Niyamgiri: A beautiful mountain range
Niyamgiri hills in Orissa, India, are the ancestral home of thousands of tribal Kondh communities.
Kondhs lead a symbiotic life nurturing the forest-covered region and depending on it for their food, drink and medicines. They also worship the mountain as their God.
Vedanta Resources plc, a British mining company, is about to start building an open-pit mine for bauxite (a raw form of aluminum) in the area. Official reports have suggested the mine will lead to massive deforestation, jeopardize key water sources and destroy local ecosystems, home to endangered animals such as the tiger, leopard and elephant.
It is destructive when big businesses put profits before people and the environment. Kondhs want this project be stopped before irreversible damage is done and their way of life is destroyed.