Plans to open a mine in the Niyamgiri Hills, south-west Orissa, are threatening to undermine the lives and livelihoods of the Dongria Kondh, an adivasi, Indigenous community. In April 2009, the Indian authorities gave Sterlite Industries India Ltd and the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation permission to mine bauxite in Dongria Kondh traditional lands for the next 25 years. In this document Amnesty International urges the Indian authorities to withdraw environmental clearance until the human rights and environmental impacts on the communities’ rights to land, water and health have been independently assessed.
