[Tanada]

By Dean Nelson, Lakhapadar, Orissa

7:52PM BST 09 Aug 2013

Anil Agarwal, who rose from humble beginnings as a scrap metal dealer in one of India's poorest states to a life of luxury in London's Mayfair, had planned to boost his fortune by mining and processing bauxite in Niyamgiri, Orissa, south East India.

He promised to bring new jobs, build schools and hospitals to bring the hill's 'backward' Dongria Kondh tribesmen into the modern world.

His plan however, which was agreed with the Orissa state government as far back as 2005, infuriated the Dongria who saw the proposal as an attack not only on their way of life but also on 'Niyamraja', the sacred hill they worshipped as their provider.

They launched a protest movement to save their verdant tropical forest paradise populated by tigers, leopards and elephants from Mr Agarwal's plans to replace its mango and sal trees with mine shafts and busy roads.

And this week they clinched a decisive victory. Lakhapadar, the largest of twelve Dongria villages on Niyamgiri, rejected the mine plan unanimously in a vote described by an Indian minister as a historic moment in the country's democracy – the first time the government had allowed its tribal people to decide their own future.

More at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ntain.html

This was the first time local people were allowed to vote on a large industrial/mining project like this.
Sadly I suspect the business and Government learned common folk don't want to live in a polluted devastated area any more than the elite's do, so it might be the last time they get to vote on it in India.

[Subjectivist]

I think as resource constraints start to bite India and everywhere else the wishes of the residents will carry less and less influence to the powers that be.

[peripato]

I think as resource constraints start to bite India and everywhere else the wishes of the residents will carry less and less influence to the powers that be.

Absolutely, but this is already happening in places like the US and Australia etc. The f@#kers in control are privy to the same information and better, that we are. If most people, except for the willfully ignorant, can draw the conclusion that various shit is peaking, or soon will so (from oil to coal to gas plus other substances and minerals), why wouldn't governments approve all sorts of bullsh#t mining practices like fracking, coal seam gas drilling, mine-pits the size of small cities etc, to try and avert the inevitable - over the wishes of local people and the wider electorate? Which I do believe they already have...

Bulga v Rio Tinto: Pressure-Cooker Politics
By Bernard Lagan August 13, 2013

Big coal is keeping quiet as it enters court, but the small community fighting Rio Tinto is loudly protesting the NSW government’s mining approvals scheme, calling the plan an unbeatable leg-up for mining companies.