Good news for the sacred mountain Niyamgiri and the Dongria Kondh tribe
August 18, 2010
Friends, some time during the last month you sent an email from www.niyamgiri.net to Indian officials to support the Dongria Kondh tribals in their struggle to protect their sacred mountain Niyamgiri from giant UK mining company Vedanta Resources.
Your email was addressed to Jairam Ramesh, India’s environment minister and a few weeks ago he initiated a high level committee to investigate the issue.
Two days ago, on August 16, that committee tabled their report which unequivocally condemns the proposed mining project. The same day, in an article headlined “Vedanta’s Indian mining project under threat” reported that “environment minister Jairam Ramesh said to-day that another panel would meet on Friday to study the inquiry report before his department takes a final decision on Vedanta’s mining.”
The report documents numerous instances of negligence – to the point of criminality – on the part of local government officials and the state government itself and highlights egregious violations of existing legislation to protect Indigenous Peoples rights. Not least, it roundly condemns the maneuvers and activities of UK-listed Vedanta company. More on this in the Time of India article.
With the Indian Prime Minister’s Office siding with the mining company and their 1.7 billion dollar project, we may expect huge pressure to be brought to bear on the environment minister to ignore his committee’s recommendations .
PLEASE REVISIT WWW.NIYAMGIRI.NET AND SEND ANOTHER EMAIL BEFORE FRIDAY.
A backlash has already begun against the Dongrias. In recent days a tribal leader fighting against Vedanta has been murdered and two others abducted and tortured by Orissa police. It is important for the Dongrias safety and wellbeing that Orissa government officials (who are cc’d on the email) know that the world is watching. So, as well as requesting that the environment minister stand firm and implement the report’s recommendations, your email insists that the Dongria be protected and not made scapegoats in this matter.
Please forward this to friends who may be sympathetic and ask them to go to www.niyamgiri.net and take a minute or two to participate in this action.
On Facebook, please help get the word out by posting www.niyamgiri.net to your wall, and by joining this page to receive updates about the issue.
Finally, the volunteers who are working on this cyber action could use a few hours pro bono assistance from someone with programming skills, please reply to this email to find out more,
For the Earth
John Seed
Rainforest Information Centre
