New Delhi The Supreme Court allowed Britain's Vedanta Resources Plc on Friday to mine bauxite in sacred hills in Orissa where tribal people and voluntary groups strongly oppose it.
"The application of Vedanta is allowed," the Supreme Court bench said in a statement.
Vedanta wants to dig open-cast mines in the Niyamgiri hills in Orissa to feed an alumina refinery it has already built in the area, as part of an $800 million project.
The local Dongria Kondh tribe says the mine will destroy hills they consider sacred, force them from their homes and destroy their forest-dependent livelihoods.
"We will not allow the company to mine our land, our sacred place," Jitu Jakaka, a tribal activist of the Dongria Kondh tribe, told Reuters outside the court after hearing the ruling.
After protests, the Supreme Court temporarily barred Vedanta in November from mining bauxite in the Niyamgiri hills.
But it left a window ajar for the project by asking Vedanta's Indian unit, Sterlite Industries, to come back with a fresh proposal on safeguarding the rights of local tribal people through a new investment firm.
Environmentalists say the open-cast mine would also wreck the rich biodiversity of the remote hills and disrupt key water sources that supply springs and streams in the area and feed two rivers that irrigate large areas of farmland.
Vedanta has been running its refinery with bauxite brought from other Indian states.
The state and central government both back the mining plan, as part of efforts to industrialize and exploit the mineral resources of underdeveloped eastern India.
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