Dongria Kondh lecture from Michael Palin

Lecture: The Dongria Kondh

Speaker: Michael Palin

Date: February 22^nd 2011, 19:30-21h

Place: Soho Hotel, Richmond Mews, W1D 3DH, London (UK)

Webpage: www.survivalinternational.org/

Admission: £20.00 + £1.85 fee

Comments: 

Actor, writer and broadcaster Michael Palin talks about his recent travels to Orissa, India, and his visit to the Dongria Kondh tribe.

The Dongria Kondh recently won a historic battle to save their lands and forests from an open-pit bauxite mine.

Vedanta Resources, a British company, intended to dig a bauxite mine on Niyamgiri mountain in India.

The mine would have destroyed the forests on which the Dongria Kondh depend and wreck the lives of thousands of other Kondh tribal people living in the area.

All proceeds in aid of Survival International.

The event includes a Q&A.  

About the Dongria: http://www.survivalinternational.org/dongria and see the article in ETHNIKKA's blog: http://www.ethnikka.org/2010/08/dongria-kondh-of-india.html

About Michael Palin and his support to the Dongria (23/07/2010):

Actor, presenter and explorer Michael Palin has sent a message in support of the Dongria Kondh tribe of India, who are resisting a mine on their land byFTSE 100 companyVedanta Resources.

In a statement, Michael Palin said, ‘I’ve been to the Nyamgiri Hills in Orissa and seen the forces of money and power that Vedanta Resources have arrayed against a people who have occupied their land for thousands of years, who husband the forest sustainably and make no great demands on the state or the government. The tribe I visited simply want to carry on living in the villages that they and their ancestors have always lived in.’

On July 28th, Vedanta’s Annual General Meeting in London will be attended by protestors from Survival International and other groups keen to draw shareholders’ attention to Vedanta’s human rights and environmental record.

PIRC, the shareholder lobby group, have announced that they are urging shareholders to vote against re-electing three of the company’s directors on human rights, safety and environmental grounds.

© Text and image: Survival