Not once, not twice, but three times in a week!
On 17th July 2012, the leading Oriya language news daily, Samaja, reported that the company had illegally dumped fly (coal) ash and excavated soil onto forest land at its Jharsaguda aluminium smelting complex in Orissa.
Only two days earlier, on 15th July 2012, Sayantan Bera, writing for Indian ecology magazine Down To Earth, revealed that employees of Vedanta’s BALCO subsidiary have illegally felled trees, and the company has wilfully betrayed Baiga tribespeople who were removed to make way for the Bodai-Daldali bauxite mine in Chhattisgarh.
Last week, too, a petition was filed in a Chhattisgarh court, accusing a former state Chief minister and others of granting Vedanta-BALCO access to government land, at a give-away price.
See http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=11816&l=1.
See also:
Goa must clean up mining practices or lose heritage destination
A UK Labour MP has moved an “early day motion” in the House of Commons seeking a debate on the damage caused to the environment by mining in the Indian state of Goa, calling upon the British government to urge local authorities to address the issue as a matter of urgency. The motion, moved by John McDonnell (MP from Hayes and Harlington), has so far been supported by eight other MPs, including Labour MPs from Ealing Southall, Virendra Sharma, reports The Times of India. Among the companies operating in Goa is Sesa Goa, a subsidiary of Vedanta.
See http://www.mining.com/2012/07/18/illegal-mining-or-illegal-export-of-ore-the-question-that-has-indias-riches-state-about-to-lose-investments-and-tourism/?utm_source=digest-en-mining-120718&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=digest.