Vedanta built a bauxite refinery near the Dongria’s mountain before getting legal clearance to mine, but they need the bauxite from Niyamgiri to make the refinery profitable.

The refinery destroyed fields and forests. Over a hundred families lost their homes, including Majhi Kondh families who also worship Niyamgiri and were as determined as the Dongria to defend the mountain.

Vedanta’s refinery is still operating.

Vedanta's aluminium refinery at Lanjigarh, Odisha, seen from the Niyamgiri Hills © Survival

Dust and disease

Red mud, a toxic slurry, is the refinery’s main waste product. It dries in the sun to become a fine dust that villagers say engulfs and suffocates their crops.

Government pollution inspectors have described ‘ground water contamination’ caused by ‘alarming’ and ‘continuous’ seepage of red mud.

Locals also report sores developing on their bodies after washing in rivers close to the refinery. Cattle have died after drinking the same water.

Vedanta's aluminium refinery in Lanjigarh, Odisha, India © Survival

Lost lands and livelihoods

Kinari village was completely destroyed to make way for the refinery. Over one hundred families were moved to a settlement known locally as the ‘rehab colony’.

It is a walled compound of two-room concrete houses, circled with barbed wire. Residents have no farmland and although some work as labourers for Vedanta, most survive on handouts.

A Kondh woman living in the rehab colony told Survival, ‘All I can do all day is sit on this concrete. We are only sitting here and getting rice. What life is that?’

In October 2008 Dino Majhi was found hanging from the neck inside his rehab colony house. His throat had been slit. He was well known locally as an activist against Vedanta. Local police arrested a suspect, and declared the attack was borne out of personal grievance. But many believe Dino’s murder was politically motivated.