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Amnesty International demanded that the Government of India and UK-based company Vedanta Resources to stop expansion of the refinery and mining in Orissa until existing problems are resolved. Amnesty International is also calling for full consultation with local people and for the Indian authorities to set up a process to seek the free, prior and informed consent of the Dongria Kondh.
The Amnesty International today released a report, “Don’t Mine Us out of Existence: Bauxite Mine and Refinery Devastate Lives in India”. The report documented that how an alumina refinery operated Vedanta Resources in Orissa, is causing air and water pollution that threatens the health of local people and their access to water.
It has lamented that Government authorities have given local communities scant or misleading information about the potential impact of a proposed alumina refinery expansion and mining project.
Amnesty International deplored that the people are living in the shadow of a massive refinery, breathing polluted air and afraid to drink from and bathe in a river that is one of the main sources of water in the region. “It is shocking how those who are most affected by the project have been provided with the least information,” the Report added.
The report said that Adivasi (Indigenous), Dalit, women and other marginalised communities in the remote part of Orissa where the refinery is located have described to them how authorities told them that the refinery would transform the area into a Mumbai or Dubai.
Amnesty International found that the pollution threatens the health of local people and their access to clean water, yet there has been no health monitoring.
Despite several concerns and the environmentally sensitive location of the refinery near a river and villages, Amnesty wondered that the government is considering a proposal for a six-fold expansion of the refinery.
The Orissa Mining Corporation and another Vedanta Resources subsidiary also plan to mine bauxite in the nearby Niyamgiri Hills. The proposed mine threatens the very existence of the Dongria Kondh, an 8,000 strong protected indigenous community that has lived on the Niyamgiri hills for centuries.
The hills are considered sacred by the Dongria Kondh and are essential for their economic, physical and cultural survival, yet no process to seek the community’s informed consent has been established.
As the people of Orissa are among the poorest in India and their health is being threatened by pollution from the refinery, Amnesty deplored that their voices are being ignored by Vedanta Resources and its partner companies as well as by Orissa’s government.
