Amnesty International has hailed Indian Supreme Court's ruling that the Indigenous communities will have the final decision on plans for a bauxite mine by a subsidiary of UK-based Vedanta Resources Plc (VED.L) in the Niyamgiri hills of Orissa as "a landmark victory in recognizing indigenous rights in India."
A 670-hectare bauxite mine was due to have been developed on the Dongria Kondh Indigenous community's traditional lands and habitats which they consider sacred, when the apex court's ruling came.
India's Ministry of Environment and Forests, in August 2010, had rejected the plans put forward by Sterlite India, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources, and the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation (OMC), to mine bauxite at the top of Niyamgiri hills, after finding that the plans would extensively violate forest and environmental laws, as well as the rights of the Dongria Kondh Indigenous and other communities in the hills.
Earlier this month, the Orissa government approached the Supreme Court challenging the Central Government's decision to reject environmental clearance to Vedanta bauxite mining project.
The Supreme Court said that the grama sabhas (assemblies of the local residents) of Rayagada and Kalahandi districts, located near the proposed mine, would decide if the mine plans affected their religious and cultural rights. Environment Ministry will take action on the report of the gram sabhas in next three months.
This ruling is hugely important for the Dongria Kondh," said G. Ananthapadmanabhan, Chief Executive of Amnesty International India.
"This ruling is a clear vindication of the protests by local communities, the findings of the extensive research carried out since 2009 by Amnesty International and the sustained campaign carried out by many organizations which exposed how the communities' views had long been ignored," he added.
Ananthapadmanabhan called on authorities in India to "establish a clear and transparent process to ascertain the free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) of Indigenous communities in Niyamgiri and all other contexts where their traditional lands and habitats may be affected by state or corporate projects."
Today's decision follows a forced suspension of refining operations at Lanjigarh by Vedanta Aluminium, another Vedanta subsidiary, in December 2012. Vedanta's plans for a six-fold expansion of the refinery were also stalled by India's Environment Ministry in May 2012.
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