India: Supreme Court Blocks Vedanta Mine

Amnesty welcomed today a landmark ruling by the Indian Supreme Court that should put the breaks on a controversial mine development.

A subsidiary of the British company Vedanta Resources has been trying to develop a vast bauxite mine on the Dongria Kondh indigenous community's lands and habitats which they consider sacred.

The court decided on Thursday that the local tribespeople in Orissa should get a say on the mine's future.

Orissa Dongaria Kondh tribe protest against the Vedanta project

It said village councils in Rayagada and Kalahandi provinces would have three months to decide if they want mining in their area.

Dongria Kondh leader Lado Sikaka said they would use the official channel to press their decade-long campaign against the mine.

Amnesty India chief executive G Ananthapadmanabhan said: "The mine would have resulted in violation of their rights as indigenous peoples, as well as their rights to water, food, health and work.

"It is a clear vindication of the protests by local communities … and the sustained campaign carried out by many organisations which exposed how the communities' views had long been ignored."

He called on Indian authorities to set up a clear process to ascertain the assent of indigenous communities to potentially destructive land developments.