“We will not leave Niyamgiri. Without our mountain, our god, there is no life for us,” says 36 year old Malari, part of a delegation of Kondh tribals in Delhi for the Supreme Court’s decision which was expected today but has now been postponed until next Friday (25 July).

 

“For us this is a life and death fight,” she says refer to attempts to stop British giant Vedanta Resources from mining huge swathes of the Niyamgiri hills in the Indian state of Orissa.

 

The Kondhs worship Niyamgiri as a living God. They depend on its rivers and fertile forests for survival. Mining would mean breaking open the summit, their most scared site and cutting trees, a religious taboo for the tribe. In a first for India, environmentalists, tribal activists, wildlife experts and human rights watch-dogs are united in their opposition to the mining project.

 

Bratindi Jena of ActionAid is helping build support for the Kondh’s struggle to save their mountain. She says the cost of mining would be phenomenal:

 

 

“Niyamgiri bauxite would come at the cost of clean water and pristine forest in an otherwise drought-hit district. It also represents an outright assault on the culture and religion of the indigenous people who live there.”

 

“Permitting mining would pave the way for persecution of a minority community and deny legal protection for their religious beliefs,” she adds.

 

In another first, the Supreme Court has ignored the advice of its own committee on forest and environment. A 2005 report by the central empowered committee clearly said that mining should not be permitted in the Niyamgiri hills. Their expert recommendations were not heeded. After a hearing in November 2007 in which the court agreed in principal with mining, the committee was pushed to give advice on the parameters for the project. They advised against under-selling precious resources and said the project should be government controlled.

 

A Vedanta refinery at the foothills has already taken forest and agricultural land from villagers. A report this year by Orissa’s Pollution Control Board shows the plant is polluting the Vanshadhara River, one of southern Orissa’s main water sources and a lifeline for local people.

 

In recent interviews, Mukta Chatrapur of Kalahandi district where the refinery is located says: “Drinking water is bad. When we bathe the skin itches. When we drink water we get sores in our mouth. It is difficult to breathe. Hair begins to fall. We get sores in our throat. The body itches at night.”

 

“Claims by Vedanta of ‘wonderful development’ work in the area are hugely contested by local people. Promises of jobs and compensation have failed to materialise,” says ActionAid’s Jena.

 

Activists, actors and Supreme Court advocates have signed a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to intervene to protect the rights of people living around Niyamgiri.