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Avatar-style protest planned at mining company meeting in London
photo by Rita Willaert (Flickr Creative Commons)
Mining giant Vedanta Resources will be having its annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday in London, where the company is headquartered. But this year, shareholders will be met by a well-publicized protest.
Activist groups including Amnesty International have consistently criticized Vedanta for human rights violations and poor environmental practices, particularly in the Indian state of Orissa.
From an article in the Observer:
[…] a damning Amnesty report criticised Vedanta’s record in Orissa, where it runs an alumina refinery at the foot of the Niyamgiri hills, alleging river pollution and damage to crops. The hills are home to around 8,000 Dongria Kondh people who allege their health has been affected by Vedanta’s activities.
This time the protest in London will be lead by Survival International and include a group of activists painted as blue Na’vi warriors as featured in the blockbuster film Avatar. It’s a clever bit of life imitating art imitating life.
The Dongria Kondh are likened to Avatar’s Na’vi: indigenous inhabitants with an ecologically friendly lifestyle that is being threatened by a large, evil corporation.
Michael Palin, of Monty Python fame, is also lending a valuable celebrity voice to the campaign for the Dongria Kondh people.
For more on the plight of the Kondh, read this article by Bianca Jagger in the Observer:
Graham Land
Additional resources:
Sify – Protest in London to stop mining project in Orissa
Tags: activist, Amnesty, Avatar, Dongria, India, international, Kondh, london, Na’vi, Niyamgiri, Orissa, protest, shareholders, Vedanta
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