Several hundred tribespeople today staged a protest against FTSE-100 company Vedanta, as it bids massively to expand its controversial aluminium refinery in Lanjigarh, Orissa.

The refinery occupies land belonging to the Majhi Kondh tribe, and lies at the foot of the Niyamgiri hills, home of the isolated Dongria Kondhs. Both tribes took part in the protests.

The refinery has already been condemned by government officials for regularly breaching safety standards, and emitting ‘alarming’ pollution. Over a hundred families lost their homes to their refinery. Many more lost their farm land and with it their food-security and self sufficiency.

via (Survival International | Tribes stage mass protests against British mining company Vedanta)

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Tribe vows to fight mine with axes and arrows | Intercontinental Cry

“One of India’s most isolated tribes, the Dongria Kondh, is preparing to stop British FTSE 100 company Vedanta from mining aluminium ore on their sacred mountain, after police and hired thugs forced protesters to dismantle a barricade over the weekend,” reports Survival International.

“About 150 people had blocked the road in Orissa state on Wednesday [October 8] after hearing that Vedanta intended to start survey work for a planned aluminium mine which would destroy an ecologically vital hill, and the Dongria Kondh’s most sacred site. Vedanta employees visited the blockade repeatedly, threatening the protestors. On Friday the villagers gave in and took down the barricade, but about 100 are still at the side of the road, blocking traffic when Vedanta vehicles approach,” Survival continues.

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http://www.survival-international.org/blog/2008/09/22/top-tribal-television-tonight/

US broadcaster ABC shows a Nightline special as anchor man Dan Harris treks to the jungle homes of the Enawene Nawe and theAkuntsu people of the Amazon.

Harris learns of the troubles faced by both groups. The Enawene Nawe are not only threatened by the typical plague of encroaching, violent ranchers, but must now fight the state government’s dam project which will ravage their essential fishing sites.

Hostile demand for natural resources is what took the lives of nearly every member of the Akuntsu, other than the six who remain to mourn with Harris. He meets them in their pitiful patch of land, surrounded by soya fields that have flattened former forests.

Nightline goes out at 11.35pm ET on ABC.

Elsewhere, Bruce Parry continues his voyage downriver, in the BBC’sAmazon. He visits the Achuar who are up against the forces of the global oil industry creeping through their territory.

They live in jungle on both sides of the Ecuador-Peru border, numbering about 15,000 people. The Peruvian Achuar have suffered greatly as a result of oil exploration on their land over the last 40 years, leading to environmental havoc and huge social problems.

Their rivers and land have been devastated by pollution, animals and fish are dying out, and many Achuar’s health has been seriously damaged.

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Masked Gunmen attack Amazon tribe

The video shows gunmen believed to be working for local farmer and mayor, Paulo César Quartiero, firing assault rifles and throwing homemade bombs at an unarmed group of Makuxi. These graphic images are just the latest in a series of vicious attacks that have left twenty dead and hundreds wounded and despite the discovery of a large cache of weapons and ammunition at Quartiero’s ranch, he has since been released.Raposa-Serra do Sol, which is home to 19, 000 Indians from over five different Makuxi ethnic groups, was created in 2005 after years of campaigning by the Indigenous Council of Roraima (CIR). It is just one of the many sites of conflict between indigenous Indians and farmers across Brazil and despite official recognition of their right to live there, the violence looks set to continue well into the future.

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http://www.survival-international.org/news/3389

The video shows gunmen firing assault rifles and throwing homemade bombs at an unarmed group of Makuxi. The gunmen are believed to be working for Paulo César Quartiero, who is also the mayor of a nearby town. Ten Makuxi were wounded in the attack, six of them children.

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http://www.survival-international.org/news/3400

Survival-International responds to reports the recent photographs of an uncontacted tribe were a “hoax.”

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RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Amazon Indians from one of the world’s last uncontacted tribes have been photographed from the air, with striking images released on Thursday showing them painted bright red and brandishing bows and arrows.

The photographs of the tribe near the border between Brazil and Peru are rare evidence that such groups exist. A Brazilian official involved in the expedition said many of them are in increasing danger from illegal logging.

“What is happening in this region is a monumental crime against the natural world, the tribes, the fauna and is further testimony to the complete irrationality with which we, the ‘civilized’ ones, treat the world,” Jose Carlos Meirelles was quoted as saying in a statement by the Survival International group.

One of the pictures, which can be seen on Survival International’s Web site (http://www.survival-international.org), shows two Indian men covered in bright red pigment poised to fire arrows at the aircraft while another Indian looks on.

Another photo shows about 15 Indians near thatched huts, some of them also preparing to fire arrows at the aircraft.

“The world needs to wake up to this, and ensure that their territory is protected in accordance with international law. Otherwise, they will soon be made extinct,” said Stephen Corry, the director of Survival International, which supports tribal people around the world.

Of more than 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, more than half live in either Brazil or Peru, Survival International says. It says all are in grave danger of being forced off their land, killed and ravaged by new diseases.

PHOTO: Members of an unknown Amazon Basin tribe and their dwellings are seen during a flight over the Brazilian state of Acre along the border with Peru in this May, 2008 photo distributed by FUNAI, the government agency for the protection of indigenous peoples. Survival International estimates that there are over 100 uncontacted tribes worldwide, and says that uncontacted tribes in the region are under increasing threat from illegal logging over the border in Peru. (Funai-Frente de Proteção Etno-Ambiental Envira/Handout/Reuters)

(Reporting by Stuart Grudgings; editing by Sandra Maler)

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