Tribes pray to keep Vedanta away

As men, women and children line up at a makeshift shrine, Kone Majhi, a Behejuni – woman priest from the Dongria Kondh indigenous tribe of Orissa – repeats prayers and thanks to a sacred mountain.

“Niyamgiri, give us strength to protect you and ourselves. We promise we will not leave you. Thank you for providing food and sustaining us for generations. Please continue to look after our children.”

Each year, hundreds of small ceremonies are held around Niyamgiri to give thanks to ‘Niyam Raja’ the Kondh’s supreme deity; clusters of villages come together with their local priest to make offerings of rice, chicken, pigeon, goat, or seasonal fruit and flowers.

With the Supreme Court poised to decide on clearance for FTSE-100 listed company Vedanta (through their Indian-arm Sterlite) to mine bauxite on the summit of Niyamgiri, they resorted to a mass worship.

Save our sacred mountain

“Niyamgiri is our father, our mother our everything. Our food fruits millet vegetables all come from Niyamgiri,” says 40-year-old Gato Majhi, Vice President of the pooja (worship) committee and member of the local protection group Niyamgiri Sauraksha Samiti.

“If Niyamgiri goes out of our hands, all this will be destroyed. Where will the tribals go? We cannot survive outside Niyamgiri,” she adds.

Over two days (15-16 March), groups of between five and 50 arrived at Ijirupa village in Kalahandi district to give pooja (worship) and share food. Two goats were sacrificed and around 1000 people from three local Kondh communities came together for a night of drumming, music and dancing.

Global alliance

Indigenous people from seven states – Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and other parts of Orissa – came to show their solidarity.

Brendan O Donnell, HungerFREE campaigner and coordinator of ActionAid’s global Activista network came to meet with local activists. He says:

“This issue is black and white – people do not want to move from their mountain. Mining will destroy their place of worship and displace them from food, livelihoods and way of life. Nothing can compensate for such a loss.”

“Vedanta/Sterlite must not be allowed to destroy this community. We must continue to stand alongside the Kondhs and put pressure on politicians and investors to save Niyamgiri,” he adds.

Sign up

Advocates, activists and actors have signed up to a letter to Prime Minister Mamohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi to intervene to protect the rights of people living around Niyamgiri.

Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan says:

“If mining is permitted in Niyamgiri, two of India’s strongest Constitutional guarantees will be overturned: a primitive tribal group’s right to their territorial integrity and to decide their path of development; and the right to religious practices and beliefs.”

Add your name to the online petition to save Niyamgiri