India’s National Green Tribunal was to decide whether UK-listed Vedanta can re-open its Tuticorin copper smelter in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The plant has been shut since March, following toxic leaks which …
Read more
Vedanta shouldn’t be allowed to re-open polluting Indian smelter
Exploring the dark side of India’s coal scam
It was a “scam and a half”. Last year, a hundred Indian companies were revealed to have profited by US$210 billion from gaining control of domestic coal deposits, without their being offered for tender. Now, …
Read more
Indian Supreme Court dismisses challenge to US$8.5 billion Cairn-Vedanta deal
UK-listed Vedanta shouldn’t have acquired Cairn India and its lucrative share of Rajasthan’s oil fields, without their first being offered to the state oil company ONGC. So declared India’s Supreme Court. However, the court confessed …
Read more
Hudbay Minerals denounced for criminalizing land defenders and infringing on indigenous rights
Canadian mining company Hudbay (in which London-listed Vedanta is a major shareholder) was confronted at their annual shareholder meeting over their violations of human rights and targeting of Indigenous land defenders in Canada and Guatemala.…
Read more
Zambia corners mining companies to stop tax evasion
Africa’s biggest copper producer, Zambia, is planning to repatriate foreign currency made from exports back to the country in an effort to crack down on tax evasion, mainly in the mining sector, reports Financial Times.…
Read more
Vedanta: is Nyamgiri ruling a “revolutionary” moment for India’s poor?
“The battle lines will be drawn indelibly between the people and the Corporates and it is anybody’s guess as to who will win.” So comments human rights activisit, M C Raj, as he reviews the …
Read more
India: Nyamgiri ruling “a great victory for indigenous rights”
In one of the longest-running – and certainly the most widely-publicised – of Indian struggles to halt a threatened mining venture, the community seems to have won. On Thursday, 18 April 2013, the country’s Supreme …
Read more
Vedanta faces India’s Green Tribunal over smelter disaster
India’s Supreme Court has fined Vedanta’s Sterlite subsidiary US$18.4 million for polluting water, soil, and air around its Tuticorin copper smelter in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, on 23 March 2013. However, as might …
Read more
Protest at Vedanta HQ as Supreme Court decision announced
Indian Supreme Court judges yesterday handed the final decision on Vedanta’s Niyamgiri mine to the Dongria Kond tribe and farmers living around the mountain. Two Gram Sabha’s (village councils) or local self-government within 10km of …
Read more
Miner’s body trapped after accident in Vedanta’s Lisheen Mine in Ireland
An operation to recover the body of a man who was killed in a mining accident in the Irish Republic is continuing, almost 48 hours after his death. Mario Francis was working in Lisheen Mine, …
Read more
Popular protest and judicial action against Vedanta subsidiary Sterlite at Tuticorin
Supreme Court fines Sterlite for polluting but sets aside High Court Order
Imposing a record penalty on a company for polluting the environment, the Supreme Court Tuesday ordered Sterlite Industries, a subsidiary of Britain-based Vedanta …
Read more
Noxious gas from Vedanta subsidiary triggers scare in India
A suspected leak of noxious gas from the Sterlite Industries plant in Thoothukudi caused nausea and skin irritation among a section of local residents here on Saturday. While Sterlite officials denied any chemical leakage from …
Read more