Pitfalls and Pipelines - Philippine Indigenous Peoples Links

Chapter 2.3: International Advocacy with Companies and Their Investors
189
(worth around $9.6 billion) with Cairn Energy in order to secure a
controlling share of the Scottish oil enterprise’s Indian subsidiary. With
this deal Vedanta would secure access to India’s largest known oilfield
in Rajasthan. Although quickly bankrolled by a number of UK and other
commercial banks, the arrangement raised fears within India’s stateowned
oil and gas producer ONGC (itself holding a 30% stake of the field)
that it would lose effective control over a prized national resource, and the
sacrifice of an equitable share in the project’s future royalties.
In view of this, prominent ex-civil servant E.A.S. Sarma (a former adviser
on energy to India’s government planning commission) wrote to Indian
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, questioning the appropriateness of
the takeover. Said Mr Sarma: “Vedanta’s track record so far in mining
and power sectors has not been satisfactory… To allow that company to
get hold of a sizeable share in the equity of the company that controls
the extraction of hydrocarbons in Rajasthan and elsewhere may not be
desirable.”
As a result of this intervention, the Indian Prime Minister’s Office called
for a review of Vedanta’s track record. It was an unusual move on the part
of the government. More importantly, in late 2007, India’s Supreme Court
had heard compelling evidence of contraventions by Vedanta’s aluminium
subsidiary (VAL) of state forest and environmental regulations at the
company’s costliest project to date.
The Niyamgiri bauxite deposit lies at the heart of a thickly-forested Kondh
tribal area, the mining of which was to be linked to the nearby Lanjigarh
alumina refinery, which serves Vedanta’s Jharsaguda smelter, 335 km
away—all three situated in Orissa. In rejecting Vedanta’s application to
access Niyamgiri, the judges had paid tribute to the weight of allegations
against the company, contained in the Norwegian Council of Ethics
report. 55
Orissa: Breaking More Than One Law
The Niyamgiri mountain is regarded by local tribal inhabitants as Niyam
Raja—roughly translated as “Lord of the Law” or “Lord of Dharma”: ample
testimony to the reverence paid by the Dongria Kondh to a deeply sacred
place. 56 Home to around 200 of their villages, the source of their water,
food and medicinal plants; it is densely forested and an area of rich
biodiversity, as well as being the source of two major rivers.57