Forty seven Indigenous villagers from Rengopalli, Orissa, were violently arrested on 21 January, as they nonviolently protested against UK-listed Vedanta Resources. The company wanted access to the villagers’ ancestral land for its second “red mud pond”, destined to store toxic wastes from the Lanjigarh alumina refinery. Just two days earlier, Orissa’s High Court had rejected Vedanta’s application for a six-fold expansion of the plant’s capacity. The company sought to initiate a “fresh dialogue” with the Ministry of Environment, claiming this rejection was an act of “discrimation” against it.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11462&l=1.