People & Power

Mountain and mine

People & Power looks at a battle to save a god.

In July People & Power brought you the story of the Niyamgiri mountain range in the Indian state of Orissa, which is seen by the Kondh people that live there as a god that provides them with everything they need.

However the Niyamgiri range also contains huge deposits of bauxite, or aluminum ore, which Vedanta, a British-based mining corporation wants to extract to feed its nearby refinery.

The Khond say that any such mining will mean that they lose their god and therefore their identity.

In recent years they have won widespread support for their campaign to stop the development.

Amnesty International has just published a report which criticises Vedanta and the state government of Orissa for ignoring the needs of the Khond people.

Amnesty says that living in the shadow of a massive refinery is a risk to the health of the local people and impacts their access to clean water.

Meghna Abraham, the head of Amnesty International’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights team joins Al Jazeera’s Hamish Macdonald in the studio.

Mountain and Mine is a film by Sapna Bhatia, first screened in July 2009, on the battle to save a god.

This episode of People & Power aired from Wednesday, February 17, 2010.