BHUBANESWAR, Jan 27: Thousands of tribals on Tuesday stepped up protests against a proposal by British mining firm Vedanta Resources to mine bauxite on land revered by locals in eastern India.

Some 3,000 tribals, including women and children, in Orissa state formed a human chain at Vedanta’s open cast mine which will feed a 900-million-dollar aluminium refinery under the plan.“The 17-kilometre human chain is peaceful but we are keeping a watchful eye, as some of the protesters are armed with bows and arrows,” a police spokesman said in state capital Bhubaneswar.

The protesters threatened to step up the agitation to counter the London-listed firm’s recent decision to start mining bauxite in Orissa.

Vedanta received the go-ahead from India’s supreme court in August to mine vast bauxite deposits in the fertile forested Niyamgiri Hills to supply the sprawling refinery it has built nearby.

Vedanta has been feeding its refinery with raw material purchased from other Indian states.

The Dongria Kondh tribe is spearheading the anti-mining protests.—AFP