It came as no surprise that the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC), which holds the lease for land in the bauxite laden Niyamgiri Hills, would try a rerun to get last October’s decision overturned. This would enable the huge Vedanta Mining Co. to strip millions of tonnes of bauxite to supply its well-established enormous Lanjigarh refinery.  The OMC asked for a referendum in January and this time the Supreme Court has said ‘NO’. For now the homeland of the Dongria Kondh is safe.

Here is a news item from Survival International published yesterday.

On Monday 23rd May Vedanta published a rebuttal saying “to date neither OMC nor Vedanta has acquired any land in the Niyamgiri Hill ranges” and Vedanta “is not seeking to source bauxite from Niyamgiri bauxite deposits for its alumina refinery operations, and will not do so unless we have the consent of the local communities.”