mining plans on Niyamgiri.
"This is a David and Goliath struggle. We've applied to knock down St Paul's to raise awareness of Vedanta's outrageous plan to destroy the Kondh's spiritual home," said campaigner Brendan O'Donnell.
"Just as Londoners wouldn't tolerate the demolition of their cathedral to make a quick buck, so the Kondh people won't allow their treasured mountain and forests to be destroyed.
"Vedanta's investors should be appalled that their money is backing the desecration of a sacred Indian site and the destruction of forests on which people rely for food, clean water and a living.
"People need and want development, but projects which threaten to deny tribal communities of their most important asset can't be seen as a step forward," added O'Donnell.
Destruction and more destruction
A 2005 report by the Supreme Court's central empowered committee clearly says that mining will lead to massive deforestation, destruction of protected local ecosystems and disruption of key water sources, and should not be allowed in the Niyamgiri hills.
Niyamgiri is also the abode of endangered animals including tigers, leopards and elephants as well as hundreds of species of rare plants and trees.
The company has already built a bauxite refinery at the foot of the hills in Lanjigarh, destroying several tribal villages in the process.
The refinery produces tons of caustic soda waste, commonly known as 'red mud', every year, and residents living near the refinery complain that the pollution damages crop yields, kills livestock and causes skin rashes and breathing trouble. If mining is permitted, the damage will be worse.